Development banks as instruments of Brazilian strategic diplomacy

Abstract

The article considers whether Brazil’s foreign policies aimed at reforming the global governance architecture for development finance can be considered the application of ‘strategic diplomacy’, and assesses the conditions for and limitations of implementing strategic diplomacy in new democracies. To do so, the analysis focuses on the Workers’ Party (PT) governments’ policies and actions related to national and multilateral development banks. It examines whether the Brazilian National Bank of Economic and Social Development (BNDES) and the New Development Bank (NDB; or BRICS Bank) exhibited four key features of strategic diplomacy (systemic focus; long-term objectives; dynamic view of national interest; and engaged political leadership) and what its implications were for achieving Brazil’s long-term foreign policy objectives of national development and autonomy.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 My original observation and argument was subsequently incorporated into Prantl’s depiction of the purpose of strategic diplomacy, as acknowledged in the Introduction to the Special Section. As such, he notes that system maintenance and system change can be seen as two ends of a spectrum, whereas system enhancement/reform falls somewhere along that spectrum.

2 At the time, Lula was still influential in foreign policy circles within his party and in the Itamaraty. The Lava Jato/Operation Car Wash corruption investigations had not yet hit the headlines. See Melo (2016), Watts (2017) and Hunter and Power (2019) for analyses of the impact of corruption investigations and their revelations.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mahrukh Doctor

Mahrukh Doctor is Professor of Comparative Political Economy at the School of Politics and International Studies at the University of Hull (UK). She is a specialist in Brazilian political economy and foreign policy.