CACD Diplomata case studies
CACD Diplomata · Put your knowledge to work in context.
The Concurso de Admissão à Carreira de Diplomata (CACD) is Brazil's competitive entrance examination for the diplomatic career, run by the Rio Branco Institute (Instituto Rio Branco, IRBr) under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is aimed at graduates preparing to become career diplomats, and it is one of the most demanding public-service examinations in the country, combining breadth of knowledge with high-level writing and language skills. The CACD Diplomata case studies are 5 cases and about 2,394 words.
1The Itamaraty Memorandum and the Ambiguous Instruction
You are the desk officer for a bilateral relationship. On a Friday afternoon, the Secretary-General's office forwards a memorandum from a visiting ambassador requesting a public statement of support for the ambassador's country's position in a territorial dispute with a third state.
472 words, about 2 min2Inflation Targeting Under a Supply Shock
A central bank with an explicit inflation target of 3 percent, plus or minus 1.5 percentage points, faces a supply shock: a 40 percent rise in an imported energy price feeds through to headline inflation of 7.2 percent, while core inflation is 4.1 percent and the output gap is estimated at minus 1.8 percent. The exchange rate has depreciated 12 percent in three months.
425 words, about 2 min3The Literary Canon Question in a Diplomatic Oral Exam
In an oral examination, the candidate is asked to compare how two Brazilian novels treat the relationship between the sertão and the coast as competing sources of national identity. The examiner adds a constraint: the answer must not merely summarise plots, but must show how narrative form - narration, temporal structure, and language register - produces a political argument.
458 words, about 2 min4Treaty Interpretation and the Reservations Problem
A multilateral environmental treaty permits reservations 'unless incompatible with the object and purpose of the treaty'. State A deposits a reservation excluding the treaty's dispute-settlement clause.
471 words, about 2 min5Allocating a Scarce Consular Team During a Crisis
A consular crisis erupts in a country where your embassy has a team of six officers, two of whom are locally employed staff without diplomatic immunity. A sudden closure of airspace strands 1,400 nationals, including 90 unaccompanied minors, 40 persons with urgent medical needs, and a group of 200 workers whose employer has confiscated their passports.
568 words, about 3 min