How can Geopolitical Agents Restrain an Emerging Power’s Global and Regional Leadership? : Evidence from Brazil

Abstract

The investigation of the content and circumstances of domestic influences on foreign policy outcomes constitutes part of the challenge of conceptualization in foreign policy analyses. This paper contributes to that research agenda, aiming to isolate and to analyze the crucial causal forces of Brazil’s international power projection (or lack thereof). To achieve these objectives, the paper uses the model of neoclassical geopolitics, emphasizing geopolitical agents’ perceptions and capacities as pivotal domestic variables, and undertakes an empirical test on a single case study of Brazilian geopolitical design (2003-2018). The paper adopts a qualitative phenomenological approach, operationalized by techniques of process tracing and discourse analysis. Results show that the deterioration of Brazil’s relative potential and the lack of improvement of Brazil’s position in foreign affairs are most likely explained by (a) geopolitical agents’ choices, which have made (b) South American integration a top priority with respect to Brazil’s geopolitical design.