Abstract
Brazilian diplomats and academics alike have long regarded regional leadership as a springboard to global recognition. More recently, Brazil’s regional strategy has sought to redefine its region from broad Latin America into narrower South America, thus leaving Mexico, Central American, and the Caribbean out. This operation aimed at two goals: first, to definitely bury US-led pan-Americanism by substituting it with a more manageable process of region building, as South America has closer ties to Brazil – and concomitantly weaker links to the United States – than the northern part of the continent; and second, to exclude Mexico from a potential competition for leadership. However, this foreign policy has not translated the country’s structural and instrumental resources into effective regional leadership. Brazil’s potential followers have not always aligned with its main foreign policy goals, such as a permanent seat in the Security Council and Directorship-General of the WTO, and some have even challenged its regional influence. These setbacks notwithstanding, Brazil has been recognized increasingly as an emergent global power by the established world powers. This chapter analyzes the growing mismatch between the regional and global performances of Brazilian foreign policy and shows how both theoretical expectations and policy planning were ‘luckily foiled’ by unforeseen developments. I argue that, because of regional power rivalries and a relative paucity of resources, Brazil is more likely to become a middle global power than it is to gain acceptance as a leader in its region. As a consequence, South American regionalism has lesser chances of consolidating and might remain as an ensemble of social fora rather than as an operative organization based on common interests or identities.
A different version of this chapter was published as “A Leader without Followers? The Growing Divergence Between the Regional and Global Performance of Brazilian Foreign Policy”, Latin American Politics and Society, 53(3), 2011. I thank LAPS director, Bill Smith, for authorization to reproduce several fragments and ideas here. I also acknowledge the Portuguese Science Foundation (FCT) for its financial support of the research used for this chapter under the project PTDC/CPJ-CPO/099290/2008.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Brazil’s performance and emergence as a global power has been acclaimed by top specialized media sources: “An economic superpower, and now oil too”, The Economist, 2008-04-17; “Brazil Joins Front Rank of New Economic Powers”, The Wall Street Journal, 2008-05-13; “Weathering the Storm”, Newsweek, 2008-07-26; “Economy Fuels Brazil’s Ambitions Beyond South America”, The Wall Street Journal, 2009-02-06.
- 2.
- 3.
Venezuela’s alternative regional organization, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA), reunites eight small or medium countries with two common features: they are subsidized by Venezuela and they lack a common border with one another. These features make of ALBA an oil-based network rather than an ideological association or a geographic region.
References
Almeida, P. (2005). Políticas de integração regional no Governo Lula. Política Internacional [Lisbon], 29, 33–60.
Almeida, P. (2007). Brazil as a Regional Player and an Emerging Global Power. FES Briefing Paper, 8(July).
Álvarez, Á. (2007). Venezuela 2007: los motores del socialismo se alimentan con petróleo, Revista de Ciencia Política (Santiago), 27(Special Issue), 265–289.
Amorim, C. (2003). Discurso proferido pelo Embaixador Celso Amorim por ocasião da transmissão do Cargo de Ministro de Estado das Relações Exteriores (p. A14). Brasília, January 1: http://www.mre.gov.br/portugues/politica_externa/discursos/discurso_detalhe3.asp?ID_discurso=2032
Amorim, C. (2008). Brasil pode suspender crédito a vizinhos. O Estado de São Paulo, 3(December).
Armijo, L. E. (2007). The BRICs countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) as analytical category: Mirage or insight? Asian Perspective, 31(4), 7–42.
Arraes, V. (2007). O Brasil e a ONU de 1990 a nossos dias: das grandes conferências às grandes pretenses. In H. Altemani & A. C. Lessa (Eds.), Relações internacionais do Brasil. Temas e agendas (Vol. 2, pp. 7–41). São Paulo: Editora Saraiva.
Bouzas, R., Da Motta Veiga, P., & Torrent, R. (2002). In-depth analysis of MERCOSUR integration, its prospectives and the effects thereof on the market access of EU goods, services and investment. Report presented to the Commission of the European Communities, Observatory of Globalization, Barcelona.
Burges, S. (2005). Bounded by the reality of trade: Practical limits to a South American region. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 18(3), 437–454.
Burges, S. (2006). Without sticks or carrots: Brazilian leadership in South America during the Cardoso Era, 1992–2002. Bulletin of Latin American Research, 25(1), 23–42.
Burges, S. (2007). Building a global Southern coalition: The competing approaches of Brazil’s Lula and Venezuela’s Chávez. Third World Quarterly, 28(7), 1343–1358.
Burges, S. (2008). Consensual hegemony: Theorizing Brazilian foreign policy after the cold war. International Relations, 22(1), 65–84.
Cason, J., & Power, T. (2009). Presidentialization, pluralization, and the rollback of Itamaraty: Explaining change in Brazilian foreign policy making in the Cardoso-Lula Era. International Political Science Review, 30(2), 117–140.
CEBRI – CINDES. (2007). Força-Tarefa “O Brasil na América do Sul.” Relatório Final. Rio de Janeiro, June. Retrieved June 20, 2011, from http://www.cindesbrasil.org/index.php?option=com_docman%26;task=doc_download%26;gid=20%26;Itemid=41
CEUNM – Centro de Estudios Unión para la Nueva Mayoría. (2008). Balance militar de América del Sur 2008. Buenos Aires. Retrieved June 20, 2011, from http://www.nuevamayoria.com/index.php?option=com_content%26;task=view%26;id=1130%26;Itemid=30
EU Commission. (2007). Communication from the commission to the council and the European parliament: Towards an EU-Brazil Strategic Partnership (COM 2007) (281), Brussels, May 30. Retrieved June 20, 2011, from http://ec.europa.eu/external_relations/brazil/docs/com07_281_en.pdf
Flemes, D. (2007). Emerging middle powers’ soft balancing strategy: State and perspectives of the IBSA dialogue forum. GIGA Working Paper 57, Hamburg. Retrieved June 20, 2011, from http://www.giga-hamburg.de/dl/download.php?d=/content/publikationen/pdf/wp57_flemes.pdf
Garcia, M. A. (2008). Gobierno ecuatoriano cometió un error muy grave. El Comercio, Quito, November 22.
Gauthier, A., & de Sousa, S. (2006). Brazil in Haiti: Debate over the peacekeeping mission. FRIDE Comment, November.
Gratius, S. (2007). Brazil in the Americas: A regional peace broker? FRIDE Working Paper 35, April.
Hirst, M. (2007). South American intervention in Haiti. FRIDE Comment, April.
Hurrell, A. (2000). Paths to power: Foreign policy strategies of intermediate states, Latin American Program, Woodrow Wilson International Center, Working Paper Nº 244, Washington, DC.
IISS – International Institute for Strategic Studies. (2006). The military balance 2006. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Inter Press Service (2005, August 4). Retrieved March 10, 2009, from http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0804-08.htm. Accessed 20 June 2011
Jaguaribe, H. (2001). La opción de hierro. Consolidar y expandir el Mercado Común del Sur, Encrucijadas, 1(4), 26–39.
Kennan, G. (1993). Around the Cragged Hill: A personal and political philosophy. New York: Norton.
Lafer, C. (2001). A identidade internacional do Brasil e a política externa brasileira. São Paulo: Perspectiva.
Lima, M. (2008). Brazil rising. Multipolar World, IP, Fall, 62–67.
Lima, M., & Hirst, M. (2006). Brazil as an intermediate state and regional power: Action, choice and responsibilities. International Affairs, 82(1), 21–40.
Malamud, A. (2005). Mercosur turns 15: Between rising rhetoric and declining achievement. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 18(3), 421–436.
Malamud, A., & Castro, P. (2007). Are Regional Blocs leading from nation states to global governance? A skeptical view from Latin America, Iberoamericana: Nordic Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies [Stockholm], 37(1), 115–134.
Mattli, W. (1999). The logic of regional integration: Europe and beyond. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ministério da Defesa. (2008). Estratégia Nacional de Defesa (END), Brasília. Retrieved June, 28, 2011 from http://www.defesanet.com.br/blog/2009/01/estratgia-nacional-de-defesa
Pinheiro, L. (2000). Traídos pelo Desejo: Um Ensaio sobre a Teoria e a Prática da Política Externa Brasileira Contemporânea, Contexto Internacional, 22(2), 305–335.
Russell, R., & Tokatlian, J. G. (2003). El lugar de Brasil en la política exterior Argentina. Buenos Aires: Fondo de Cultura Económica.
Saraiva, M. (2007). As estratégias de cooperação sul-sul nos marcos da política externa brasileira de 1993 a 2007. Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional, 50, 42–59.
Saraiva, M. (2009). O Brasil entre a União Européia e a América do Sul: limites para uma relação triangular. Paper presented at LASA2009, Rio de Janeiro, June 11–14.
Schirm, S. (2007). Emerging power leadership in global governance: Assessing the leader-follower nexus for Brazil and Germany. Paper presented at the ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops, Helsinki, May 7–12.
Sotero, P., & Armijo, L. E. (2007). Brazil: To be or not to be a BRIC? Asian Perspective, 31(4), 43–70.
Souza, A. (2008). O Brasil na região e no mundo: Percepções da comunidade brasileira de política externa. Rio de Janeiro: Centro Brasileiro de Relações Internacionais (CEBRI).
The Economist. (2008). Brazil’s foreign policy. The samba beat, with missteps, 18 December.
United Nations. (2005). In larger freedom: Towards development, security and human rights for all. Report of the Secretary-General 3/21/2005. Retrieved June, 28, 2011, from http://www.un.org/largerfreedom
Vaillant, M. (2007). ¿Por qué Uruguay necesita negociar con Estados Unidos? BREAL/EULARO Specialist Paper, October.
Vaz, A. (2007). Brasil y sus vecinos: ¿del descubrimiento a la interdependencia? In W. Hofmeister, F. Rojas, & L. Solís (Eds.), La percepción de Brasil en el contexto internacional: Perspectivas y desafíos. Tomo I: América Latina (pp. 23–40). Rio de Janeiro: Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.
Vigevani, T., Favaron, G., Ramanzini, H., & Correia, R. (2008). O papel da integração regional para o Brasil: universalismo, soberania e percepção das elites. Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional, 51(1), 5–27.
Vizentini, P. (2007). O G-3 e o G-20: o Brasil e as novas coalizões internacionais. In H. Altemani & A. Carlos Lessa (Eds.), Relações internacionais do Brasil. Temas e agendas (Vol. 2, pp. 159–193). São Paulo: Editora Saraiva.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Malamud, A. (2012). Moving Regions: Brazil’s Global Emergence and the Redefinition of Latin American Borders. In: Riggirozzi, P., Tussie, D. (eds) The Rise of Post-Hegemonic Regionalism. United Nations University Series on Regionalism, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2694-9_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2694-9_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-2693-2
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-2694-9
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)