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2023 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

10. From Great Expectations to Dwindling Status: Brazilian Diplomacy’s Response to Post-Cold War Upheavals

Authors : Rogério de Souza Farias, Antônio Carlos Lessa

Published in: The Palgrave Handbook of Diplomatic Reform and Innovation

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

Brazilian professional diplomacy is one of the oldest and most traditional of the Global South and is internationally recognized. To a large extent, the stability of Brazilian Foreign Policy is associated with the image of the diplomatic corporation, known as Itamaraty (a reference to the historic palace that housed the diplomatic bureaucracy in Rio de Janeiro, at the time it was still the capital of Brazil). The literature focused on the analysis of Brazilian foreign policy points out that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is recognized as a structure strongly associated with a tradition of elitism, bureaucratic isolation, and corporatism. This image serves to reiterate among professional diplomats a sense of monopoly on the formulation and implementation of foreign policy. Professional diplomats in Brazil, however, have faced challenges after the Cold War that are like those of other countries. This chapter presents a set of crucial themes about how the interconnection between domestic and international variables affected Itamaraty. Underpinning this narrative is the argument that despite the severe rejuvenation of the Brazilian diplomatic corps, Itamaraty has been slow to update its working methods, governance structure, and mission.

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A reference to the historic palace that housed the diplomatic bureaucracy in Rio de Janeiro, which at the time was still the capital of Brazil. It moved to Brasília in 1970.

Brazil became the seat of a kingdom of its own in 1815. The Portuguese Royal Court returned to Portugal in 1821, but left part of its archives and personnel in Rio de Janeiro.

On the particularity of Brazilian diplomats in South America, see Seckinger (1984). Campos (1913) has the list of all chiefs of missions from 1808 to 1912. Fundação Alexandre de Gusmão (2021) presents an updated and corrected list, but only of chiefs and chargés d’affaires of legations and embassies.

He offered this proposition in the famous speech at the Naval Club in 1902 (Rio Branco 2012, 105–8). See also Santos (2018).

The first case is the 1953 Brazilian plan to demilitarize Jerusalem. See Uziel (2019).

Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1992–93), José Serra (2016–17), and Aloysio Nunes (2017–18).

Data was shared by a Brazilian diplomat on condition of anonymity.

The first thermo-fax machine was acquired in the early 1960s, but it was used for copying documents. It was only in the early 1980s that the system became a permanent channel for communication. See Guimarães (1981).

In 1985 the challenge was to use computer terminals to reduce expenditure in copying machines. See Duarte (1991); Rodrigues (1985).

BrazilTradeNet was launched in 1999.

Information about the event is available at CPDOC’s archive, particularly in folder LFL mre1 1995.01.01 (1).

Itamaraty’s 1999 webpage is archived at https://web.archive.org/web/19990429084457/http://www.mre.gov.br/.

The fax machine, progressively abandoned and in the 2000s, would be used mostly to have certificated copies of official documents.

We refer to institutional use by embassies and other divisions of the Ministry’s structure. Diplomats can have their own personal accounts—but posting on current foreign policy topics is not allowed.

In addition to the institutionalization of recruitment through public tender and the procedural changes introduced by Paranhos, to which we referred above, Itamaraty underwent two major institutional reforms, in 1931 and 1938, which unified the services of the Secretary of State and the consular services. Finally, this process concludes with the creation of the Rio Branco Institute. Another major change was introduced in 1971 with the creation of the Department of Trade Promotion.

This is usually the case with speeches diplomats give in the Day of the Diplomat, commemorated on April 20. They are published in the journal Resenha de Política Exterior do Brasil.

This is not exactly the case of the Brazilian army, which, although recognizing the elements that shape the conflicts of the future and considers them in its strategic planning and military transformation project, shows difficulty in effectively incorporating them. Examples: Capabilities-Based Planning has been studied and gradually introduced for nearly 15 years after being incorporated into the National Defense Strategy in its original 2008 edition. Force interoperability is still a very distant goal. Integrated projects, even more. Finally, in the case of Brazilian Army, there are many qualifications regarding the preparation for a new operational scenario. It is tuned in to changes but reacts very slowly.

Although not the object of this study, it is important to note that over the last three decades, a peculiar concept of public diplomacy has been consolidated at Itamaraty, by which actions to promote Brazil’s image abroad are understood (such as cultural diplomacy, sports diplomacy, technological innovation, etc.), and a sense of approximation or opening up of the Ministry and of the foreign policy to public debate and to the scrutiny of civil society. It would be a belated reaction to the process of democratization of the political process in Brazil and the growing pluralization of Brazilian society.

Araújo’s conception of globalism is different from the definition in the academic literature. See Rosenboim (2017) and Slobodian (2018).

This is usually denominated as the “racial democracy” thesis and it was embraced by Brazilian diplomats for decades, becoming the cornerstone of Brazilian foreign policy. Today it is completely debunked in academia, but still influences conservative groups. On why it remains in the public discourse see France Twine’s study on race relations in the city of Vasalia in Twine (1998).

In 1961 Raymundo Souza Dantas, a Black journalist and not a career diplomat, became the first Black person to head an embassy. About his short stint ahead of the Brazilian embassy in Ghana, see Koifman (2021). The Brazilian government has been trying to change this situation. In 2002 the institution created an affirmative action program.

He even tried to mediate with Turkey a nuclear agreement with Iran to reduce international tensions. On this topic, see Amorim (2018).

A two-year stint in Instituto Rio Branco was (and still is) mandatory for all newcomers. The literature and Itamaraty’s official tradition emphasize this period as a critical factor in imparting a body of knowledge in newcomers and shaping a unified institutional ethos. A curriculum analysis from dozens of classes since 1946 shows, however, that most disciplines are just superficial overviews of themes already studied for the admission exams. The conception that the Institute promotes a strong socialization process akin to what is called “total institution” is also an exaggeration—any newcomer to the Presidency, both from the left and the right, can recruit diplomats with convergent worldviews. See Cheibub (1985, 1989); Ministério Das Relações Exteriores (1955, 2010); Moura (2007).

The posting of military personnel in Brazilian embassies and permanent multilateral missions, however, is common at least since the first decades of the twentieth century.

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Title: From Great Expectations to Dwindling Status: Brazilian Diplomacy’s Response to Post-Cold War Upheavals
Authors: Rogério de Souza Farias
Antônio Carlos Lessa
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Book: The Palgrave Handbook of Diplomatic Reform and Innovation
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-10970-6

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-031-10971-3

Copyright Year: 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-10971-3_10