The Rise of Brazil as a Global Development Power

Abstract

Brazil's influence is rising quickly in international affairs. Unlike those of China and India, its foreign policy relies heavily on non-military power—a characteristic of Brazil since at least the early 20th century. A mainstay of this policy has been the pursuit of ‘development’ for Brazil and the global South, with domestic discourse on the need to ‘develop’ buttressing this approach. Foreign policy under President Lula (2003–10) did this explicitly; President Rousseff (2011–) shows no signs of changing course. This article analyses three foreign policy issues—South–South cooperation, health, and environment—to demonstrate the use and assess the value of this strategy. Not only is the strategy serving Brazil's national interests well, the analysis reveals, but it is also benefitting other developing countries (albeit asymmetrically), reinforcing Brazil's capacity to influence international affairs.

Notes

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5 P Sotero, ‘Brazil's rising ambition in a shifting global balance of power’, Politics, 30(s1), 2010, p 73.

6 A Hurrell, ‘Some reflections on the role of intermediate powers’, p 8.

7 Brazil was involved with Argentina over Uruguay during the Cisplatine War (1825–28) and the Prata War (1851–52), and fought against Paraguay between 1864 and 1870.

8 Centre for Economics and Business Research, ‘Brazil has overtaken the UK's gdp’, news release, 26 December 2011, at http://www.cebr.com/wp-content/uploads/Cebr-World-Economic-League-Table-press-release-26-December-2011.pdf, accessed 10 January 2012.

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12 J Nye Jr, ‘Soft power’, Foreign Policy, 80, 1990, pp 153–157. Nye's important works on this theme include Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power, New York: Basic Books, 1990; Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics, New York: Public Affairs, 2004; and The Future of Power, New York: Public Affairs, 2011.

13 For a thorough debate on this point, see JPS Alsina Jr, Política externa e poder militar no Brasil: universos paralelos, Rio de Janeiro: fgv, 2010; and JPS Alsina Jr, ‘O poder militar como instrumento da política externa brasileira contemporânea’, Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional, 52(2), 2009, pp 173–191.

14 See M Saraiva, ‘As estratégias de cooperação Sul–Sul nos marcos da política externa brasileira de 1993 a 2007’, Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional, 50(2), 2007, pp 42–59; P Sotero & L Armijo, ‘Brazil: to be or not to be a bric?’, Asian Perspective, 31(4), 2007, pp 43–70; S Burges, Brazilian Foreign Policy after the Cold War, Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2009; and D de F Rodrigues, ‘Cooperação horizontal Sul–Sul: arranjos de concertação política entre a Índia, o Brasil e a África do Sul’, Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional, 53(1), 2010, pp 45–66.

15 C Amorim, quoted in ‘Brazil emerges as a leading exponent of “soft power”’, bbc News, 23 March 2010, at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8580560.stm, accessed 11 April 2011.

16 See JFS Saraiva, ‘Política externa, eleiç[otilde]es e academia’, Correio Braziliense (Brasília), 2 May 2010, at http://www.unb.br/noticias/unbagencia/cpmod.php?id=62891, accessed 2 June 2011.

17 For more on ‘soft balancing’, see R Pape, ‘Soft balancing against the United States’, International Security, 30(1), 2005, pp 7–45.

18 H Brands, Dilemmas of Brazilian Grand Strategy, Carlisle, PA: US Army War College Strategic Studies Institute, 2010, pp 3–4. See also Brands, ‘Evaluating Brazilian grand strategy under Lula’, Comparative Strategy, 30(1), 2011, pp 28–49.

19 The concept of development has run through Brazilian political discourses in two main (non-exclusionary) ways. First, it has been used as a noun to state a particular action (‘development is the goal’; ‘the country needs development’) or prefaced by an adjective to specify a focus area, such as in ‘sustainable development’, ‘regional development’ and ‘social development’. Second, it is also widely used as an adjective to contrast ‘developing’ with ‘developed’ economies.

20 It is important to note that, while national-developmentalist ideas were translated into foreign policy, dependency theory was not. Most of the prominent scholars in this area—such as Theotonio dos Santos, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Enzo Faletto and Ruy Mauro Marini—were forced into exile during the country's military government (which began in 1964). As Bresser-Pereira explains, not only did dependency theory have a Marxist base but it was focused on exploitation structured upon class—not foreign—relations. For more, see Bresser-Pereira's ‘Do iseb a da cepal a Teoria da Dependência’, in CN de Toledo (ed), Intelectuais e Política no Brasil: a Experiência do iseb , Rio de Janeiro: Revan, 2005, pp 201–232.

21 Translated from Joao Augusto Araujo Castro, ‘O poder nacional: limitacoes de ordem interna e externa’, Parcerias Estratégicas, 6, 1999, p 223.

22 This approach was explicit in Fernando Collor de Mello's tenure (1989–92). Considerable debate still exists, however, over how far President Fernando Henrique Cardoso—one of the main contributors to dependency theory—consciously followed this approach during his first term (1995–98). One can also argue that the need and effort to stabilise Brazil's fragile economy curtailed Cardoso's ability to manoeuvre freely and challenge the ‘neoliberal’ international order.

23 On this comparison between Cardoso's and Lula's foreign policies, see AL Reis da Silva, ‘As transformaç[otilde]es matriciais da Política Externa Brasileira recente (2000–2010)’, Meridiano 47, 11(120), 2010, pp 18–24.

24 President Lula ran unsuccessfully for the presidency three times before being elected in 2002 (and re-elected in 2006): in 1988 he lost to Fernando Collor de Mello; in 1994 and 1998 he was defeated by Fernando Henrique Cardoso.

25 Translated from President Luiz Inácio ‘Lula’ da Silva, Commencement Speech, Brasília 1 January 2003, emphasis added. In this speech ‘development’ (and derivative words) is one of the most common expressions, appearing 18 times in the document, ranking above other important concepts such as ‘social’ (16 times), ‘change’ (14), ‘justice’ (five), ‘sovereign/sovereignty’ (five), and ‘liberty’ (absent).

26 Translated from Antonio Patriota's commencement speech as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Brasília, 2 January 2011, emphasis added.

27 PR de Almeida, ‘A política internacional do Partido dos Trabalhadores: da fundação à diplomacia do governo Lula’, Revista de Sociologia e Política, 20, 2003, pp 87–102. See also PR de Almeida, ‘Uma política externa engajada: a diplomacia do governo Lula’, Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional, 47(1), 2004, pp 162–184.

28 This was particularly the case during the presidencies of Castelo Branco (1964–67), Collor de Mello (1989–92), and (arguably) during the first tenure of Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1995–98). For a thorough assessment of Brazil's foreign policy since its independence, see C Bueno & AL Cervo, Historia da Politica Exterior do Brasil, Brasília: UnB, 2008.

29 Translated from M Neri, A Evolução dos indicadores sociais baseados em Renda—Desigualdade de Renda na Década, Rio de Janeiro: Fundação Getúlio Vargas—Centro de Políticas Sociais, 2011.

30 Translated from M Neri (ed), Os Emergentes dos Emergentes: reflex[otilde]es globais e aç[otilde]es locais para a nova classe média brasileira, Rio de Janeiro: Fundação Getúlio Vargas—Centro de Políticas Sociais, 2011.

31 C Amorim, ‘Brazilian foreign policy under President Lula (2003–2010): an overview’, Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional, 53, 2010, p 231.

32 Antonio Patriota, interview (in Portuguese) given to Carta Capital (São Paulo), 14 February 2011.

33 United Nations General Assembly, ‘Report of the Secretary-General—Promotion of South–South cooperation for development: a thirty-year perspective’, Doc A/64/504, 2009, p 3.

34 Translated from Section 7.1.1: ‘Cooperação Internacional—Cooperação bilateral prestada’, subsection 2.1.1: ‘Porque foi criada a Cooperação bilateral prestada, qual a distinção em relação a políticas existentes’, in Ministry of Foreign Affairs (mre), Balanço de política externa 2003/2010, Brasília: mre, 2010.

35 T Vigevani & G Cepaluni, ‘Lula's foreign policy and the quest for autonomy through diversification’, Third World Quarterly, 28(7), 2007, p 1313.

36 For more on ibsa, see C Alden & MA Vieira, ‘The new diplomacy of the South: South Africa, Brazil, India and trilateralism’, Third World Quarterly, 26(7), 2005, pp 1077–1095; D Flemes, ‘India–Brazil–South Africa (ibsa) in the new global order: interests, strategies and values of the emerging coalition’, International Studies, 46(4), 2009, pp 401–421; P Sotero, Emerging Powers: India, Brazil and South Africa (ibsa) and the Future of South–South Cooperation, Woodrow Wilson Institute, Special Report, 2009, at http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/pubs/IBSA%20Publication.pdf, accessed 25 January 2012; and PF Visentini, MA Cepik & AD Pereira, G3-Forum de Diálogo ibas —uma experiência de Coooperação Sul–Sul, Curitiba: Juruá, 2010.

37 M Saraiva, ‘As estratégias de cooperação Sul–Sul nos marcos da política externa brasileira de 1993 a 2007’, Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional, 50(2), 2007, pp 42–59.

38 ibsa Dialogue Forum: New Delhi Agenda for Co-operation, Joint Communiqué on ibsa, New Delhi, 5 March 2004.

39 For more on Brazil's ‘health diplomacy’ initiatives, see K Bliss, ‘Health diplomacy of foreign governments’, Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2011; and Brazilian Agency of Cooperation, ‘Cooperação Técnica Brasileira em Saúde’, 2007, at http://www.abc.gov.br/document os/viaABC-baixa.pdf, accessed 15 April 2010.

40 Translated from Celso Amorim's interview given to Brazil's Ministry of Health, at http://portal.saude.gov.br/portal/arquivos/pdf/entrevista_celso_amorim.pdf, accessed 2 July 2011.

41 H Nygren-Krug, ‘Health and human rights at the World Health Organization’, Saúde e Direitos Humanos, 1(1), 2004, pp 7–12.

42 See K Lee, LC Chagas & T Novotny, ‘Brazil and the framework convention on tobacco control: global health diplomacy as soft power’, PLoS Med, 7(4) (e1000232), 2010, pp 1–5.

43 ‘Oslo ministerial declaration—global health: a pressing foreign policy issue of our time’, Lancet, 21 April 2007, pp 1374, emphasis added.

44 I Kickbusch, ‘Global health diplomacy: how foreign policy can influence global health’, British Medical Journal, 10 June 2011, p 2.

45 Lee et al, ‘Brazil and the framework convention on tobacco control’, p 1.

46 I Kickbusch, G Silberschmidt & P Buss, ‘Global health diplomacy: the need for new perspectives, strategic approaches and skills in global health’, Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 85(3), 2007, p 231.

47 See E Viola, ‘Brazil in the politics of global governance and climate change, 1989–2003’, mimeo, Centre for Brazilian Studies, University of Oxford, 2004; Sotero & Armijo, ‘Brazil: to be or not to be a bric?’; and AF Barros-Platiau, ‘When emergent countries reform global governance of climate change: Brazil under Lula’, Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional, 53, 2010, pp 73–90.

48 Over the past three decades the production yield of sugarcane has almost doubled; currently close to 90per cent of all passenger vehicles produced in Brazil are ‘flex-fuel’ (supporting a combination of gasoline and ethanol), with these representing over two-fifths of the country's total motorised fleet.

49 Ban Ki-Moon, speech in Brasília, 16 June 2011, at http://www.un.org/apps/sg/offthecuff.asp? nid=1862, accessed 3 August 2011.

50 AL Cervo, ‘Brazil's rise on the international scene: Brazil and the world’, Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional, 53, 2010, p 19.

51 Translated from Amorim, ‘Brazilian foreign policy under President Lula’, p 220.

52 Translated from ‘Trabalho, Desenvolvimento e Prosperidade—13: Fortalecer a participação do país nas relaç[otilde]es econômicas internacionais’, Plano Plurianual (PPA) 2008–2011, Brasília: Ministry of Planning, 2008.

53 Translated from ‘As treze diretrizes do governo da presidenta Dilma Rousseff’, 10 January 2011, at http://www2.planalto.gov.br/presidenta/diretrizes-de-governo, accessed 8 January 2011.

54 For more on the issue of climate change and development, see C Saunders, ‘The stop climate chaos coalition: climate change as a development issue’, Third World Quarterly, 29(8), 2008, 1509–1526; P McMichael, ‘Contemporary contradictions of the global development project: geopolitics, global ecology and the “development climate”’, Third World Quarterly, 30(1), 2009, pp 247–262; and T Banuri, ‘Climate change and sustainable development’, Natural Resources Forum, 33(4), 2009, pp 257–258.

55 brics' Joint Statement on Global Food Security, Ekaterinburg, 16 June 2009.

56 Section 3.2.11: ‘Temas Multilaterais—Energias renováveis’, subsection 2.1: ‘Descrição: Atuação internacional do Brasil na área de energias renováveis, incluindo biocombustíveis’, Balanço de Política Externa 2003/2010, Brasilia: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2010, at http://www.itamaraty.gov.br/temas/balanco-de-politica-externa-2003-2010/3.2.11-temas-multilaterais-energias-renovaveis, accessed 7 September 2011.

57 In the period between 2008 and 2009 alone Brazil participated in over 50 international fora related to biofuels.

58 Translated from Celso Amorim's speech given during the International Biofuels Conference, São Paulo, 11 November 2008.

59 Translated from President Lula's final speech at the International Biofuels Conference, São Paulo, 11 November 2008.

60 A Cervo & AC Lessa, ‘An assessment of the Lula era (2003–2010)’, Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional, 53, 2010, p 6.

61 Translated from President Dilma Rousseff's speech given to the graduating class of new Brazilian diplomats, 20 April 2011, at http://www.itamaraty.gov.br/sala-de-imprensa/discursos-artigos-entrevist as-e-outras-comunicacoes/presidente-da-republica-federativa-do-brasil/discurso-da-presidenta-da-rep ublica-dilma-rousseff-na-cerimonia-de-formatura-da-turma-2009-2011-do-instituto-rio-branco-1, accessed 19 November 2011.