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Home , Latin America, Region, Regional power, South, South America

POLICY BRIEFING 13

Emerging Powers Programme

January 2010

Brazil as a in America or America?

Leslie Bethell1 RECOMMENDATIONS

• needs to balance its emerging regional and global ambitions in its . EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This will be a defining challenge as the embraces its This briefi ng, part history of ideas, part history of , regional responsibilities and role provides historical background to Brazil’s emergence as a regional power. on the global stage. It argues that Brazil never considered itself an integral part of which, for Brazil, generally referred to Spanish America only. • Relations with the United But in the past 10–15 years has become a central concern States remain paramount both in of Brazilian foreign policy. its immediate and in its aspiration to wield greater global INTRODUCTION influence. The ’ position has to be considered At the end of the fi rst decade of the 21st century Brazil considers itself, in regional and global policy and is internationally considered, an emerging regional and global power decisions. — or at least an emerging regional power with global aspirations. But • Regionally, Brazil should focus in which region? In Latin America, including , on South America. Latin America and the , where for more than a century the United States has as a concept has lost whatever been the hegemonic power? Or in South America only? An examination usefulness it once had. of its historically complex relationship with the United States and Latin America helps us understand why South America has become the • The emergence of principal focus of Brazil’s regional foreign policy. in its immediate provides an alternative THE ORIGINS OF LATIN AMERICA that Brazil should respond to in its vision for the region. It The idea of América Latina has its origins in the 1850s and . A should be pragmatic in engaging number of Spanish intellectuals and politicians, many resident Venezuela while demonstrating in and , argued that despite the fragmentation of Spanish assertive leadership that will carve America into 10 at the time of independence — 16 by the a decisively non-radical path for middle of the — there existed a common Spanish (Latin) the region and its relations with American consciousness and identity. This was stronger than local and the outside . regional and provided a basis for unity and resistance to

AFRICAN INSIGHTS. GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES. BRAZIL AS A REGIONAL POWER IN LATIN AMERICA OR SOUTH AMERICA?

the territorial expansion of the United States, inter-American unity: Simon Bolívar’s Congress of Anglo–Saxon America. At the same time, French (1826) followed by conferences in intellectuals argued that there was a linguistic (1847–48), de (1856), Washington and cultural affi nity of Latin peoples in America (1856), Lima again (1864–65) and (1883 for whom was the natural leader and — on the centenary of Bolívar’s birth). The inspiration (and defender against US infl uence Spanish American republics, deeply suspicious and, ultimately, domination). Neither the Spanish of their huge Portuguese-speaking neighbour, nor the French thought that América were reluctant to include Brazil. And Brazil, with Latina/L’Amérique Latine included Brazil. its immense Atlantic coastline, saw itself as part At the time, Brazilian intellectuals agreed. of the Atlantic world, its principal economic While conscious of a common Iberian and and political links with Great Britain. Relations Catholic background, they were aware of what between the groupings were limited mainly to the separated Portuguese America/Brazil from Río de la Plata where Brazil had strategic interests Spanish America: , economic and social and fought three wars between 1825 and 1870. structures based on , racial composition, political institutions (independent Brazil was an BRAZIL, THE UNITED STATES AND ) and, above all, , history and LATIN AMERICA culture. From the 1880s to the Spanish The Brazilian Republican Manifesto of 1870 began American intellectuals further developed the idea with the famous words: ‘We are of America and that America Espanola, Hispanoamérica, América we wish to be Americans’. With the proclamation Latina, now frequently called Nuestra América and, of the in 1889, Brazil resolved its frontier by those anxious to include Indian populations, disputes with all its South American neighbours Indoamérica, was different from, and superior to, and began to develop somewhat closer relations Anglo-Saxon America, the ‘other’ America. The with and Chile in particular. At the term Iberoamérica was sometimes used to include same time, it pursued even closer relations both Spanish and Portuguese America. But the with the United States. The two giants of the great majority continued to focus on their own , it was argued, had a great deal in national identities and, beyond that, Spanish common, which differentiated both of them from America, separate and different from the United Spanish America. Spanish American States and Brazil. generally condemned US interventionism , Central America and the Caribbean in BRAZIL AND SPANISH AMERICA the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and reacted with suspicion and mistrust to the US attempt to Few Brazilian intellectuals identifi ed with América assert its economic and political leadership in the Latina, much less Indoamérica. They viewed through pan-Americanism. Spanish America in an overwhelmingly negative Brazilian governments were less critical of US light. Like their Spanish American counterparts, . They gave their full support to they were interested principally in the formation the United States at all eight Pan-American of their own national identity: the idea of Brazil, conferences between 1889 and 1938. In the First the roots in its indigenous peoples, the Portuguese Brazil alone followed the United States and African slaves, the racial, social and cultural in declaring war on . In the Second . All these differentiated Brazil from World War Brazil was by far the most supportive Spanish America which, for them more than the and strategically important of the US’s , represented the ‘other’ America. neighbours. In its international relations, the Empire It was the United States that first came to of Brazil did not identify with, or participate regard Brazil as an integral part of the Latin in, any of the Spanish American initiatives for American region. This view evolved during the

SAIIA POLICY BRIEFING 13 2 BRAZIL AS A REGIONAL POWER IN LATIN AMERICA OR SOUTH AMERICA?

1930s (with Roosevelt’s Good Neighbour policy), odds with US interests in, for example, the Middle the Second World War and the , and and Southern , in particular Angola. was in response to threats to its economic and In Latin America, where it was clearly now geo-political interests in the Western hemisphere, the dominant country, its population grew from initially from the fascist powers of and 35 million in 1930 to 170 million in 1980 and its then the communist . United States economy at an average rate of 7% a year between governments saw Latin America as a cohesive 1940 and 1980. But it showed no inclination to region in terms of geography, history, religion, a leadership role, and certainly not the role language and culture and sharing similar of regional ‘sheriff’ as the US Department economic, social and political structures. The sometimes envisaged. In 1980 Brazil joined differences between the 18 Spanish American the Association for Latin American Integration republics and Brazil (except to some extent (ALADI). And a dramatic improvement in Brazil’s religion) were simply ignored. So were the huge relations with Argentina, its closest neighbour and disparities in size and population between Brazil arch-rival, after democratisation in both and all the other countries in the region (except in the mid-, led eventually to the Treaty of perhaps Mexico). And official US thinking Asunción (1991) and the creation of the infl uenced other governments and multilateral bloc consisting of Brazil, Argentina, institutions. The Economic and (to which Chile and later Commission for Latin America, ECLA/CEPAL, associated themselves). Nevertheless, 40 years established in 1948, was the fi rst international after the end of the Second World War Brazil organisation responsible for Latin America. Also could still not be said to have a deep engagement infl uenced were non-governmental organisations, with the region. Although many Brazilian foundations and, not least, universities. In both intellectuals, artists, writers and critics began to the United States and Europe Latin American self-identify with Latin America, especially on the Studies (overwhelmingly studies of Spanish left during the , it is probably America, especially Mexico, with Brazilian studies fair to say the majority — like Brazilians in invariably less well served) experienced rapid general — continued to think of Latin America as growth, especially after the . signifying Spanish America. Brazil was not part of In view of the special relationship Brazil that grouping; its inhabitants were not essentially had enjoyed with the United States and the Latin American. support it had given during the Pan-American conferences and the Second World War, Brazil was BRAZIL AND SOUTH AMERICA disappointed to be treated as simply one, albeit perhaps the most important, of the 20 countries The end of the Cold War brought economic of Latin America. Although Brazil remained on and political change to the global order and to the side of the United States and the in the Brazil. The country consolidated and Cold War, a more independent foreign policy fi rst stabilised, then renewed, economic growth. emerged in 1961–64. It led to closer relations Its presence and influence in grew not only with revolutionary but with signifi cantly. Under the presidencies of Fernando and the rest of the underdeveloped , Henrique Cardoso (1995–2002) and Luiz Inácio including the countries of Africa and in their ‘Lula’ da (2003 to present) it has played an struggles against . Even under the increasingly important role in –South and 21-year that followed the South–South relations and Brazil has been a key US-supported military coup of 1964, there was player in discussions on global issues. tension and low-level confl ict with the United For the first time in its history, Brazil has States. Although it never joined the Non-Aligned actively pursued a policy of engagement, economic Movement (it had observer status only), Brazil and political, with its neighbours. In practice, pursued independent third world policies often at however, this has meant its South American

SAIIA POLICY BRIEFING 13 3 BRAZIL AS A REGIONAL POWER IN LATIN AMERICA OR SOUTH AMERICA?

neighbours, not the Western hemisphere. Brazil under President ‘Lula’. And perhaps for the resisted the United States agenda for integrating fi rst time, Brazil has begun to think of itself as the Americas and not Latin America. This was a regional power; with a good deal of hesitancy a deliberate decision, reinforced by the fact that and ambivalence, not least because the rest of in 1994 Mexico joined the United States and South America is reluctant to accept even non- in and the United States hegemonic leadership, and because Venezuela has been prepared to allow, indeed has at times offers an alternative Bolivarian project (ALBA). encouraged, Brazil to assume the leading role in Brazil has assumed the role not only because South America. In 2000 President Cardoso hosted it is in its long-term economic and strategic the fi rst summit of South American presidents interests but because, it is argued by some in in Brasília. At the third summit in in Brazil, regional power is a necessary condition December 2004, during the ‘Lula’ administration, for global power. But, again, the region is South a South American Community of Nations was America, not Latin America, although during the formed, consisting of 12 nations, including recent crisis in , in which Brazil played a and . This community became prominent role, President ‘Lula’ did refer to Nossa the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) América Latina or ‘Our Latin America’. in May 2008. ENDNOTES CONCLUSION 1 Leslie Bethell is emeritus professor of Latin American Improved relations with its South American History, University of London; emeritus fellow, St neighbours and the economic and political Antony’s College, Oxford; senior research associate, integration of South America have been the CPDOC/Fundação Getulio Vargas, ; principal focus of Brazilian foreign policy and senior scholar, Woodrow Wilson International

The Emerging Powers Programme is funded by the Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency (SIDA) and the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), facilitated through the Danish Embassy in . SAIIA gratefully acknowledges this support.

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