[Sample B: Approval/Signature Sheet] - George Mason University

1.2 Brazil in the World Stage
A strategic report by the European Commission states that in recent years, ―Brazil
has been implementing an increasingly assertive foreign policy, playing an active role in
multilateral fora and positioning itself as a representative of emerging countries.‖ 7 It also
emphasizes that Brazil has been ―lobbying intensively for a permanent seat on the United
Nations (UN) Security Council‖ 8 and is leading the UN peacekeeping force in Haiti since
2004.
At regional level, the Brazilian Government has aimed at strengthening the
country‘s role as a protagonist in South America, through the support of regional stability
and integration processes in the subcontinent.
Throughout the early 1990s, Brazil lived through a period marked by economic
instability and high inflation. In 1994 Brazil adopted the Plano Real and succeeded in
controlling inflation. The following years of economic stability rendered Brazil a place in
the so called BRICs, a group that refers to the developing countries of Brazil, Russia,
India and China.
Recent economic performance provided Brazil with an upper middle income
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of US$1.58 trillion and a GDP per capita of US$8,040.00
in 2009. 9 In present day, Brazil is seen as a ―key emerging world economic power, which
7
European Comission, Brazil - Country Strategy Paper 2007-2013 (European Union, 2007), 7,
http://eeas.europa.eu/brazil/csp/2007_csp_en.pdf.
8
European Comission, Brazil - Country Strategy Paper 2007-2013.
9
―Brazil - Data,‖ http://data.worldbank.org/country/brazil?display=map (accessed December 1, 2010).
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