The new actors of Brazilian foreign policy

Abstract

The New Actors of Brazilian Foreign Policy(PINHEIRO, Leticia and MILANI, Carlos R. S. (eds.). Politica Externa Brasileira: As Praticas da Politica e a Politica das Praticas. Rio de Janeiro: Editora FGV, 2012)Brazilian foreign policy has reached a very interesting inflection point. The bu- reaucratic walls of the Itamaraty Palace so stoutly erected by the Baron of Rio Branco in 1902 are cracking. Where foreign policy used to be neatly circumscribed by the world of 'high politics' and external interaction by Brazilians limited to a small group of clearly defined actors, the situation today is very different. Itamaraty retains pride of place for the grand geopolitical thinking that often preoccupies the study of foreign policy, but the aspects of international affairs touching the lives of citizens everywhere are increas- ingly becoming the concern of line ministries, subnational governments, state agencies and private actors.This is a bold claim with respect to Brazilian foreign policy, but one which accu- rately reflects the extent to which the technocratic minutia of specialist policy areas have not only internationalized, but increasingly interact with other areas of 'low' and 'high' politics. The immediate value of the individual chapters in this book is that they highlight the absurdity of any attempt to claim that Brazil's international affairs should remain the sole preserve of Itamaraty. Each of the five diverse sections of the book - human rights, culture, education, health, and paradiplomacy - immediately suggest that it is unreason- able to expect any relatively small organization, no matter how brilliant its staff, to retain mastery across such a wide range of sometimes highly technical specialties. Indeed, this is the very challenge with which Itamaraty is currently grappling. A more subtle approach is needed, one which involves complex bureaucratic positioning and intra-departmental co- ordination by Itamaraty to retain influence while also allowing Brazilian interests in these diverse areas to be advanced by the experts. Each of the chapters in this volume does an excellent job of describing what has happened.Leticia Pinheiro and Carlos R. S. Milani introduce the book by focusing on the im- portance of technocratic expertise in many areas of contemporary international affairs. Their question then is whether or not it is reasonable to expect Itamaraty to have mastery over the diverse range of technical issues that are consequently found in foreign affairs, and if not, how are decisions made and policies pursued? In other words, the sharp dis- tinction that Rio Branco drew between foreign and domestic policy is pointed out as being an increasingly artificial and unhelpful line. This in turn creates some issues for how we approach foreign policy analysis today, casting into doubt such accepted tricks as sharp divisions between levels of analysis and a tendency to oversimplify the nature and ambi- tions of actors.The first section on human rights immediately takes up the theme of seeking a more complicated picture of how decisions are made and which actors are involved. Milani starts with a chapter looking at actors and agendas in Brazil's human rights foreign policy. He paints a picture of shifting understandings of what Brazil's position should be. While Itamaraty may ultimately remained the external voice expressing the national position, it certainly was not driving internal discussions or limiting how domestic politics drove policy change. The following chapter by Thiago Melamed de Menzes, a career diplomat with human rights experience in the UN system, pairs well with Milani's chapter, setting out how Itamaraty sought to adapt its practices to a contemporary scenario where a more participatory democratic process to issues like human rights policy is the norm. A careful tracing through the subtext paints a picture of bureaucratic attempts to control, direct, and defuse, but all done in a manner within the new bounds of having to allow outsiders into formerly exclusive policy consideration processes. …