South-South cooperation and foreign policy: Challenges and dilemmas in the perception of Brazilian diplomats
| DOI | 10.1177/0047117820920906 |
| Author | Carlos R. S. Milani,Magno Klein |
| Date | 01 June 2021 |
| Published date | 01 June 2021 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0047117820920906
International Relations
2021, Vol. 35(2) 277 –298
© The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/0047117820920906
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South-South cooperation and
foreign policy: Challenges and
dilemmas in the perception of
Brazilian diplomats
Carlos R. S. Milani
Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ)
Magno Klein
University for International Integration of the Afro-Brazilian Lusophony (UNILAB)
Abstract
Brazil’s government has historically engaged with other developing countries to promote technical
cooperation. Since the 1988 federal Constitution, different presidents have paid attention to this
foreign policy agenda. However, it was particularly under the Workers’ Party’s administrations
(2003–2016) that South-South cooperation (SSC) gained political ground, rooted in official
principles of South-South solidarity, horizontality, non-interference in domestic affairs, and the
defence of a multipolar world-vision. In this article, based on the argument that international
development cooperation (IDC) is a key instrument of a country’s economic diplomacy, we
analyse the perceptions of Brazilian diplomats about SSC in order to understand Brazil’s interests
and motivations in this field. Methodologically, the article discusses the main results of a survey
conducted between 25 August and 23 September 2016 among 349 Brazilian individuals, who
correspond to approximately 22 per cent of Brazil’s active diplomats. The survey results showed
that Brazilian diplomats generally have a favourable perception on Brazil’s SSC programmes,
and that a great majority of them has already acted in SSC activities. Still, the issue of political
conditionality brings in cleavages, indicating that there is a large group of Brazilian diplomats who
openly support SSC as an instrument of national interests and not because of the official narratives
related to a ‘solidarity with the South’ or ‘the promotion of human rights’. As a consequence,
with the exception of perceptions on political conditionalities and economic criteria, the majority
of diplomats share commonalities that also correspond to the government’s official rhetoric
between 2003 and 2016. This article is structured around the following three sections: (1) South-
Corresponding author:
Carlos R. S. Milani, Institute for Social and Political Studies (IESP), Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ),
Rua da Matriz 82, Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro RJ 22260-100, Brazil.
Email: crsmilani@iesp.uerj.br
920906IRE0010.1177/0047117820920906International RelationsMilani and Klein
research-article2020
Article
278 International Relations 35(2)
South cooperation as a foreign policy agenda, (2) Diplomats as agents of Brazil’s South-South
cooperation and (3) Presenting and discussing the perceptions of Brazilian diplomats.
Keywords
Brazilian Cooperation Agency, Brazilian foreign policy, diplomats’ perceptions, South-South
cooperation
Introduction
Several scholars have analysed the historical role of Brazil’s Ministry of External
Relations (known as Itamaraty) in foreign policy, emphasising its leadership and exper-
tise in coordination, or in more recent times, stressing the bureaucratic politics in which
Itamaraty is embedded.1 Others have studied its internal governance, the socialisation of
young diplomats, the relevance of social capital networks in career development and the
new challenges it faces under democratic rule.2 In both cases, scholars have often ana-
lysed Brazilian diplomacy as either independent or dependent variable.3 First, they have
tended to take into account rising constraints upon diplomatic statecraft, such as regime
change and democratisation, scholarship development and the emergence of new expert
actors, the public opinion and the role of the media, thus focusing on how and why dip-
lomatic practices cope with political pressures and adapt to these constraints. Second,
studies which take Brazilian diplomacy as an independent variable have analysed if,
when and how diplomats deploy strategies to regain their role in distinct foreign policy
agendas at the domestic level, but also how they craft or uphold norms in order to affirm,
strengthen or shape international regimes.
In Brazil, but also in other rising powers, very few scholars have analysed the percep-
tions of foreign policy actors on key international agendas.4 Whereas diplomacy is a
well-established field of research within Foreign Policy Analysis both in Europe and
North America, there are still very few studies on emerging countries’ diplomacy and the
role of diplomats in foreign policy agendas.5 Moreover, little is known about the actual
perceptions of official agents concerning international issues, especially in the context of
non-Western countries; most studies on perceptions are based on diplomatic messages,
official reports or individual interviews. Therefore, by presenting the results of a survey
conducted with Brazilian diplomats about foreign policy in the field of South-South
cooperation (SCC), this article intends to contribute to fill in this gap and remedy this
deficiency on their perceptions on Brazil’s role as a rising donor.
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, Brazil’s foreign policy demonstrated
unequivocal political ambition for international prominence, and its diplomacy focused
on regional integration, new power coalitions, interregional dialogue, but also on bridg-
ing the North-South security and development gap at the UN and its main agencies. This
diplomatic activism produced changes in Brazil’s engagement in international develop-
ment cooperation (IDC) in Latin America and Africa. The main objective of this article
is to describe and analyse the perceptions of Brazilian diplomats on the country’s recent
international activism in the field of development cooperation. Methodologically, this
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