The Politics of Brazilian Foreign Policy (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

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

Coming of Age?: Recent Scholarship on Brazilian Foreign Policy

Latin American Research Review, 2013

Brazilian foreign policy has never been a major point of interest among the non-Brazilian scholars who call themselves Brazilianists. Over a span of almost thirty years, the four edited collections of that epistemic community's informal state of the art-Alfred Stepan's

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

Book Review “Brazilian Foreign Policy after the Cold War” University Press of Florida. Sean Burges

Ante Portas - Studia nad bezpieczeństwem, 2019

In this work, the author Sean Burges analyzes the main achievements of Brazilian foreign policy between 1992 and 2002. The choice of such a decade to be analyzed, according to the author, refers to the ten years (hitherto) of greatest achievements in Brazil. This decade in question is also called "The Decade of Fernando Henrique Cardoso". He was a foreign minister from 1992-1993, finance minister from 1993-1994, and president of Brazil from 1995-2002. The Canadian scholar tries to understand "how" and "why" Brazil carving its space into the international scenario as a consensual hegemony. Burges does that examining official documents and from several interviews with Brazilian diplomats. And this method can be understood as his first mistake, since diplomats and official documents only disclosure what the Brazilian government wants to show. Meaning: not necessarily the "reality". After the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union Burges, the international scenario was going through a complicated phase of fast pace changings and growing in internationalization. Facing new challenges Burges claims the Brazilian government embarked on a Foreign Policy in a "quiet style of leadership on South America". Still, Brazilian diplomacy was seeking to keep the country's autonomy in the international sphere without foreign interference. According to this author, during Fernando Henrique Cardoso's "decade" Brazilian foreign policy was seeking this so-called "quiet leadership" in South America because being explicit would incur costs. Here is one more problem in his analysis, Brazil is very important to regional stability. However, during the two mandates of Cardoso, the main goal of the country's foreign policy wasn't to have leadership in the region. It's important, but it was clear that at that moment Brazilian foreign policy was directed towards carving a niche among the great powers, not among other countries of the Global South. At the beginning of the 1990s, Brazil was suffering from a huge economic crisis. Said that the country couldn't afford any kind of leadership in the

Brazilian Foreign Policy: Interests and Demands

World Affairs: The Journal of International Issues, 2012

s ambitions in foreign affairs extend beyond the South American setting. The country has laid claim to high positions in international organisations, offered itself as a mediator for resolving conflicts and participated in peacekeeping operations as means of becoming a global actor. It has also taken part in debates on global issues such as the environment, hunger and poverty. However, Brazilian actions have at times generated unease among its neighbours and on the domestic front notable economic and social disparities hamper its aspirations at establishing a greater international presence.

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.

The democratic regime and the changes in Brazilian foreign policy towards South America

Brazilian Political Science Review

In recent times the interaction between democracy and foreign policy has begun to be studied and theorized in Brazil. The link between politics and foreign policy is not new, however, the focus of this article is on the shifts that have taken place since t he beginning of the democratic regime. Its aim is to identify changes in Brazilian foreign policy based on ideas and political preferences due to alternation of governments; and deconstruct the idea that Brazilian foreign policy is a state policy, limited to superficial changes. Following a discussion of the recent literature about changes in foreign policy, the article maps the changes that occurred between 1990 and 2003 and analyses Brazilian foreign policy behavior towards South America during the Worker's Party administrations. Based on a comparative perspective, it examines the changes in Brazilian behavior toward the region during the Temer administration. This was the area where foreign policy experienced strongest transformations. Finally, the article briefly points out the changes that occurred in foreign policy towards South America at the beginning of Bolsonaro's administration. The methodology, especially in relation to the Temer and Bolsonaro administrations, uses press material and interviews with foreign policymakers.

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.

Key Issues on the Brazilian Foreign Policy

Historical background: the main directives of the Brazilian foreign policy Brazilian society was formed within traditional monarchic and aristocratic Portuguese lines. When the Portuguese royal family left Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro at the wave of Napoleon invasion of Portugal, they transferred its political culture and structures to what was so far a Colony. In 1822 Brazil was declared an independent monarchical state. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was created in 1834 and it served well the Emperor in dealing with international disputes and with the building up of a legal foreign representation to Brazil. Brazil was a centralized monarchical State until 1989 when a military movement declared it a federation. The new-born Federal Republic of the United States of Brazil was regarded by the intellectual leaderships of the military as the best way to modernize and westernize Brazil. The emerging USA federal model as well as August Comte`s positivist principle of Order and Progress written at the new Brazilian flag were established as the guiding principle to move the nation away from backwardness. The history of Republican Brazil has been a struggle to move away from Portuguese political tradition, from agrarian economy, from slavery, colonialism and its consequences towards economic and political modernization. Political ups and downs during the Twentieth Century Brazilian political life can be understood as a conflict between a will to change by emerging new social groups and the resistance from traditional Brazil and its colonial heritage. The troubles of internal rebellions and external wars Brazil has faced since