Marcos Aurelio Guedes de Oliveira is full professor at the Political Science Department, Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), Brazil, and researcher at the Brazilian Council of Scientific Research and at CAPES Foundation. He is head of Núcleo de Estudos Americanos at UFPE, lecturing on foreign policy and security and researching on issues of hemispheric and regional integration, security and defense. He is a fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar.