INTRODUCTION: BRAZIL AS A SOFT POWER?
The introduction to this book began with the description of a sequence of covers of The Economist, where Brazil’s prosperous future and sudden �entrance onto the world stage’[1155] in 2009 would become a monumental �fall’ and a �disastrous year ahead’[1156] in 2016.
The events that have since shaken Brazil were nothing short of unsettling, and the election of Jair Bolsonaro as President in 2018 would confirm the diagnosis that things that were already bad can always get worse. From Brazil’s emergence as an imporÂtant internationally praised â€?soft power’[1157], it would become, under Bolsonaro, increasingly comparable to a pariah state. A country whose diplomacy had long been regarded as highly professionalised, respectful of the international order and aimed at promoting the agenda for human rights would then feaÂture Ernesto Araujo as its Foreign Affairs Minister, a diplomat known for his radical and conspiratorial ideas.[1158] In another key area for Brazil’s international affairs - the environment - Brazil would be led by Ricardo Salles, correctly dubbed by Time Magazine as the â€?“Terminator” Environment Minister’, who was in a position to â€?roll back more protections’ exactly when the country was going through the worst process of deforestation in a decade.[1159] To make things worse, the way Brazil dealt with the COVID-19 crisis, with a president making every single effort to worsen it further and even use it as a political strategy,[1160]180 The Rule of Law in Brazil and the Challenges of International Law would lead to the country having the world’s second highest death toll - a position clearly exposing how far governance has gone downhill.
The picture of Brazil under Bolsonaro represents, however, a bleak but limited landscape of Brazil’s behaviour in the international order over history.
Although Brazil’s prospects look grim, Brazil is no irrelevant player in the interÂnational arena, not only because of its continental size and large population, but also because it is still the largest economy in Latin America and the fourth biggest democracy in the world. It is a giant supplier of commodities, the world’s third largest agricultural exporter after the US and the European Union,7 and the tenth biggest industrial producer in the world.8 Its presence and influence on the global stage was until recently well regarded, and most analysts depicted it as an increasingly relevant power, a â€?soft power broker’,9 a â€?global development power’,10 whose two main foreign affairs strategies have been based on persuaÂsion and consensus building through a â€?non-interventionist multilateralistic’ approach.11Brazil has actively participated in some key peacekeeping missions in counÂtries such as Haiti more recently,12 advocated for an international human rights agenda as recurrently manifested in distinct international forums, and particiÂpated as a mediator in international conflicts.13 It is not a powerful country in the military sense, but, as Peter Dauvergne puts it, â€?it has a longstanding tradition of attracting allies and support with soft power behavior, emphasizÂing cooperation, multilateral initiatives and diplomacy’.14 Much of this image Brazil has internationally built of a solidary and multicultural society is not internally corroborated by evidence15 - the high inequality, violence and politiÂcal polarisation, as we discussed before, contradict it, after all - but, throughout Brazil’s democratic history, Brazil has been more positively than negatively perceived on the global scene, and it is also true that Brazil has long defended multilateralism and liberal values, though â€?strongly tempered by its notions of sovereignty’.16
R Muggah, �Opinion: Brazil’s President Is a Global Health Threat’ (NPR, 4 March 2021) www.npr. org/2021/03/04/973662184/opinion-brazils-president-is-a-global-health-threat.
7 See J Chade, â€?Brasil Passa a Ser o 3° Maior Exportador Agricola, mas Clima Ameaφa Futuro’ (Estado de S. Paulo, 17 September 2018) https://economia.estadao.com.br/noticias/geral,brasil-passa- a-ser-3-maior-exportador-agricola-mas-clima-ameaca-futuro,70002506105.
8 See �Perfil da Industria Brasileira — Industria Brasileira no Mundo’ (CNI), https://industriabra- sileira.portaldaindustria.com.br/grafico/total/mundo/#/industria-total.
9 Chatin (n 3) 369.
10 P Dauvergne and D BL Farias, �The Rise of Brazil as a Global Development Power’ (2012) 33 Third World Quarterly 903.
11MM Valenφa and G Carvalho, â€?Soft Power, Hard Aspirations: The Shifting Role of Power in Brazilian Foreign Policy’ (2014) 8 Brazilian Political Science Review 87.
12 ibid 81.
13 ibid 78-79; Dauvergne and Farias (n 10).
14 Dauvergne and Farias (n 10) 913.
15 See O Stuenkel, �Do the BRICS Possess Soft Power’ (2016) 9 Journal of Political Power 355.
16 ibid 362.
This chapter begins by looking at this unsettling situation of a country that has long been treated as a â€?global development power’,[1161] but which is now enduring a radical twist in its international relations. It will focus on how the international arena and its institutions have impacted the rule of law in Brazil, and vice-versa. More specifically, it will explore how Brazil has advanced proposals for a stronger regional integration through the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR) and Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), and how it has currently moved towards weakening or even dismantling those associations. The strengthening of the rule of law through such regional dynamÂics as well as its participation in other international associations - for example, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (of which Brazil is not yet a member, but a key partner currently in accession discussions[1162] [1163]) and the United Nations - have been a reality, though an imperÂfect one. This chapter also investigates the relationship of Brazilian institutions with the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which has issued rulings in contradiction to decisions of the Brazilian Supreme Court. Moreover, though this chapter highlights that Brazil has historically been internationally regarded as an important defender and promoter of the rule of law and human rights despite its internal contradictions, such an international perception has been severely harmed due to recent political developments. Brazil’s appeal as a world soft power in promoting democracy and a positive agenda towards the rule of law has thus waned considerably.
II.