Over the past decade, Brazil has stepped up its involvement in international security and development. However, few studies have looked at how Brazil's concrete experiences in postconflict and fragile states have shaped its broader positions on key security and development issues (and vice versa). Analysing Brazil's role in Guinea-Bissau, this article asks how Brazilian government actors interpret the intersection between security and development. Drawing on a combination of document analysis and interviews, findings suggest that the Brazilian government has rejected labels such as 'failed state' and 'narco-state' and that cooperation needs to address the multidimensional causes of Guinea-Bissau's instability. Brazil's stress on combining security sector reform with broader institution-building and socioeconomic development reflects a somewhat different emphasis than the approach promoted by actors that have concentrated more narrowly on curbing the drug trade.
ResumoO artigo analisa a cooperação que o Brasil vem desenvolvendo ao longo do Atlântico Sul, mostrando que o País vem desempenhando o papel de region-builder na construção de uma identidade sul-atlântica com posição de destaque para si. Tais esforços começam a ser contestados por outros atores de dentro e fora da região.Palavras-chave: Atlântico Sul; Brasil; Cooperação; Defesa; ZOPACAS.
AbstractThis article analyzes the cooperation that Brazil has been developing across the South Atlantic, showing that Brazil has adopted the role of region-builder, working to construct a South Atlantic identity while it secures for itself a position of preeminence. Such efforts begin to be contested by other actors from within and outside the region.
This article explores the relationships between (so-called) 'non-traditional' development cooperation (NTDC) and political leadership. Using the case studies of Brazil and South Korea, we propose that certain emblematic elements of NTDC discourse and practice can act to influence the relationship with political leaders in particular ways. These are (a) elevated language of affect, (b) interleaving of personal biographies with the developmental trajectories of states, (c) the use of NTDC to legitimise domestic policies and promote domestic political leadership, (d) the prominence of presidential diplomacy, and (e) the challenges confronting rapidly expanding domestic development cooperation institutions and systems.
AcknowledgementsWe are grateful to the editor and anonymous referees of Third World Quarterly for their reviews and suggestions for this paper. The paper was delivered at the international workshop "Looking ahead: South-South development cooperation in the next decade", which was supported by the UK's Development Studies Association (Rising Powers Study Group), in Cambridge on 26 May 2015. We are grateful to other participants for their comments and constructive critique.
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