Bolsonaro’s 5 Key Foreign Policy Challenges in 2019
Reading Time: 4 minutes
The new president’s foreign policy revolution creates unprecedented risks for Brazil – and depends on untested international partnerships.
foreign policy
As Tensions Mount, Brazil Hedges Its Bets on Russia and the West
Reading Time: 3 minutes
While the U.S. and others expel diplomats, Brazil’s decision not to criticize Russia reveals its uncertain position in the changing global order.
Brazil’s Foreign Policy Isn’t Dead. It’s Just Hibernating.
The government of Michel Temer has dealt Brazilian foreign policy a body blow. Not only has the president traveled abroad less than any of his predecessors since Itamar Franco in the 1990s, but, more importantly, Brazil nowadays contributes remarkably little to dealing with urgent regional challenges. These include the crisis in Venezuela, transnational crime, China’s … Read more
Brazilian Diplomacy: From First in Class to Disappearing Act
Brazilian foreign policy has always been an unpredictable affair. In the 1930s, dictator Getúlio Vargas had sympathies with Nazi fascism, even modeling labor laws after Benito Mussolini’s and fostering a militant wing vaguely resembling Adolf Hitler’s. But he ended up siding with the Allies during World War II. In the 1970s, during another authoritarian period, … Read more
Latin America’s Trump Whisperer
The year was 1967, and worried presidents from across the Americas gathered at a hotel in Punta del Este, Uruguay to discuss a region in crisis. The twin shocks of the Cuban revolution and the Vietnam War were sowing unrest throughout the hemisphere. Ernesto “Che” Guevara was in the mountains of Bolivia, trying to incite … Read more
How Brazil’s Crisis Is Bleeding into the Rest of South America
Until a few years ago, Brazil possessed one of the most active foreign policies in the developing world. It built an impressive network of embassies and consulates, opening more than 60 posts during the 2000s alone in Africa, Asia and beyond. Brazil also actively engaged in debates ranging from humanitarian intervention in Libya to rethinking … Read more
An Often-Ignored Cause of the U.S.-Cuba Thaw
It wasn’t so long ago that reestablishing diplomatic ties between the United States and Cuba seemed politically unthinkable. So it’s natural to ask: What really changed? But while much of the focus has been on the generational changes affecting the Cuban-American community, and the foreign policy-driven considerations of President Barack Obama, there was also a … Read more
