Brazil's strategic partnerships: an assessment of the Lula era (2003-2010)

Abstract

introduction During President Lula da Silva's two terms in office (2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010), Brazilian diplomacy worked to reinforce the country's relations with its traditional partners, particularly the United States, Japan, and Western Europe, but also assigned priority to establishing new dynamic axes, as illustrated by the pursuit of partnerships with countries such as South Africa, India, and China. These adjustments and fine-tuning of bilateral relations laid the foundation of universalism in Brazilian foreign policy, as well as defining major lineaments for the country's international performance, namely, consolidation of economic relations (from the standpoint of trade currents and investment flows) and closer political cooperation at the highest level.Starting from an analysis of the idea of "strategic partnerships" and of how it evolved through Brazil's international experience, this article will assess the development of this concept in recent years. The purpose is to stress the importance of the effort toward diversification and the sophistication of the political and economic ties with a view to the strategy for Brazil's incorporation into the international scene, as well as seeing how it relates to other movements, such as the pursuit of a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. * Professor at University of Brasília -UnB, Brazil, and researcher of National Council for Scientific and Technological Development -CNPq (alessa@unb.br).

Abordagem sistêmica da política externa do Brasil

“…This approach is based on an understanding of the Brazilian foreign policy as founded on tradition with important traces of continuity (Cervo, 2007;Lafer, 2004) and sees the inflections that still exist as a result from different governmental choices. Concerning Lula's government, we agree with Lessa (2010), who notes that the foreign policy has presented continuity in some aspects and inflections in others, but had no ruptures, in spite of the presidential activism.…”

“…It also involved actions aiming at expanding Brazilian relations in the world. According to Lessa (2010), the Brazilian government implemented an ambitious strategy to expand its influence at an international level, and it had three primary objectives: (a) to have a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council; (b) to restore traditional trade markets and value others that were poorly explored before; (c) to project Brazilian business conglomerates in strategic sectors. According to Baumann (2010), the internationalization of 5 The country paid a high price for its solidarity strategy, especially in South America, where it faced disputes with Bolivia (2006) and Paraguay (2008) involving exploitation of natural resources.…”

Brazil and Indonesia: Horizons of a Strategic Partnership

“…In Brazil, as in other countries, the formation of a network of strategic partnerships is based on pragmatism and is associated with the process of choosing preferential partners in the context of "selective universalism", which allows to adapt quickly to changing conditions on a global level (Oliveira & Lessa, 2013). As the Brazilian researcher Antonio Carlos Lessa (2010) noted, the format of such partnership fits into Brazil's general foreign policy strategy, which is aimed at creating a favorable international environment for the country's sustainable development. The concept of strategic partnerships was affirmed in the foreign policy of President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva (2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011), when the range of diplomatic relations of the country expanded significantly (Borzova, 2016).…”

Political turns and perceptions in the foreign policies of Argentina and Brazil (2003-2019)

“…Con respecto a la alianza estratégica, fue a partir de los gobiernos de Néstor Kirchner y Lula da Silva que esta amistad bilateral comenzó a estrecharse, independientemente del acercamiento en las relaciones a partir de mediados de la década del ochenta y de la implementación del MERCOSUR en la década del noventa (Lessa, 2010;Gomes Saraiva y Briceño Ruiz, 2009;Pereyra Doval, 2014). Si bien el concepto de alianza estratégica es algo vago y generalizado, entendemos por la misma a "(…) un tipo de relación interestatal que por diversos motivos y factores, se distingue en cuanto a consideración e importancia del resto de las relaciones bilaterales que componen el universo diplomático de un país" (Cortés & Creus, 2009, p. 120).…”