Brazil Between Global Recognition and Neutrality over the Russian War Against Ukraine
Abstract
This contribution investigates what explains Brazil's narrative of neutrality in times when neutrality means support for Russia. Brazil’s neutrality narratives can be seen as a consequence of the economic interests of the Brazilian agrobusiness, highly dependent on Russian fertilizers, but also due to its historical tradition of diplomatic neutrality. However, neutrality seems to clash with Brazil’s self-conceptualization of its identity as a relevant player on the international level, especially since the 2000s. Furthermore, I reflect on the implications of Brazil’s narratives following the election of Lula da Silva for Brazil and on how LA might position itself in the near future as this war continues.
References
Agência Estado. 2007. Lula tenta incluir Brasil em conselho da ONU. Globo. June 7. Accessed December 7, 2022. https://g1.globo.com/Noticias/Politica/0,,MUL48912-5601,00-LULA+TENTA+INCLUIR+BRASIL+EM+CONSELHO+DA+ONU.html
Araújo, Ernesto. 2010. Trump e o Ocidente. Cadernos de Política Exterior. Ano 3 (6): 323 – 258.
Austin, Daniel. 1998. Realism, Institutions, and Neutrality: Constraining Conflict Through the Force of Norms Commonwealth: A Journal of Political Science (9): 37 – 56.
Acharya, Amitav. 2014. The End of American World Order. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bloomberg Línea. 2022. Bolsonaro sobre guerra na Ucrânia: Brasil será neutro e não há massacre. February, 28. Accessed December 1, 2022. https://www.suno.com.br/noticias/bolsonaro-guerra-ucrania-brasil-sera-neutro-nao-ha-massacre-na-ucrania/
Brigido, Eveline Vieira. 2010. O Brasil e a reforma do Conselho de Segurança da ONU: Estratégias da diplomacia brasileira para a obtenção de um assento permanente. PhD diss. Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). Available at: https://www.lume.ufrgs.br/bitstream/handle/10183/22990/000740375.pdf?sequence=1
Carrança, Thais. 2022. Guerra na Ucrânia: por que o Brasil depende tanto dos fertilizantes da Rússia? March 3. Accessed December 2, 2022. https://economia.uol.com.br/noticias/bbc/2022/03/03/por-que-o-brasil-depende-tanto-dos-fertilizantes-da-russia.htm
Cavalcante, Igor. 2022. Entenda por que o Brasil adota “neutralidade” em conflitos internacionais. Diário do Nordeste. February, 28. Accessed December 1, 2022. https://diariodonordeste.verdesmares.com.br/pontopoder/entenda-por-que-o-brasil-adota-neutralidade-em-conflitos-internacionais-1.3198320
Chade, Jamil. 2022. Como diplomatas tentaram, de dentro do Itamaraty, conter atos de Bolsonaro. Uol. December 7. Accessed on December 7, 2022. https://noticias.uol.com.br/colunas/jamil-chade/2022/12/07/como-diplomatas-sabotaram-bolsonaro-de-dentro-do-itamaraty.htm
Chrispim, Marin. 2020. Chanceler critica ONU e multilateralismo diante do Conselho de Segurança. Veja. May 8. Accessed December 4, 2022. https://veja.abril.com.br/mundo/chanceler-critica-onu-e-multilateralismo-diante-do-conselho-de-seguranca/
Coelho, Luciana. 2009. Lula volta a falar em cadeira no conselho da ONU. Folha de São Paulo. October 5. Accessed December 2, 2022. https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/fsp/brasil/fc0510200916.htm
Dietrich, Jorge Felipe Alves. 2015. O Brasil e a Campanha por uma Cadeira Permanente da ONU: Análise dos Discursos nos Governos de Fernando Henrique Cardoso e Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Novas Fronteiras. Vol. 2 (1): 32 – 44. Available at: https://novasfronteiras.espm.br/index.php/RNF/article/view/54/42
Klava, Nilso. 2022. Ministro diz que posição do Brasil é 'de equilíbrio e não de neutralidade' em relação ao conflito na Ucrânia. GloboNews. February, 28. Accessed December 1, 2022. https://g1.globo.com/politica/noticia/2022/02/28/ministro-diz-que-posicao-do-brasil-e-de-equilibrio-e-nao-de-neutralidade-em-relacao-ao-conflito-na-ucrania.ghtml
Lopes, Dawisson Belém and Mario Schettino Valente. 2016. A Construção Social dos Princípios Conformadores e das Normas Programáticas de Política Externa Brasileira na Constituição Federal de 1988. Dados 59 (4) https://doi.org/10.1590/001152582016106
Leitão, Matheus. 2020. O jogo dos vários erros da política externa de Ernesto Araújo . Opinião. Veja. June 22. Accessed December 2, 2022. https://veja.abril.com.br/coluna/matheus-leitao/o-jogo-dos-varios-erros-da-politica-externa-de-ernesto-araujo/
Oliveira, Eliane. 2022. Divergências entre Bolsonaro e Itamaraty sobre invasão russa obrigam ministros e assessores a esclarecer: vale posição da diplomacia. O Globo. March 1. Accessed December 3, 2022. https://oglobo.globo.com/mundo/divergencias-entre-bolsonaro-itamaraty-sobre-invasao-russa-obrigam-ministros-assessores-esclarecer-vale-posicao-da-diplomacia-2-25414237
Nugent, Ciara. 2022. Lula Talks to TIME About Ukraine, Bolsonaro, and Brazil's Fragile Democracy. Time. May 4. Accessed December 3, 2022. https://time.com/6173232/lula-da-silva-transcript/
Mearsheimer, John. 2014. Why the Ukraine Crisis Is the West’s Fault. The Liberal Delusions That Provoked Putin. Foreign Affairs. September/October. Accessed December 1, 2022. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/russia-fsu/2014-08-18/why-ukraine-crisis-west-s-fault
Mearsheimer, John. 2022. Why the West is Partially Responsible for the Ukrainian Crisis. The Economist. March 19. Accessed December 1, 2022. https://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2022/03/11/john-mearsheimer-on-why-the-west-is-principally-responsible-for-the-ukrainian-crisis
Pecequilo, Cristina Soreanu. 2010. A New Strategic Dialogue: Brazil-US relations in Lula’s presidency (2003 – 2010). Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional. Vol 53 (spe). https://doi.org/10.1590/S0034-73292010000300008
Teófilo, Sarah. 2022. Bolsonaro diz que Brasil será neutro em relação a conflito na Ucrânia. R7. February 27. Accessed December 7, 2022. https://noticias.r7.com/brasilia/bolsonaro-diz-que-brasil-sera-neutro-em-relacao-a-conflito-na-ucrania-06072022
Vizentini, Paulo Fagundes. 1998. A Política Externa do Regime Militar Brasileiro. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Shiguenoli-Miyamoto/publication/216800940_A_politica_externa_e_o_regime_militar/links/5415aa860cf2bb7347db4083/A-politica-externa-e-o-regime-militar.pdf
Zakaria, Fareed. 2008. The Rise of the Rest. May, 12. Accessed December 6, 2022. https://fareedzakaria.com/columns/2008/05/12/the-rise-of-the-rest
Authors retain copyright of the published papers and grant to the publisher the non-exclusive right to publish the article, to be cited as its original publisher in case of reuse, and to distribute it in all forms and media.
The published articles will be distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY). It is allowed to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, and remix, transform, and build upon it for any purpose, even commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given to the original author(s), a link to the license is provided and it is indicated if changes were made. / The published articles will be distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0 International license (CC BY-SA). It is allowed to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, and remix, transform, and build upon it for any purpose, even commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given to the original author(s), a link to the license is provided, it is indicated if changes were made and the new work is distributed under the same license as the original.
Users are required to provide full bibliographic description of the original publication (authors, article title, journal title, volume, issue, pages), as well as its DOI code. In electronic publishing, users are also required to link the content with both the original article published in Journal of Regional Security and the licence used.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted to deposit author’s pre-print / author’s post-print (accepted version) / publisher's version (PDF) of their work in an institutional repository, subject-based repository, author's personal website (including social networking sites, such as ResearchGate, Academia.edu, etc.), and/or departmental website prior or during the submission process / at any time after the acceptance of the manuscript / at any time after publication.
Full bibliographic information (authors, article title, journal title, volume, issue, pages) about the original publication must be provided and links must be made to the article's DOI and the license.