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GEOPOLITICS IN THE 21ST CENTURY TRINKUNAS MARES BROOKINGS ORDER FROM CHAOS PROJECT razil has long aspired to grandeza— greatness—and to take its place among the and B major powers that influence and shape the ASPIRATIONAL international order. It has served more times on Praise for Aspirational Power the United Nations Security Council than any other country except for the permanent members, “ Mares and Trinkunas have produced an insightful and highly readable overview and it seeks a permanent seat of its own. Since of Brazil’s foreign relations. Doubly framed against Brazil’s specific aspirations the founding of the UN in 1945, the Brazilian DAVID R. MARES holds the Institute of the (the country is neither a rule maker nor a rule taker, but a ‘rule shaper’) and military has participated in forty-six of sixty-five UN peacekeeping missions, and Brazilian officers Americas Chair for Inter-American Affairs at the dilemmas facing all emerging powers in the 21st century, the book currently lead UN operations in three countries. the University of California, San Diego, and is successfully links together both the foundational myths of Brazilian foreign During the 2008 global financial crisis, Brazil’s the Baker Institute Scholar for Latin Ameri- policy and the specific objectives that drive it today. In equal parts accessible POWER ASPIRATIONAL role in the G-20 contributed to reforming the can Energy Studies at the James A. Baker III and sophisticated, the book displays a contextually sensitive understanding of POWER International Monetary Fund. And together with Institute for Public Policy, Rice University. He Brazilian politics and policymakers.” its partners in the BRICS, Brazil has proposed is a member of the International Institute for —TIMOTHY J. POWER, University of Oxford Brazil on the Long Road alternative models for managing global order Strategic Studies and the Council on For- such as the New Development Bank. The largest country in South America by land mass and population, Brazil has eign Relations, the author of Latin America to Global Influence By history and by design, Brazil emphasizes soft and the Illusion of Peace, and coeditor of been marked since its independence by a belief that it has the potential to play a power in pursuit of a more democratic interna- the Routledge Handbook of Latin American major role on the global stage. Set apart from the rest of the western hemisphere tional order based on sovereign equality among Security Studies. by culture, language, and history, Brazil has also been viewed by its neighbors as nations. Soft power is based on the attraction of a potential great power and, at times, a threat. But even though domestic aspira- a country’s domestic institutions. Between 2000 and 2014, Brazil had a great story to tell: its HAROLD A. TRINKUNAS is the Charles tions and foreign perceptions have held out the prospect for Brazil becoming a major power, the country has historically lacked the capabilities—particularly on economy grew to become the seventh largest in W. Robinson Chair and senior fellow and the world. The middle class grew by 50 percent, the military and economic dimensions—to pursue a traditional path to greatness. director of the Latin America Initiative in the and poverty fell by half. Foreign Policy program at Brookings. His Aspirational Power examines Brazil as an emerging power. It explains Brazil’s Yet, in 2015, Brazil was rocked by a major research focuses on Latin American politics, present emphasis on using soft power through an analysis of Brazil’s past corruption scandal involving the national oil particularly on issues related to foreign policy, attempts to achieve major power status. Though these efforts have fallen company and entered its worst recession governance, and security. He is currently short, this book suggests that Brazil will continue to try to emerge, but that it in eighty years. In 2016 its president, Dilma studying Brazil’s emergence as a major will only succeed when its domestic institutions provide a solid and attractive Rousseff, was impeached. Brazil’s effort to power and Latin American contributions to consolidate its claim to great power status fell foundation for the deployment of its soft power abroad. Aspirational Power global governance on issues including energy short. Aspirational Power, examines the domestic concludes with concrete recommendations on how Brazil might improve sources of Brazil’s international influence and policy, drug policy reform, and Internet gover- its strategy, and why the great powers, including the United States, should how it attempts to use its particular set of nance. Trinkunas has also written on terrorism respond positively to Brazil’s emergence. capabilities to influence the global order. It financing, borders, and ungoverned spaces. explains how periodic domestic crises undermine DAVID R. MARES Brazil’s aspirations to major power status, and BROOKINGS INSTITUTION PRESS it makes concrete recommendations on how Washington, D.C. Brazil can better develop and deploy its power to Cover: Sese-Paul Design achieve its aspirations. Photograph: © iStock www.brookings.edu/press HAROLD A. TRINKUNAS This content downloaded from 130.64.11.153 on Mon, 12 Dec 2016 17:31:24 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Mares-Trinkunas_Aspirational Power_Jacket.indd 1 5/26/16 2:10 PM GEOPOLITICS IN THE 21ST CENTURY TRINKUNAS MARES BROOKINGS ORDER FROM CHAOS PROJECT razil has long aspired to grandeza— greatness—and to take its place among the and B major powers that influence and shape the ASPIRATIONAL international order. It has served more times on Praise for Aspirational Power the United Nations Security Council than any other country except for the permanent members, “ Mares and Trinkunas have produced an insightful and highly readable overview and it seeks a permanent seat of its own. Since of Brazil’s foreign relations. Doubly framed against Brazil’s specific aspirations the founding of the UN in 1945, the Brazilian DAVID R. MARES holds the Institute of the (the country is neither a rule maker nor a rule taker, but a ‘rule shaper’) and military has participated in forty-six of sixty-five UN peacekeeping missions, and Brazilian officers Americas Chair for Inter-American Affairs at the dilemmas facing all emerging powers in the 21st century, the book currently lead UN operations in three countries. the University of California, San Diego, and is successfully links together both the foundational myths of Brazilian foreign During the 2008 global financial crisis, Brazil’s the Baker Institute Scholar for Latin Ameri- policy and the specific objectives that drive it today. In equal parts accessible POWER ASPIRATIONAL role in the G-20 contributed to reforming the can Energy Studies at the James A. Baker III and sophisticated, the book displays a contextually sensitive understanding of POWER International Monetary Fund. And together with Institute for Public Policy, Rice University. He Brazilian politics and policymakers.” its partners in the BRICS, Brazil has proposed is a member of the International Institute for —TIMOTHY J. POWER, University of Oxford Brazil on the Long Road alternative models for managing global order Strategic Studies and the Council on For- such as the New Development Bank. The largest country in South America by land mass and population, Brazil has eign Relations, the author of Latin America to Global Influence By history and by design, Brazil emphasizes soft and the Illusion of Peace, and coeditor of been marked since its independence by a belief that it has the potential to play a power in pursuit of a more democratic interna- the Routledge Handbook of Latin American major role on the global stage. Set apart from the rest of the western hemisphere tional order based on sovereign equality among Security Studies. by culture, language, and history, Brazil has also been viewed by its neighbors as nations. Soft power is based on the attraction of a potential great power and, at times, a threat. But even though domestic aspira- a country’s domestic institutions. Between 2000 and 2014, Brazil had a great story to tell: its HAROLD A. TRINKUNAS is the Charles tions and foreign perceptions have held out the prospect for Brazil becoming a major power, the country has historically lacked the capabilities—particularly on economy grew to become the seventh largest in W. Robinson Chair and senior fellow and the world. The middle class grew by 50 percent, the military and economic dimensions—to pursue a traditional path to greatness. director of the Latin America Initiative in the and poverty fell by half. Foreign Policy program at Brookings. His Aspirational Power examines Brazil as an emerging power. It explains Brazil’s Yet, in 2015, Brazil was rocked by a major research focuses on Latin American politics, present emphasis on using soft power through an analysis of Brazil’s past corruption scandal involving the national oil particularly on issues related to foreign policy, attempts to achieve major power status. Though these efforts have fallen company and entered its worst recession governance, and security. He is currently short, this book suggests that Brazil will continue to try to emerge, but that it in eighty years. In 2016 its president, Dilma studying Brazil’s emergence as a major will only succeed when its domestic institutions provide a solid and attractive Rousseff, was impeached. Brazil’s effort to power and Latin American contributions to consolidate its claim to great power status fell foundation for the deployment of its soft power abroad. Aspirational Power global governance on issues including energy short. Aspirational Power, examines the domestic concludes with concrete recommendations on how Brazil might improve sources of Brazil’s international influence and policy, drug policy reform, and Internet gover- its strategy, and why the great powers, including the United States, should how it attempts to use its particular set of nance.