Politicising financial foreign policy: an analysis of Brazilian foreign policy formulation for the financial sector (2003- 2015)

Abstract

At the start of the 21st century, there was a reconfiguration of the Brazilian domestic political dynamic, as its actors gradually became more interested in the formulation of foreign policy and tried to safeguard their interests. When analysing the country's foreign policy for the financial sector, it becomes quite clear that to consider foreign policy simply as one type of public policy is insufficient to assess its decision-making process. This paper seeks to contribute to the debate by arguing that the analysis of foreign policy should be carried out by taking into consideration specific issue-areas. This paper explores the movement to rearrange domestic decision power, seeking to gain leverage in international negotiations.Keywords: Foreign policy analysis; Brazilian foreign policy; Financial sector. AcknowledgementsThe authors would like to thank Carlos R. S. Milani and Lia Valls Pereira for the valuable comments and suggestions they made at the time, which have been incorporated in this version. Received: July 13, 2016Accepted: October 3, 2016 IntroductionT he end of the 20 th century and the beginning of the 21 st century were accompanied by great changes both in the domestic and international arenas; these have had an impact on the systemic constraints to which Brazil is subjected and, consequently, on its decision-making process regarding foreign policy. The changing dynamics of the international scenario, the financial crisis of 2008, the emergence of some Southern countries (China in particular), and the increase in commodity prices are among the processes that • This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original author and source are credited.• Este é um artigo publicado em acesso aberto e distribuído sob os termos da Maria Regina Soares de LimaUniversidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Estudos Sociais e Políticos, Rio de Janeiro -RJ, Brazil (mrslima@iesp.uerj.br).ORCID ID: orcid.org/0000-0003-0857-2487Politicising financial foreign policy: an analysis of Brazilian foreign policy formulation for the financial sector (2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015) Rev. Bras. Polít. Int., 60(1): e005, 2017 Duarte; Lima 2 have contributed to the mitigation of systemic constraints on Brazil. In the domestic arenas, the equalisation of the international debt, the macroeconomic stabilisation, the electoral victory of a left-wing party, and the gains in foreign policy autonomy should be highlighted. This combination of international and domestic factors has favoured the deconcentration of world power, benefiting countries of the South and fostering a more independent participation of Brazil on the international scene. These changes influence the process of foreign policy formulation during president Lula da Silva's government and first term of Dilma Rousseff, to the extent that they alter the politi...

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