Brazilian foreign policy under Jair Bolsonaro: far-right populism and the rejection of the liberal international order

Abstract

This paper engages with debates over the Liberal International Order (LIO) and Latin America by focusing on Brazil. More specifically, it addresses President Jair Bolsonaro’s foreign policy. His radical-right populist and religious-infused approach has been characterised by an explicit rejection of practically all elements of the LIO, including multilateralism, multiculturism, and regionalism—historically core features of Brazilian foreign policy. We seek to answer two interrelated questions: (1) what were the political conditions—domestic and international—that allowed for such dramatic foreign policy change? (2) what impact is Brazil’s new foreign policy orientation having on the LIO? To address them, we resort to the aspirational constructivist theory, which has allowed us to theorise Brazil’s new identity formation. We argue that Bolsonaro has reshaped Brazil’s foreign policy as part of his endeavour to create a national self-image based on three pillars: anti-globalism, anti-Communism, and religious nationalism. By doing so, the Bolsonaro administration has transformed Brazil, otherwise an avid supporter of the LIO, into one of the order’s most vocal critics. While anti-globalism (and, subsidiarily, anti-Communism) undermines the normative and institutional foundations of the LIO, religious nationalism offers a replacement to the order, based on independent ethno-nationalist communities. If Brazil’s radical right populist model spreads across Latin America, it has the potential to hollow out the region’s support to the LIO.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Ernesto Araújo resigned in late March 2021, a few days after his participation at a senate hearing in which most senators, including pro-government ones, requested him to step down. Although there has been a clear change in rhetoric, it is still unclear whether the new Foreign Minister, ambassador Carlos Alberto França, will follow Araújo’s foreign policy strategies.

2 Our analysis extends to events up until December 31^st 2020.

3 Full video (in Portuguese): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cIkWMKeDhs

4 For example, Abraham and Allen’s (1972: 20) thesis that Communism is a movement created and controlled by power-seeking billionaires who will consolidate a socialist super-state through a ‘Great Merger’ of socialist governments under the auspices of the UN.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Guilherme Stolle Paixão e Casarões

Guilherme Stolle Paixão e Casarões Assistant Professor at the São Paulo School of Business, Fundação Getúlio Vargas. Email: [email protected]

Déborah Barros Leal Farias

Déborah Barros Leal Farias Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences, University of New South Wales – Sydney. Email: [email protected]