Brazil and Non-Alignment

Abstract

Until the mid-1960s, Brazil played a leading role in inter-American affairs and the same holds true for its engagement with the non-aligned movement. This chapter attempts to shed light on the Brazilian role at the two non-aligned conferences in Belgrade 1961 and Cairo 1964. While only three years apart, the two conferences highlight two very distinctive experiences for Brazil and Latin America as a whole. In 1961, Brazilian politics teemed with reformist aspirations and expectations and this translated into a new attitude towards the emerging third world. Under the Quadros and later the Goulart government, Brazil followed an “independent foreign policy” and strengthened ties with both the socialist and decolonized countries, and participating in the non-aligned movement formed part of this new nexus of relationships. By 1964, however, this trend had been reversed, as a military coup in Brazil ushered in a new era in domestic and foreign policies.

Latin America and the Global Cold War

“…Although Brazil was initially welcoming of the NAM before 1964, its engagement with the movement was primarily reserved for exploring an 'economic Third World.' Brazilian elites often perceived themselves as Western and identified with cultural and political heritage from (white) European culture (Krepp, 2020). Indeed, these fluctuating relationships to the Third World movement are reflected in the structure of the volume itself which is divided into two conceptual halves.…”