Research

The United Nations is a fundamental institution of global governance, and I investigate pathways for UN reform so it can be fit to address current and future global challenges.

As a research expert in the Global Governance Forum "Second United Nations Charter – Modernizing the UN for a New Generation" project in 2023-2024, I worked with a group of world-class researchers and practitioners from various countries and academic backgrounds to rewrite the UN Charter. I was responsible for the amendments and commentary on Chapters IX – International Economic and Social Cooperation and X – The Economic and Social Council.  In the official launch of the research report during the Summit of the Future Week in New York in September 2024, I outlined the institutional changes proposed to revitalize the work of ECOSOC.

In a paper published in the Oikos Journal of International Political Economy (2021), I worked with my former advisee, Desirée Pires, to analyze the role of the United Nations and multilateralism in the maintenance of the world order, presenting a historical and conjunctural case study on China’s engagement in and with the United Nations.

I addressed the role of the United Nations in the global economic governance of the post-war period in the Ideias Journal of the Institute of Philosophy and Human Sciences (2015, in Portuguese).

I have been investigating the history of international cooperation for development and the conceptual, institutional, and decision-making processes of the United Nations development system since 2015. My main research agenda is to explore the Global South agency to redefine norms and institutional structures in the United Nations development system.

In my Ph.D. research (2018, in Portuguese), I examined the United Nations development system and the mainstreaming of South-South cooperation in the UN operational activities for development. Considering the North-South divide and the attitudinal barriers of the UN Secretariat, I discussed the impact of the Global South on ideas, governance, and financing related to international cooperation for development.

In the book Policy Diffusion: New Constraints, New Realities (2021), I wrote a chapter on how the United Nations is advancing South-South cooperation to implement the Sustainable Development Goals. At the book's official launch, I emphasized the role of the United Nations as an important actor in supporting knowledge transfer, peer learning, and horizontal partnerships in the Global South.

In a paper published in the Monções Journal of International Relations (2022, in Portuguese), I worked with former advisee Isabella Trevisan to explore the symbolic claims of South-South cooperation policies, presenting a case study on the Cotton-4 project between Brazil and the C-4 countries.

Considering the path toward the implementation of the Pact for the Future, I discussed the role of South-South cooperation and its importance for the Summit of the Future in an article published on the Global Governance Forum website (2023).

Since 2018, I have been the Research Coordinator of the Harmony with Nature Study Group under the Center of Studies and Research in International Relations at FACAMP. I coordinate a group of 15 students who research the legal recognition of Nature as a subject of rights and how to promote international cooperation to embed production and consumption patterns within the ecological limits of the Earth. The Study Group also collaborates with the United Nations UN Harmony with Nature Programme, offering its research services for reviewing and updating laws and policies on the rights of Nature of the 193 UN Member States.

In recognition of my research efforts, I formally joined the Knowledge Network of the UN Harmony with Nature Programme in 2023. Since then, I have integrated an Earth-centered approach into my research agenda. I discussed the importance of this approach in implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development on the Global Governance Forum website (2023) and in a policy brief published in the Argumentum Journal of Law (2024).

In 2025, I am part of the Transnational Political Networks and the Future of Global Order research project led by Professor Mai’a Cross from Northeastern University. I am researching the impact of the Harmony with Nature Network in International Cooperation, focusing on how this network aims to shape an ecocentric global governance, which would be the ultimate expression of ultrasociality between humanity and Nature at a global level.

Financing for Development is a subject that intersects my research agenda since international cooperation for development in the Sustainable Development Goals era encompasses not only the financial resources of traditional donors, but also new financial instruments created by countries from the Global South.

In my book Sovereign Wealth Funds: The Role of States in Financial Globalization (2012, in Portuguese), I mobilized data from the IMF International Financial Statistics and the UNCTAD Data Centre on International Trade, Economy and Finance to produce quantitative evidence about the size and type of portfolio investment of 30 Sovereign Wealth Funds, a new financial instrument created by emerging economies to navigate the complex world of financial globalization in the 2000s.

In a paper published by Meridiano 47 - Journal of Global Studies (2020), I worked with former advisee Mariana Carvalho to analyze South-South cooperation as a modality of financing for development, drawing evidence on the case of the India, Brazil, and South Africa (IBSA) Fund project in Saint Lucia.