O papel do Observatório IDeF no enfrentamento das fragilidades da paradiplomacia brasileira

Abstract

Brazilian paradiplomacy, despite its expansion since redemocratization, remains marked by structural weaknesses that undermine its effectiveness. This qualitative, exploratory-descriptive technological article combines a bibliographic review of specialized literature with an analysis of content produced by the Observatory of Decentralized Internationalization in Focus (IDeF), using source triangulation as a methodological strategy. The data indicate that only a small number of Brazilian municipalities engage in any form of international activity, with a significant concentration in the South and Southeast regions. Six central challenges were identified: scarcity of formal institutional structures, lack of strategic planning, institutional discontinuity resulting from government transitions (stop-and-go dynamics), technical skill deficits among public servants, regional asymmetries, and the absence of a specific regulatory framework. The IDeF Observatory is presented as a technological innovation in response to this diagnosis, systematizing and disseminating qualified knowledge among academics and public managers. The article concludes that the consolidation of paradiplomacy in Brazil requires lasting institutionalization, long-term planning, and formal legal recognition of subnational international engagement.