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In the final years of the Brazilian dictatorship, the Sarney administration adopted a nationalist position towards the protection of the Amazon. This position was taken in response to the perceived threat of a US directed intervention to protect biodiversity and limit CO2 production attributed to deforestation within Brazil's border. This nationalist position strongly asserted the sovereign right to exploit the natural resources within Brazil's borders in order to expand its economy and improve its relative position in the international sphere. By the end of the Sarney administration, decision makers had adopted a more 'internationalist' approach to dealing with environmental issues in order to preempt 'environmental conditionality' by US influenced international lending institutions. By the early 1990s, Brazil had become a leading advocate for an international regime on the environment. This paper argues that the international diplomatic community and Brazilian decision makers mutually constituted an identity shift that integrated Brazil into global norms and institutions through a combination of transnational activism, coercion, and social interaction. In contrast with orthodox theoretical explanations that posit causal powers to deep structures of the international system, this paper traces the processes that form the causal mechanisms behind an identity shift in an empirical case study. These causal processes are inherently reductionist, as change in the international system is produced by the embodied actions of the representatives of different institutions. It uses Foucault's theorization of governmentality to explain how environmental conditionality was used to introduce environmentalism into Brazil's foreign policy, and Checkel's theorization of social interaction to explain how environmental regulation was introduced into Brazilian governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at analyzing the recent changes in the US foreign doctrine and Brazil’s strategy of international relations under thenew government that took power in January 2003. The U.S. and Brazil agendas and strategies are discussed in light of the FTAA process. Several questions are addressed in the paper, including: How can the ganeda be reconciled to accommodate national interests and at the same time to keep the momentum of the FTAA process? How can US hegemony be accommodated in a more cooperative hemisphere? How does Mercosur fit in with the FTAA project? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the EU is generally a proponent of strong regulatory norms concerning environmental protection at the multilateral level and is often regarded as a "green global leader", such a perception deserves a deeper assessment. Based on an empirical analysis of the contentions between the EU and Brazil at the World Trade Organization (WTO) over the issue of retreaded tyres, this paper argues two main points. First, it states that the EU falls short in demonstrating political coherence relating to environmental preferences, especially when trade variables are at stake. Here, the problem of normative visions regarding a "European green power" is raised. Second, being the first developing country in the history of the WTO to employ public health and environmental arguments to justify a trade ban, Brazil has demonstrated its capabilities to efficiently emulate developed country strategies in the context of international trade disputes. In this context, the selected case study should help to explain why great emerging countries have progressively become great defenders of a liberal economic order symbolized by the WTO. The paper concludes by showing how an example of European policy incoherence has, paradoxically, given more consistency to Brazilian environmental and sanitary domestic policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The international practices of subnational governments, also known as "paradiplomacy", were initially characteristic of the industrialised states of the North, though soon expanded to the rest of the world. The aim of this paper is to investigate how was paradiplomacy transplanted to Brazil and with what specificities, and to what extent those specificities reflect characteristics particular to a paradiplomacy "of the South". We attempt to answer these questions while at the same time presenting a panoramic view of the Brazilian subnational foreign policy phenomenon, with a focus on the international performance of the local governments. We use the ordering perspective provided by Foreign Policy Analysis as a framework, according to the interests and concerns of the discipline of International Relations.We devote the first part of the paper to clarifying some conceptual problems concerning the actors, policies and instruments of subnational/local foreign policy, as well as its role in the main contexts in which it unfolds. From this systematization and discussion, we present the phenomenon of external action by local governments in Brazil, considering four different contexts or levels of analysis which are relevant for its understanding: that of the units themselves, that of their interaction with Brazilian foreign policy, with the process of supranational integration of the MERCOSUL and with the structures and practices of global governance. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper has two parts. The first one "Brazil in the Global System" summarizes the most important dynamics in the Brazilian society in the last two decades. The second part "The evolving Brazilian role in the global politics of climate" analyses the Brazilian standing in the negotiations of the Kyoto Protocol (1996-2001) showing how Amazonian deforestation shaped deeply alliances of Brazil and finish analyzing the progress toward a more responsible regional and global position in the recent period. The paper argue there is a good possibility of a change in Brazilian position after a moving in the American position with the next president. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A common theme in the literature on international rivalries concerns the role of war. War can exacerbate rivalries, but by acting as a shock, war can also catalyze changes that help to deescalate or terminate rivalries. Using William Thompson?s integrative framework as a guide, this paper examines the impact of wars on the Argentine-Brazilian rivalry, from independence in the early nineteenth century through the deescalation and apparent termination of the rivalry during the 1980s and 1990s. War between Argentina and Brazil did not catalyze the deescalation process, but examining Argentina?s entire rivalry profile reveals that the threat of war does play an important indirect role, in conjunction with the realization of a widening capability gap between the two states. Other factors include Brazil?s program of domestic liberalizing reform (abertura) and Brazil?s attempts to distance itself from the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whereas considering the first decade of the 21st Brazil´s foreign policy agenda has been undergoing a significant evolution, surpassing previous difficulties of the 1980s and 1990s. This evolution is characterized by an assertive international stance and power projection that led to the creation of several alliances of variable design with developed and emergent countries such as IBSA, G20 and the prospects of bilateral cooperation with the US in the energetic field. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to analyze the main tenets of Brazilian International Relations in these last few years and the potentials that are linked to these efforts of horizontal and vertical multilateral cooperation, or as some have called, North-South and South-South relations. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper intends to investigate the mains reasons that motivated Brazil to send troops to a peacekeeping operation as foreign policy mean to achieve its national interest. This paper will analyze the brazilian leardership in the United Nations Stabiliza ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies a constructivist analytical framework to investigate the role of ideas in the evolution of Argentine-Brazilian relations, focusing on the nuclear rapprochement from 1979-1991. While the policy implications of the Argentine-Brazilian model for confidence-building and regional stability have attracted much international interest, the case study has not received satisfactory attention in the literature, both in theoretical and empirical terms. The bulk of explanations, deriving predominantly from mainstream theories, have recurrently ignored or underestimated ideational dimensions. In fact, while for mainstream theories it is relevant to point at structural constraints, strategic interests, and power-based decisions to account for the transformations in Argentine-Brazilian relations, important questions are left unanswered and the puzzle remains as to why nuclear cooperation was pursued over other possible forms of interaction. The paper aims to fill these gaps by investigating the role of ideas as well as the impact of processes of interaction, socialization, and learning. The Argentine-Brazilian rivalry was most manifest during the Corpus-Itaipú dispute (1966-1979) over the use of the hydroelectric resources of the Paraná River and during the escalating nuclear technology race, which had been fuelled by mutual mistrust as early as the 1950s. Argentina and Brazil gradually moved from rivalry, competition, and struggle for influence in the region to the emergence of institutionalized cooperation. Bilateral relations witnessed a turnaround with the resolution of the Corpus-Itaipú dispute in 1979. In 1980, Argentina and Brazil signed the first embryonic nuclear agreements which opened the way for further nuclear cooperation, leading to the creation of a comprehensive nonproliferation regime in July 1991. This bilateral inspection system is known as the Argentine-Brazilian Agency for the Accounting and Control of Nuclear Materials (ABACC). The paper reaches the conclusion that a constructivist approach is needed to deepen understanding of the evolution in bilateral relations and to capture the ways in which ideas have underpinned such changes. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is to examine and appraise the evolution of the relationship between the European Union and Brazil as well as its prospects. It will be argued that such an evolution exhibits a positive tendency to the extent that relations between ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper tackles the twin challenges for Brazil: (i) securing energy supply; (ii) without at the same time undermining economic growth and distribution. It takes into account recent political trends in Latin America in order to assess potentially increasing risks for the option of buying energy from Brazilian neighbors, and addresses the economic value and limitations of alternative energy sources like biomass or ethanol. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper shows the initiatives by both the United States and Brazil to foster regional integration in the Americas and discusses their central role and divergences that led the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) negotiations into stagnation. It shows the alternative ways both Brazil and the United States have taken to forward their own perception of trade agreements and the consequences of the failure to reach an overall agreement for the Western Hemisphere. This failure has to do with the U.S. difficulties to deal with issues related to integration such as emigration from the Latin American countries. It is also linked to the reemergence of old-style populism, authoritarianism, and state-oriented governments in South America which have led to setbacks to the process of regional integration as well as to the process of democratic and economic reforms in the subcontinent. The conclusion discusses the role of the two main players--the United States and Brazil--in overcoming their difficulties and reaching an agreement that might help the region to take the path of fast economic growth and democratic consolidation. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at analyzing the recent changes in the US foreign doctrine and Brazil?s strategy of international relations under the new government that took power in January 2003. The U.S. and Brazil?s hemispheric agenda and strategy will be evaluated, zooming in on the regional trade agenda, particularly on the negotiation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). How to reconcile the agendas of the two leading continental countries, in order to accommodate their individual interests and at the same time maintain the momentum, or at least not terminate, with the FTAA initiative? Is FTAA going to be a feasible second-best in the case of a protracted WTO Doha round? How to overcome the tendency of US hegemony in the Americas and address a truly cooperative proposal to the region? Can security matters be assessed alongside with economic issues? Will Brazil be willing to share an effective joint initiative to the region? Is the initial U.S. proposal, setting different liberalization speeds, a sign of hierarchical importance of groups of countries and an abandonment of regional multilateralism, or was it just a tactical move to press Brazil? How Mercosur fits into the FTAA project? Is there a role for regional international institutions, like the OAS, IADB, share the leadership in this process? How will other hemispheric actors, like Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Colombia, react to this dispute of power between Brazil and the US? The future shape of the Americas will be one of hemispheric cooperation and real integration, or will the North -South divide be deepened, due to insuficient economic development and the failure of democracies throughout the region? ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brazil will gain a place as a significant player in the multi-polar international system taking shape since the end of the Cold War simply on the basis of its economic size and material capabilities. However, its potential to influence international outcomes is likely to be determined more by the capacity of the country's elites to identify and harness qualitative assets associated with its stable and democratic governance than by any hard power assets. Brazil is the quintessential soft power BRIC. Among the four BRICs, Brazil is the only one positioned to become a potential environmental power in a world increasingly preoccupied with global warming. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]