Rising Powers and The Security–Development Nexus: Brazil's Engagement with Guinea-Bissau

Abstract

Over the past decade, Brazil has stepped up its involvement in international security and development. However, few studies have looked at how Brazil's concrete experiences in post-conflict and fragile states have shaped its broader positions on key security and development issues (and vice versa). Analysing Brazil's role in Guinea-Bissau, this article asks how Brazilian government actors interpret the intersection between security and development. Drawing on a combination of document analysis and interviews, findings suggest that the Brazilian government has rejected labels such as ‘failed state‘ and ‘narco-state’ and that cooperation needs to address the multidimensional causes of Guinea-Bissau's instability. Brazil's stress on combining security sector reform with broader institution-building and socioeconomic development reflects a somewhat different emphasis than the approach promoted by actors that have concentrated more narrowly on curbing the drug trade.

Keywords::

• Brazil
• Guinea-Bissau
• Peacebuilding Commission
• CPLP
• South Atlantic
• Security Council

Notes

^* The authors wish to thank the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ)'s Jovem Cientista do Nosso Estado programme for supporting this research.

¹ Individuals suspected by the United States government of participating in and/or abetting the drug trade include Guinea-Bissau citizens as well as foreigners. See, for instance, United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) (2007).

² MRE, ‘Declaração do Conselho de Ministros da CPLP sobre a Guiné-Bissau’, Lisbon, 1 November 2004.

³ MRE, ‘Comunicado Conjunto da Visita do Presidente Lula à Guiné-Bissau’, 13 April 2005.

⁴ MRE, ‘Visita de Estado ao Brasil do Presidente da Guiné-Bissau’, 14 November 2007.

⁵ UNODC, ‘Governo brasileiro vai financiar construção da Academia de Polícia da Guiné-Bissau’, 8 January 2009.

⁶ MRE, ‘Relações com a África: Defesa’: http://www.itamaraty.gov.br/temas/balanco-de-politica-externa-2003-2010/2.2.14-africa-defesa

⁷ MRE, ‘Guiné-Bissau’: http://www.itamaraty.gov.br/temas/temas-politicos-e-relacoes-bilaterais/africa/guine-bissau/pdf

⁸ ‘Visita ao Brasil do Representante Especial do Secretário-Geral das Nações Unidas na Guiné-Bissau’, Resenha de Política Exterior do Brasil, 2011, 149.

⁹ MRE, ‘Visita do Ministro Antonio de Aguiar Patriota a Angola’, 19 July 2011, Resenha de Política Exterior do Brasil 109, 81.

¹⁰ MRE, ‘Reunião Ordinária do Conselho de Ministros da CPLP’, Luanda, 22 July 2010, Resenha de Política Exterior 109, 86.

¹¹ ‘Statement on the PBC Engagement in Guinea-Bissau’, UNSC, 5 November 2009.

¹² ‘Debate on Guinea Bissau Configuration of the Peacebuilding Commission’, Statement by Permanent Representative of Brazil to the UN, New York, 7 October 2008.

¹³ ‘Guinea-Bissau Configuration of the Peacebuilding Commission’, Statement by Ambassador Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, UNSC, New York, 15 July 2010.

¹⁴http://missaodepaz.com/category/paises-e-missoes-de-paz/guine-bissau/

¹⁵ UNSC, ‘The Security Council and the UN Peacebuilding Commission’, April 2013.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Adriana Erthal Abdenur

ADRIANA ERTHAL ABDENUR (PhD Princeton University, BA Harvard University) is a professor at the International Relations Institute of the Pontifical Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio). Contact email: [email protected]

Danilo Marcondes De Souza Neto

DANILO MARCONDES DE SOUZA NETO is a PhD candidate at the Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS) at the University of Cambridge, UK.