Curb your enthusiasm : the status of Brazil from the perspective of great powers

After the return of democracy, Brazil went through a period of stability and economic growth that led, in the late 1990s until 2014, to a narrative about its rise in the international arena. This global emergence of Brazil was accompanied by an increase in attempts to play a relevant role in international politics. However, while Brazil believed it was increasing its international prestige, the states at the top of the stratified global society reacted with mixed and ambivalent messages. The enthusiasm of Brazil with its international agenda seemed to face barriers in the world, and there appeared to be a dissonance between the ambitions of the state and its ability to influence international politics. These inconsistencies pose a serious question about the level of prestige of Brazil, as it has never been clearly established where the state stands in global hierarchies or what its role in the world is. The main challenge is that status cannot be achieved unilaterally. Within IR, status refers to a state's position within a social stratification and hierarchy and consists of collective beliefs about a state's standing and membership and is recognized by voluntary deference. The scholarship of status in IR, however, is still in its infancy. So far, it has focused mostly on explaining states' motivations or measuring quantitative and relational aspects of status. This thesis proposes to fill a gap and introduce a study of status in IR that emphasizes the fact that standing reflects collective beliefs. With this focus on intersubjectivity, this research aims at understanding the international status of Brazil from the perspective of the foreign policy community of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. The research was developed by conducting semi-structured interviews with 94 single respondents representing the US, the UK, France, Russia and China. The data was systematically assessed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis. This thesis offers contributions to the scholarship of status in IR and the study of the prestige of Brazil. It innovates by focusing on a qualitative assessment based on the importance of recognition of status. The empirical study, on the other hand, fills a gap in the scholarship of the prestige and international identity of the state. The thesis argues that there is a difference between the status and role Brazil aspires to have in the world and the external beliefs about the level of prestige of the state, which amounts to status inconsistency, anxiety and can lead to ontological insecurity. Furthermore, the study presented here argues that powerful states perceive Brazil as a coveted pawn in international politics. Brazil is not seen as particularly important or powerful, and has not achieved high status, but at the same time it is desired as an ally by high prestige states. Based on the case study of Brazil's failed attempt to become a great power, the thesis advances towards the development of a theory of status increment. It proposes a typology of what states that aspire to have more prestige need to do to achieve recognition for higher status.