The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol has been hailed as the grand compromise of the North-South divide over climate change mitigation for its ability to reconcile the economic demands of the North with the developmental needs of the South. Having been primarily analyzed from isolated economic, environmental, or developmental perspectives, the CDMs efficacy in bridging the North-South divide remains poorly understood. This research evaluates the CDM against three qualitative criteria focused on issues affecting Southern nations participation in international agreements. An examination of distributive and procedural issues characterizing the CDM shows that significant trade-offs exist between Northern and Southern interests under the CDM and suggests that the interests of the South are often sacrificed. On this basis, conclusions are drawn which point to the need for increased attention to and accommodation of Southern interests in the CDM specifically, and global climate change efforts more broadly.

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol has been hailed as the grand compromise of the North-South divide over climate change mitigation for its ability to reconcile the economic demands of the North with the developmental needs of the South. Having been primarily analyzed from isolated economic, environmental, or developmental perspectives, the CDM’s efficacy in bridging the North-South divide remains poorly understood. This research evaluates the CDM against three qualitative criteria focused on issues affecting Southern nations’ participation in international agreements. An examination of distributive and procedural issues characterizing the CDM shows that significant trade-offs exist between Northern and Southern interests under the CDM and suggests that the interests of the South are often sacrificed. On this basis, conclusions are drawn which point to the need for increased attention to and accommodation of Southern interests in the CDM specifically, and global climate change efforts more broadly.

This thesis studies the symbolic regimes of Southern and Northern development cooperation partners. Symbolic regime is understood as the jointly articulated discourse of the Southern and Northern development partners. South-North cooperation is a suitable topic for study due to its peculiarity. The power structure typically seen in development cooperation is inverted, with the Southern country being the primary architect of cooperation between the two countries, unlike in traditional development cooperation. The study is placed in the context of wider research on convergence between Southern and Northern countries. Symbolic regimes are studied by inductively generating theoretical categories using a grounded theory method on documents from China’s Belt and Road Initiative and comparing those categories with established North-South and South-South symbolic regimes, which are framed using gift theory. The results suggest that China and its Northern partners’ symbolic regime is similar to the symbolic regime from South-South cooperation, without the emotional claims of solidarity or empathy. Jointly articulated discourse was found primarily to detail intended consequences and facilitating conditions, while individually articulated material showed that there are realities which are obscured by the symbolic regimes.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Esta Tese examina as implicações políticas da cooperação internacional para o desenvolvimento de Moçambique em três momentos: (i) o período referente à solidariedade socialista; (ii) o contexto da cooperação tradicional Norte-Sul; (iii) a experiência (re) emergente da Cooperação Sul-Sul. Nossa incursão analítica mostra que foram cerca de 40 anos de cooperação internacional que permitiram uma série de transformações em nível político, econômico e social, e que construíram um país como um autêntico artefato de intervenção externa. Nesse sentido, analisam-se os efeitos políticos provocados pelas três propostas sugeridas de cooperação na esfera doméstica de Moçambique. Por um lado, constata-se que a cooperação internacional acaba por constituir-se em projeto de poder que afeta a produção de políticas públicas, a construção da autonomia e, mais recentemente, o processo de democratização em curso. Por outro, evidencia-se que os atores internacionais que atuam no campo da cooperação para o desenvolvimento em Moçambique agem imbuídos de seus respectivos interesses e agendas de política externa. Na relação entre os distintos atores e o Estado moçambicano, identificam-se alguns fatores-chave, tais como a fraca capacidade estatal, a existência de enormes assimetrias entre Moçambique e seus parceiros, o vício em receber cooperação que transforma essa relação em uma das principais fontes de manutenção do Estado, bem como a preservação das elites políticas tradicionais fatores que limitam o alcance dos objetivos reais de desenvolvimento que as distintas formas e modalidades de cooperação internacional prometem e buscam promover. / This doctoral thesis examines political implications of international development cooperation in Mozambique in three main time periods: (i) the period of socialist solidarity; (ii) the context of traditional north-north cooperation; (iii) the experience of (re) emerging southsouth cooperation. Our analytical work shows that the last forty years of Mozambique international development cooperation have provoked a series of political, economic and social transformations, resulting in the construction of an authentic artifact of external intervention. In this context, we analyze the political effects of the three proposals of development cooperation in Mozambiques domestic sphere. On the one hand, we find that international cooperation turns out to be a project of power that affects the production of public policies, the construction of autonomy and, more recently, the ongoing democratization process. On the other, we make it evident that international actors working in the field of development cooperation in Mozambique act based on their respective foreign policy interests and agendas. We also identify that the relationship between the different actors and the Mozambican state has shown key factors such as a weak state capacity, the existence of huge asymmetries between Mozambique and its partners, the addiction to development cooperation that transforms this relationship into one of the main sources of state maintenance, and the preservation of traditional political elites all factors that constrain the achievement of the real goals of development that the different forms and modalities of international cooperation to promise and attempt to promote.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Esta Tese examina as implicações políticas da cooperação internacional para o desenvolvimento de Moçambique em três momentos: (i) o período referente à solidariedade socialista; (ii) o contexto da cooperação tradicional Norte-Sul; (iii) a experiência (re) emergente da Cooperação Sul-Sul. Nossa incursão analítica mostra que foram cerca de 40 anos de cooperação internacional que permitiram uma série de transformações em nível político, econômico e social, e que construíram um país como um autêntico artefato de intervenção externa. Nesse sentido, analisam-se os efeitos políticos provocados pelas três propostas sugeridas de cooperação na esfera doméstica de Moçambique. Por um lado, constata-se que a cooperação internacional acaba por constituir-se em projeto de poder que afeta a produção de políticas públicas, a construção da autonomia e, mais recentemente, o processo de democratização em curso. Por outro, evidencia-se que os atores internacionais que atuam no campo da cooperação para o desenvolvimento em Moçambique agem imbuídos de seus respectivos interesses e agendas de política externa. Na relação entre os distintos atores e o Estado moçambicano, identificam-se alguns fatores-chave, tais como a fraca capacidade estatal, a existência de enormes assimetrias entre Moçambique e seus parceiros, o vício em receber cooperação que transforma essa relação em uma das principais fontes de manutenção do Estado, bem como a preservação das elites políticas tradicionais fatores que limitam o alcance dos objetivos reais de desenvolvimento que as distintas formas e modalidades de cooperação internacional prometem e buscam promover. / This doctoral thesis examines political implications of international development cooperation in Mozambique in three main time periods: (i) the period of socialist solidarity; (ii) the context of traditional north-north cooperation; (iii) the experience of (re) emerging southsouth cooperation. Our analytical work shows that the last forty years of Mozambique international development cooperation have provoked a series of political, economic and social transformations, resulting in the construction of an authentic artifact of external intervention. In this context, we analyze the political effects of the three proposals of development cooperation in Mozambiques domestic sphere. On the one hand, we find that international cooperation turns out to be a project of power that affects the production of public policies, the construction of autonomy and, more recently, the ongoing democratization process. On the other, we make it evident that international actors working in the field of development cooperation in Mozambique act based on their respective foreign policy interests and agendas. We also identify that the relationship between the different actors and the Mozambican state has shown key factors such as a weak state capacity, the existence of huge asymmetries between Mozambique and its partners, the addiction to development cooperation that transforms this relationship into one of the main sources of state maintenance, and the preservation of traditional political elites all factors that constrain the achievement of the real goals of development that the different forms and modalities of international cooperation to promise and attempt to promote.