“Brazilian Foreign Policy, Multilateral Institutions and Power Relations: an Interview with Ambassador Rubens Ricupero” (original) (raw)

The Politics of Brazilian Foreign Policy and Its Analytical Challenges

Foreign Policy Analysis, 2016

Starting from the perspective that foreign policy is a public policy, this article discusses the conceptual and political implications of the new configuration of Brazilian foreign policy. Therefore, we abandon its automatic association with the cruder versions of realism and bring it to the field of politics, thus recognizing that its formulation and implementation fall into the dynamics of governmental choices which, in turn, stem from negotiations within coalitions, bargaining, disputes, and agreements between representatives of diverse interests. As a result, we remove foreign policy from a condition linked to inertial and supposedly self-evident and/or permanent national interests (which would be protected from injunctions of cyclical nature related to partisan politics) and undress it of features generally attributed to so-called state policies. Finally, we suggest ways for an innovative research agenda on the role of diplomatic agency, political institutions, and nonstate actors in Brazil's foreign policy. It used to be common among foreign policy analysts both from academia and from the media to ascribe the sources of Brazilian foreign policy mainly to a single agency. The main responsibility for Brazilian foreign policy making was generally attributed to either an individual (generally, the President or the Foreign Minister) or an institution (the Foreign Ministry, best known as Itamaraty). The reasons for this are well known: On the one hand, Brazilian presidentialism concentrates too much agency in the president's hands (Abranches 1988), giving him/her, when particularly attentive to foreign policy issues, a great latitude for action. On the other hand, the long-standing professionalism of Brazilian

200 Years of International Relations in Brazil: Issues, Theories, and Methods

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Relations, 2022

The Brazilian field of international relations (IRs) has evolved over the course of two centuries. Since Brazilʼs independence in 1822, international topics have deserved attention from local practitioners and scholars. The emergence of Brazilian standpoints about international a airs and of a Brazilian IR scholarship developed a er the consolidation of similar fields in other Western countries. Multiple schools of thought held sway over local understandings, thereby leading to the formation of a di erent field as compared to characteristics of the Anglo-American mainstream. The institutionalization of the area has come about through the creation of scholarly departments and national government agencies. It all led to a unique combination of methods, theories, and issues being currently explored in the Brazilian branch of IR scholarship.

Atlas of Brazilian Foreign Policy

The portrait of Brazil’s place in the world that emerges from this publication is of a diverse and complex country, a mass democracy implementing a many-faceted foreign policy, and having all the credentials to be a model for countries of the South caught in the stormy waters of a globalised and unequal economy. It is also part of a stratified geopolitical order, but with some multilateral spaces; above all, it possesses a huge heterogeneity of culture and values whose management requires international actors that make tolerance, fairness and respect for diversity the core of its international integration.

Brazilian Diplomatic Thought Policymakers and Agents of Foreign Policy (1750-1964) (2016)

José Vicente Pimentel (ed.), Brazilian Diplomatic Thought: policymakers and agents of Foreign Policy (1750-1964), vol. 1 (Brasília: Funag, 2016, 346 p.; ISBN: 978-85-7631-547-6; p. 19-41; translation by Paul Sekscenski; available: http://funag.gov.br/loja/index.php?route=product/product&product\_id=841; livro em pdf: http://funag.gov.br/loja/download/1166-BRAZILIAN\_DIPLOMATIC\_THOUGHT-PDB-Ingles-VOL-1.pdf). Contents Brazilian diplomatic thought: methodological introduction to the ideas and actions of some of its representatives, 19-41 Paulo Roberto de Almeida Part I FOUNDING IDEAS OF DIPLOMATIC THOUGHT Introduction to foreign policy and the diplomatic ideas of the imperial period, 45-53 Amado Luiz Cervo Alexandre de Gusmão: the statesman who drew the Brazilian map, 57-91 Synesio Sampaio Goes Filho José Bonifácio: the patriarch of Brazilian diplomacy, 95-125 João Alfredo dos Anjos Paulino José Soares de Souza, the Viscount of Uruguay: building the instruments of Brazilian diplomacy, 129-163 Gabriela Nunes Ferreira Duarte da Ponte Ribeiro: defining the territory of the monarchy, 167-199 Luís Cláudio Villafañe G. Santos Francisco Adolfo de Varnhagen, the Viscount of Porto Seguro: diplomatic thought, 203-233 Arno Wehling Honório Hermeto Carneiro Leão, the Marquis of Paraná: diplomacy and power in the Plata, 237-271 Luiz Felipe de Seixas Corrêa The Viscount of Rio Branco: sovereignty, diplomacy and power, 275-313 Francisco Doratioto Joaquim Tomás do Amaral, the Viscount of Cabo Frio: the development of Brazilian administrative thought, 317-345 Amado Luiz Cervo

The Politics of Brazilian Foreign Policy

Oxford Bibliographies - International Relations, 2020

From November 1902 through February 1912, four presidents governed Brazil. Throughout all this period, though, only one person headed the foreign ministry: José Maria da Silva Paranhos Jr., alias Baron of Rio Branco (20 April 1845–10 February 1912). This political wonder and diplomatic giant was to shape Brazil’s international doctrine and diplomatic traditions for the following century. His major achievement was to peacefully solve all of Brazil’s border disputes with its South American neighbors. Founded in 1945, Brazil’s prestigious diplomatic school carries his name, Instituto Rio Branco, and, since the early 2000s, Brazilian foreign policy has become the largest subfield of international relations in university departments across the country. Indeed, Brazilian foreign policy is to Brazilian academia what American politics is to US academia, namely, a singular phenomenon that has taken over a general field. In contrast with the United States, most in-depth research from about 1998 to 2010 came from foreign-based scholars; however, since then a large cadre of mostly young academics in Brazil have seized the agenda. Unlike the pre-2000 period, the orientation has been toward public policy rather than diplomatic history. That the top Brazilian journals of international relations are now published in English rather than Portuguese attests to the increasing internationalization of the field.

Brazilian Diplomatic Thought - Policymakers and Agents of Foreign Policy (1750-1964)

FUNAG launches, in the Diplomatic History collection, the English version of the work "Brazilian Diplomatic Thought", composed of three volumes. "Brazilian Diplomatic Thought - Formulators and Agents of Foreign Policy (1750-1964)" deals with the founding conceptions and protagonists of the diplomatic thinking from Alexandre de Gusmão, passing through the Empire and Republic until the beginning of the 1960s, covering a wide period Modernization of national diplomacy. Twenty-six authors, academics and diplomats, analyzed the contributions of some of the main characters in Brazil's diplomatic history. The work enriches the literature on international relations and Brazilian foreign policy. Organizer: José Vicente de Sá Pimentel