From Tegucigalpa to Teheran Brazil’s diplomacy as an emerging.pdfVIP

A rtigo From Tegucigalpa to Teheran: Brazil’s diplomacy as an emerging Western country De Tegucigalpa a Teerã: a diplomacia do Brasil como um país ocidental emergente /10.1590/0034-7329201400103 ANDREA QUIRINO STEINER* MARCELO DE ALMEIDA MEDEIROS** RAFAEL MESQUITA DE SOUZA LIMA*** Rev. Bras. Polít. Int. 57 (1): 40-58 [2014] Introduction For almost two decades—not only due to its economic growth but also because of increasing social and political developments—, Brazil has undeniably arisen as a full-fledged actor in the international scenario. Such a change has certainly been felt by global regimes and by other international actors. th st For most of the 20 and early 21 century, Brazil’s foreign policy has been characterized by a quest for autonomy (Fonseca Júnior 1998; Magnoli et al. 2000; Lafer 2009), which has been undertaken, according to Vigevani and Cepaluni (2007), through three main approaches: distance, participation and diversification. The search for and cooperation with new partners in the international arena seems to strengthen both the country’s adaptation to new political and economic conditions and an attempt to reorganize the scenario to fit its own interests and ambitions. There are two indications that support this viewpoint: (1) the creation of new discussion fora (as well as demands to reform such fora) and (2) growing participation in the management of certain types of international crises. In this context, this paper aims to discuss Brazil’s diplomatic posture as an emerging Western country. For this purpose, we first present a brief review of the country’s pursuit for international i