Orientalia Blog


The Role of the Portuguese and Spanish in the Geopolitics of the 21st Century: Opportunities and Challenges in the Middle East

Languages are human institutions and as well as men who speak them, they have their progress and their setbacks, win and lose speakers according to the prestige of the countries that use them. The Portuguese language in this sense began to enjoy the last years a greatest international prestige due to factors as the size of the Lusophone population, the relative youth of its speakers, their distribution in the world and therefore business opportunities with these countries.


Resenha: “Pobre nação: as guerras do Líbano no século XX”, por Robert Fisk

O livro Pobre nação: as guerras do Líbano no século XX, do jornalista britânico Robert Fisk, oferece um importante referencial àqueles que se interessam pela história recente do Oriente Médio e, especificamente, pela do Líbano. Por si sós, estes seriam bons motivos para a publicação do livro, não fosse também a particularidade brasileira: o Brasil possui uma importante comunidade de origem libanesa.


Brazil’s Evolving Relationship With Refugees



Brazil: Middle East Economic Policy Under the Radar

The current search for new trading partners in unexpected geographic areas demonstrates the extent to which Brazil has changed its foreign policy the last few years. With an agenda that has focused primarily on global business performance, the Middle East has emerged as a key area for Brazilians who want to expand the consumer market of their companies.


Brazil: What Happens If There’s Another Oil Crisis?

The rise in oil prices caused by the impasse between Western powers and Iran due to the latter’s nuclear programme has been a cause for concern not just for the European and North American markets, but also for economies that are currently less vulnerable, such as the Brazilian economy, for which the two oil crises of the 1970s had catastrophic consequences.





The “Brazilebanese”, or Brazilians from Lebanon

The history of Lebanese emigration to Brazil is long. It is said that Lebanese Christians began to emigrate to Brazil in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, while Lebanon was still part of the Ottoman Empire. The economic crisis that Brazil suffered in the 1980s and 1990s directly affected these families, dependent on the income from trade. Many chose to return to Lebanon and rebuild their lives in the old fatherland.