Charlotte is a PhD student in the Department of War Studies. Her research focuses on security, military and development issues in Brazil. As part of the ‘Military in Politics in Brazil’ research project, her research aims to contribute to the understanding of the Brazilian armed forces’ pervasive role in the country’s socio-political life. Specifically, her doctoral research investigates the role of the Brazilian military in the country’s development activities and reflects on its implications for civil-military relations and long-term national development.

She holds a BA in History and International Relations and an MA in Conflict, Security & Development from King’s College London. During this time, she undertook the Engelsberg Applied History, as well as another Undergraduate Research Fellowship with Dr. Vinicius Mariano de Carvalho focused on Brazilian civil-military relations, and specifically Brazil’s military leadership in peacekeeping in MINUSTAH. Charlotte was awarded a studentship grant by the UKRI’s London Interdisciplinary Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership (LISS-DTP) in International Development, Conflict & Human Security.

Research Interests: 

• Brazilian armed forces
• Security-development nexus
• Civil-military relations

Charlotte’s current research focuses on the role of the Brazilian military in the country’s development activities.

Thesis

Title: Militarized national development in Brazil: origins and civil-military implications of the Brazilian military’s central role in domestic development activities.

Abstract:

In Brazil, the state has repeatedly turned to the military to handle domestic crises of socio-economic nature, granting it increasing influence over key national policy questions, including in matters of national development. Expanding the military’s responsibilities into a supporting role for national development, however, holds diverse implications for civil-military relations and policy-making as it relates to both security and development strategies. Therefore, this research project aims to investigate the nature of military involvement in domestic development activities in Brazil, explain the historical origins and evolutions of the military’s prominent involvement in this field, and assess its implications for civil-military relations and domestic understandings of development. Through the development of an interdisciplinary analytical model, examining historical processes of change and identifying direct and indirect causal relations between this phenomenon, domestic civil-military relations and conceptual thinking about development, this project would thus represent a necessary contribution to the production of a comprehensive interdisciplinary understanding of military involvement in Brazilian politics missing from the existing literature. We hope that the conclusions drawn from the research can help activate systemic change and raise public awareness in Brazil, while enriching analytical approaches to other countries experiencing military political overreach.

Supervisors:

• Dr Vinicius Mariano de Carvalho
• Dr Eleonora Natale

Publications

• Vinicius Mariano de Carvalho & Charlotte Bascaule (2023) Brazil in MINUSTAH: exporting a domestic understanding of civil-military relations to a UN peace operation, Conflict, Security & Development, 23:2, 153-177, DOI: 10.1080/14678802.2023.2216154
• Bascaule, C. (2022). Book Review. Brett J. Kyle and Andrew G. Reiter (2020). Military Courts, Civil-Military Relations, and The Legal Battle for Democracy: The Politics of Military Justice. Brasiliana: Journal for Brazilian Studies, 10(2). Retrieved from https://tidsskrift.dk/bras/article/view/131533