Leaving the Club Without Slamming the Door: Brazil’s Return to Middle-Power Status

It's always sunny in Brazil: images, stereotypes, ignorance, and the country’s international status

“…The scholarship about status in IR and about the images of nations intersect because it is accepted that status is an intersubjective attribute (Clunan, 2014;Larson;Wohlforth, 2014;Larson;Shevchenko, 2019;Casarões, 2020;MacDonald;Parent, 2021). The place where a country stands in the global stratification depends not just on what the country believes itself to be, what it wants, its capabilities or how it behaves (although these are also important).…”

Introduction: Turnaround and Let-Down – Making Sense of Brazil and Africa after the Surge

“…We heed the call for more structured work in English over Brazil's multifaceted external relations (Burges 2013, 4-7), successful or declining as they might be, while seeking to complement recent efforts that already provide general snapshots of such period (e.g. Lessa et al 2020;Casarões 2020). In order to demonstrate how the three dimensions -presidential, big business, and South-South cooperation -shaped Brazil's approach to the continent, the book will shed light on the role of resources as a driver, the importance of personal leadership, and the influence of the Brazilian diplomatic history and traditions in shaping Brazil's priorities in Africa.…”