Sustainable development and Sustainable Development Goals:

distinct processes and convergent interests

Abstract

The article deals with the creation, incorporation and dissemination of the concept of sustainable development in the context of international relations. Unlike the dominant IR literature, it considers that the concept is ambiguous, which favors the reproduction of the hierarchy of national states, in an apparent concession to a process of civilizing and inclusive transformation. The focus is on political economy, so there is an important part of the text focused on theoretical discussions of economic development. In this sense, the imbrication of theoretical discussions with those specific to international policy within the UN, synthesized in the Sustainable Development objectives, shows appropriation of the idea of sustainable development as legitimizing an unlikely vision of the future.