Moving Regions: Brazil’s Global Emergence and the Redefinition of Latin American Borders

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.