The quest for autonomy

This thesis has two principal objectives: firstly, to provide a systematic account of the evolution of Brazil's international role during the twenty-one years of military rule from 1964 to 1985 and, secondly, to evaluate the extent to which developments in Brazilian foreign relations during this period have enabled the country to attain a more autonomous and independent role in world affairs. The first part of the thesis outlines the major themes of Brazilian foreign policy before 1964. It argues that in the early post-war period Brazil's international freedom of manoeuvre was limited by two principal factors: the consolidation of United States hegemony over Latin America and the absence of alternative relationships. The following five chapters then trace the evolution of foreign policy under the five military presidents that ruled Brazil between 1964 and 1985. Each chapter charts the major foreign policy initiatives of the various governments, isolates the underlying principles on which foreign policy was based and analyses the major political and economic factors which shaped Brazilian diplomacy. In each case the analysis is organised around two crucial developments: the changing character of relations with the United States and the progress towards diversification. Part Three seeks to evaluate Brazil's changing international role. It argues that Brazil's level of autonomy has increased over the period as a result both of a decline in United States hegemony over Brazil and of the successful diversification of Brazil's foreign relations and the expansion of political and economic contacts with Western Europe, Japan, the socialist countries and the Third World. It nevertheless also argues that Brazil's freedom of manoeuvre is much more constrained than many of the accounts of the 1970s suggested and that the debt crisis has underlined both the continued centrality of relations with Washington and the fragility of many of the new ties that were so successfully builk up during the 1970s