Can Brazil secure its global vision?

If you were playing a word association game, Brazil and the Asia Pacific probably wouldn’t spring to mind

Nevertheless, the world’s sixth largest economy has a multilateral agenda bent on reform which may have more regional implications than its increasing trade

Mutlilateralism has been the key component of Brazil’s reformist strategy, however rather than a diplomatic middle power approach, it has adopted a more antagonistic strategy aimed at increasing its influence at key institutions such as the UN, WTO, and G-20

Brazil is challenging the legitimacy of the existing world order because it favours a multi-polar and pluralist system – it not only wants to reconfigure the system and its key organisations, but also to re-distribute economic weight towards itself and its IBSA partners

This form of institutional balancing could be seen as an opportunistic grab for influence in the face of weaker US economic power, but it could also backfire if it weakens the institutions themselves

It’s unlikely however, that Brazil will successfully shift the institutional balance of power, but it may be able to insert itself into their governance arrangements which could create procedural change – unlike its relationships with the other BRICs, IBSA’s democratic values and need for greater trade flows should result in a less confrontational stance

Through its desire for significant UNSC reform as well as a permanent seat, Brazil has sought closer ties with China, its main destination for exports as well as its main bilateral trade partner, and managed to become one of the few Latin American states that China has established a ‘strategic partnership’ with

While it may be working tirelessly to sell the global South its vision, it nevertheless needs to keep the North on side too

This has seen it position itself as a neoliberal-friendly, value-creating and constructive force for reform as well as a North-South mediator – this ‘selfless’ veneer has successfully provided greater institutional access

President Rouseff however, hasn’t maintained President Lula’s activist foreign policy, she is faced with poor approval ratings, corruption, a struggling economy, and is yet to implement reforms to improve Brazil’s productivity and international competitiveness to attract much needed FDI for the upcoming World Cup and Olympic

Ironically, Chinese exports may also soon push Brazil out of markets where it once dominated, particularly its high tech and industrial sectors

Consequently, she is looking to make inroads into the US market, its largest source of FDI, putting Brazil in a similar position to many other Asia Pacific states, in that it must straddle the US and China, however it is more a game of balancing increasingly competitive Chinese MNC’s with American firms as it struggles to maintain domestic demand

To date, it has dealt with this rather clumsily

Moreover, if Brazil’s declining growth does leave it increasingly dependent upon a resurgent US, any grand visions of a new global economic order may need to be put on hold

Photo1: www.marcopolis.net 

Photo2: wwwibsa-trilateral.org

Photo3: www.bricsindia.in