Ronald Schneider has written a cogent and insightful volume about Brazil’s foreign policy process specifically and that country’s international relations generally. Carefully analyzing the institutional and situational variables that enter into the formulation of policy in one of the most important Third World states, the author clearly elucidates the dynamics of Brazil’s contemporary international politics.
For too long scholars have tended to ignore the international relations of Latin America. Frozen by the extraordinary circumstances of the U.S.-organized Inter-American defense system after the Second World War, the foreign policy of other states in the hemisphere became relevant only when it threatened to destabilize or dramatically shift the domestic balance of power. With the emergence of North–South issues as a legitimate component of the global agenda, foreign policy, broadly defined to include both the political and economic relations of states, has become exceedingly relevant to any analysis of Latin America.
The author provides a straightforward framework for his analysis by identifying the internal and external factors that have determined the emergence of Brazil’s dynamic approach to international issues. Since the overthrow of the government of João Goulart in 1964 the state bureaucracy has emerged as a principal actor in all fields of Brazilian policy. Focusing on the presidency, armed forces, foreign ministry and foreign trade and finance institutions, Schneider provides one of the first published analyses of the dynamics of policy with the Brazilian state apparatus. The relatively marginal role of nongovernmental actors in that process is dealt with in the book as well.
The concluding chapters raise a series of questions that will confront the Brazilian foreign-affairs community in the years ahead. Domestic political change, bilateral economic and political relations with the industrialized nations, and Brazil’s role in the South are discussed; the author’s conclusion, supported by his analysis, is that Brazil will continue its present trajectory in good part due to the rational and efficient approach to decision-making of that nation’s foreign policy elite. In sum, this is a very useful and informative book that fills an important gap in our understanding of the dynamics of Brazil’s international development.
