Identity and Strategic Culture in contemporary Brazil

Abstract

States' behavior has been increasingly associated with cultural elements. Scholars from different theoretical approaches, such as Edward Said and Qin Yaqing, among others, consider that this variable has been insufficiently investigated. The hypothesis that identity interferes in States' strategy and in the implementation of efficient policies makes feasible: i) verifying whether domestic fractures inhibit the evolution of a country's strategic culture; ii) analyzing whether this hampers international political articulation; iii) and evaluating the need to redefine the concept of strategic culture, considering extra-western matrices. In this scenario, combining the premises of the constructivist and post-colonialist schools of International Relations (IR) with the social sciences in general, we seek to verify how social fractures can constrain state planning and external action through the review of strategic culture’s concept. For that, through post-colonial approaches, such as those of Albert Memmi and Boaventura de Sousa Santos, the thought about strategic culture analyzed in Jack Snyder, Ken Booth, Alastair Johnston, among others, is evaluated. Finally, based on the analysis of Severino Cabral and Darc Costa on the historical formation of Brazil, we seek to verify, in this context, the proposition that Brazil has a unique strategic and civilizing potential (of harmonious coexistence among various peoples, ethnicities and religions), but its high degree of social fractures prevents it from achieving ambitions and building a clearer national identity, necessary for strategic planning and international articulation required in the search of the country’s goals.