Abstract
This article advances several arguments about scientific and diplomatic collaboration on peaceful nuclear energy technologies between Argentina and Brazil. First, although 1972–1980 is generally viewed as an acrimonious period in the neighbors’ bilateral relationship, nuclear energy officials in these South American countries made significant and unexpected progress toward technical cooperation, motivated by a shared geopolitical position. Furthermore, technological differences between the two nuclear energy programs, and experts’ ideas on their potential implications for agreement between key officials, opened potential avenues for diplomatic cooperation. Finally, this article illuminates a surprising quality of diplomatic behavior of the military dictatorships in Brazil and Argentina. Against the backdrop of the Cold War, Argentina and Brazil shared nearly identical stances on the unfettered right to pursue advanced nuclear technology. In combination with increased technical cooperation, this ideological alignment supported a landmark bilateral presidential summit in 1980 on nuclear energy collaboration.
Highlights
Este artículo avanza varios argumentos en torno a la colaboración científica y diplomática en tecnologías pacíficas de la energía nuclear entre Argentina y Brasil
United States president Jimmy Carter led other nuclear supplier countries in an effort to isolate and punish the South American rivals for nuclear technology developments viewed as dangerous steps toward building nuclear weapons
The 1979 Tripartite Itaipu-Corpus Agreement brought a peaceful resolution to the hydroelectric dam dispute between Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay, while the 1980 Agreement on Cooperation on Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy pledged Brazil and Argentina to collaborate on a broad variety of civilian nuclear technology development projects
Summary
Argentina’s response to its neighbor’s economic boom was, in part, to dig in and make its position on the Itaipu conflict even more intransigent, in order to seek a “durable settlement that would preserve it some latitude and influence in the region” (Resende-Santos 2002, 97.) Brazilian officials derided their Argentine critics as “emotional,” spurring the Argentine diplomat Alberto Pugnalin to write a private memo to his embassy in Brazil There, he assailed officials in Brasília for taking “frankly paternalistic postures toward its neighbors with little or no disguise.” The neighborly rivalry incorporated a new complication: while Brazil envied and feared Argentina’s nuclear energy advancement in the year before the Atucha power plant would begin operation, Argentina considered Brazil’s demographic and economic might, concretized in the planned Itaipu Dam, a palpable threat to its own regional influence and security. Each country’s courting of European and North American technology partners continued, alongside these incipient neighborly efforts
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