The new Africa and Brazil in the Lula era: the rebirth of Brazilian Atlantic Policy

Abstract

The main purpose of the present text is to present a relevant regional dimension regarding Brazil's international insertion during the Lula era. Africa has been one of the major fronts of Brazilian international insertion over the first years of the 21 st century. The African continent has a significant historical weight in our constitution as a nation and is also part of the moves adopted by Brazil's foreign policy. Brazil decided to play in the new political "chessboard" in which the international context of post-Cold War world consists.The government headed by President Lula (2003 -2010) revived in more permanent bases Brazil's foreign policy towards Africa. This new measure seems to be closer to a State policy and tends to overcome some of the reasons for historical oscillations considering Brazil's path in the South Atlantic area. Idealism and realism are gathered in an extremely balanced way supporting the foreign policy conducted by our national State in relation to its Atlantic boundaries.In this sense, the present work is divided in two parts: the first part approaches Africa's international insertion throughoutthe recent years and the second one is oriented to analyze the dimension occupied by African affairs in Brazil during the Lula era. The historical evolution described on the second part is crucial to emphasize what is novelty about the current relationship involving Brazil's Atlantic borders and its different perspectives. a new africa coincides with a global brazilInternational circumstances experienced during the turn to the present century have been extremely favorable to Africa's international insertion. Years separating 1999 from today represent almost one decade of struggle and obstacle overcoming. Compared to the previous four decades, marked by low economic continuity, fractures in the formation of national States and very low social artigo rev. Bras. Polít. Int. 53 (special edition): 169-182 [2010] * Professor at University of Brasília -UnB, Brazil, and researcher of National Council for Scientific and Technological Development -CNPq (fsaraiva@unb.br).

Edição Completa

“…Contudo, é interessante destacar que o significado, interpretação e valor da matriz racial brasileira variaram historicamente. A releitura de um mesmo fator histórico ou cultural é parte do 9 Ver a discussão em Saraiva (2010) sobre as correntes institucionalista/pragmática e a autonomista/nacionalista no Ministério.…”

Brazil’s Foreign Policy: Between Self-Determination and Dependency

“…Thus the IBSA Trust Fund, with its US$6 million annually, has more of a symbolic character. With respect to multilateral alliances with states from outside the region, cooperation was intensified with African, Arab and South-East Asian states, which led to a trade agreement between Mercosul and the South African Customs Union ( In view of this intensified cooperation with African countries, there is talk of a rebirth of Brazil's transatlantic relations (Saraiva, 2010a). As with China and India, both political and economic relations with Africa were expanded.…”

A cooperação técnica do Brasil com a África: comparando os governos Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1995-2002) e Lula da Silva (2003-2010)

“…Essa condição reduziu drasticamente o volume de recursos transacionados, sendo que os esforços foram concentrados na regionalização Platina e nas trocas com os países desenvolvidos. De acordo com dados de Saraiva (2010), o volume de comércio entre o Brasil e a África Negra na década de 1990 retornou ao que fora registrado nas décadas de 1950 e de 1960. Conforme o autor, em comparação com a década de 1980, na qual a corrente de comércio atingira 10%, na década em análise o montante não compreenderia o total de 2% de produtos transacionados.…”