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eaching expectations of what PT was to achieve upon finally reaching the Paláciodo Planalto, the seat of government in Brasília. One of Lula’s first tasks was toreassure the markets, which had expected the worst from the election of the formerunion leader. For a number of reasons, however, in spite of winning the election bythe largest margin ever in Brazilian history, and securing the votes of some 52million voters, Lula and the PT were not autonomous in determining the outlines ofBrazil’s foreign policy.As noted by Hurrell,“For many on the left (especially in Europe), for many inside Brazil, and for manyin the developing world, the assertive foreign policy of the government of President LuizInácio Lula da Silva (Lula) is seen as a progressive force in global affairs”. 266This distinctive assertiveness, compared to the preceding twenty or so years offoreign policy practice, has been attributed to a variety of factors. These include:Brazil’s search for recognition, its rapid levels of economic growth after a decade ofstagnation in the 1980s, and in some cases, the influence of the governing party, PT,and the personal diplomacy of President Lula da Silva. 267Typifying most accounts of Brazil’s international relations is a description of itssearch for international recognition, and to be accorded its ‘rightful place’ ininternational society. This is a goal that is seated at the centre of the psyche of theBrazilian nation, derived from the country’s auspicious beginnings as the seat of thePortuguese Empire in Latin America during the Napoleonic conquest of Europe inthe first decades of the nineteenth century. As proclaimed by the famed abolitionist,Joaquim Nabuco, at the end of that century, “Brazil does not want to be a nationmorally isolated, a leper, expelled from the world community. The esteem andrespect of foreign nations are as valuable to us as they are to other people”. 268This sentiment is common to a time when Brazil’s elite commenced its preoccupationwith the country’s image in the world. The cultivation of this image alsohappened to be a strong argument against the maintenance of the slave trade and266 Andrew Hurrell, “Lula’s Brazil: A Rising Power, but Going Where?”, Current History(February, 2008): 51.267 Lilian Duarte, interview, March 2010.268 Quoted in Thomas Skidmore, Brazil: Five Centuries of Change. (Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press, 1999): 68.123