Brazilian foreign policy towards South America during the Lula administration: caught between South America and Mercosur

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyze Brazil's foreign policy towards the South American region during President Lula's administration. As such, the article intends to highlight two specific dimensions: the extent to which foreign policy during this period has differed from previous periods and the relative importance granted by Brazilian diplomacy to recent cooperation and integration efforts, more specifically the Unasur and Mercosur. The article argues that the Lula administration has behaved differently from its predecessors by prioritizing the building up of Brazilian leadership in South America on several different fronts, especially by strengthening multilateral institutions in the region

A integração regional nos discursos de FHC e Lula: um estudo comparativo

“…Para isso se utiliza de alguns trechos de discursos de Lula e de seu chanceler, também a título ilustrativo. Saraiva (2010), por sua vez, delimita sua pesquisa ao governo Lula, e afirma que o presidente se diferenciou de seus antecessores ao buscar a liderança brasileira na América do Sul. Martins, em sua pesquisa, utilizou discursos presidenciais e diplomáticos para analisar os propósitos político e estratégico que nortearam a política de integração regional do governo FHC.…”

“…Em resposta a este dilema, de 1995 a 1999, a política externa para os EUA foi caracterizada pelo alinhamento pragmático com focos de resistência: a preservação do Mercosul diante da ALCA e a postura reivindicatória na OMC (PECEQUILO, 2012, p.243 A Alca não é destino, é opção". Segundo Saraiva (2010), durante o governo Cardoso a diplomacia brasileira começou a perceber a importância dos parceiros sul-americanos para que o país pudesse se fortalecer como um global player. Ou seja, o projeto integração regional era parte de uma estratégia maior do governo, da busca da autonomia pela participação e de uma maior inserção ao sistema internacional.…”

Latin America's New Regional Architecture: A Cooperative or Segmented Regional Governance Complex?

“…Its creation was strongly influenced by Brazilian foreign policy strategies intended to demarcate the country's sphere of influence (Briceño-Ruiz 2010;Spektor 2010;Malamud 2012). It is part of Brazil's "grand strategy" to use regional integration as the keystone of "consensual hegemony" (Burges 2008;Brands 2010), with Brazil as the hub within a system of regional cooperation (Saraiva 2010).…”

Cooperation for Development, Brazilian Regional Leadership and Global Protagonism

“…Nevertheless, recent changes on the Brazilian stance towards South America (HIRST, LIMA and PINHEIRO, 2010;LIMA and HIRST, 2006;PECEQUILO and CARMO, 2012;SARAIVA, 2010;SPEKTOR, 2010) should be taken into account in order to better evaluate each one of those aims, as well as their alleged connection, that is, the hypothesis that being a regional leader is a pre-requirement for having international protagonism. We argue that during Lula's government (2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010), the Brazilian policy of horizontal cooperation for development has strongly contributed to strengthen Brazilian regional leadership as well as to diminish -if not totally extinguish -the instrumental nature of the latter to achieve global protagonism 3 .…”