Founders

Artur Alexandre Feio de Victoria Candeias, known as an author as Artur Victoria, is a lawyer, a researcher at OBSERVARE – the Observatory of Foreign Relations of the Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa – and the founder of the Ocean Geopolitics Centre, which he created together with Admiral António Silva Ribeiro. His career brings together institutional leadership, education, international relations and defence cooperation, with a particular focus on relations between Portugal and Brazil and on the Portuguese-speaking world.

Since 1997 he has presided over the Institute for Luso-Brazilian Legal Culture and Science and, since 2015, over the Associação dos Amigos da Marinha do Brasil em Portugal – AAMP (SOAMAR Brasil em Portugal), continuing his earlier work with SOAMAR. He was president of the Federation of Portuguese Culture and of the Institute for the Development of the Douro Basin, the latter from 1994 to 1997. Founder of the Colégio Luso-Internacional do Porto (CLIP), he also presided over the Fundação Luso Internacional para a Educação e Cultura – Northern Region, taking part in the design and development of international education projects.

He graduated in Law from the University of Lisbon in 1975 and completed the National Defence Course at the National Defence Institute in 1990. He holds further training as a trainer from the Portuguese Bar Association (1998) and in anti-corruption under the Open Society and TIRI, in Budapest (2005). He was an elected member of the Porto District Council of the Portuguese Bar Association, a supervisor of trainee lawyers and, in 1998, the Bar’s international delegate for international relations.

From 2000 to 2004 he was Northern Region Delegate of the Association of Auditors of the National Defence Courses, and he represents the Association of Graduates of the Brazilian Superior War College (ADESG) in Europe. He has promoted meetings and study visits between Portuguese and Brazilian military institutions, universities and municipalities. His collaboration with the Portuguese Army included a protocol with the Northern Military Region in 1992 and the coordination of events marking the seventieth anniversary of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force’s passage through Portugal. In 2010 he was appointed Honorary General Representative of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of South America in the Portuguese Republic.

His research focuses on geopolitics, national defence, ethics, institutional governance and sea power. He is the author of legal books and of works in Portuguese and English, including Geopolítica da China, Geopolítica do Brasil, Geopolítica da Gronelândia and Geopolítica de Cuba, published by Edições Esgotadas. With Admiral António Silva Ribeiro he co-authored Mar – Encontro, Desencontro e Reencontro. His studies in English include Adaptive Power, The Geopolitics of Institutional Asymmetry and Rethinking Ocean Diplomacy.

He has been awarded the D. Afonso Henriques Medal – Army Merit, 2nd Class, with commendation, and the Cross of Saint George Medal, 1st Class. His long-standing cooperation with Brazilian military institutions has led to successive promotions from Knight to Officer and Commander of the Order of Naval Merit, and from Knight to Officer of the Order of Aeronautical Merit. He has also been made a Knight of the Order of Rio Branco.