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and socialisation practices, as well as to its relative isolation from other ministriesand non-state actors. This aura of conservatism is underlined by a perceived respectfor tradition, and an esprit de corps engendered by the diplomatic lifestyle and its steeprequirements for entry.Fontaine described Itamaraty as follows:It is nationalist, but more pragmatic than romantic. It is oriented toward Europeand not America. It emphasizes preservation of good relations with old friends, butnot at the expense of making new ones. It entails a desire for a larger Brazilian roleon the world scene, but it does not exaggerate the nation’s present prospects forworld power. 290Itamaraty has indeed been a force for continuity in Brazilian foreign policy. Inrecent years, however, its autonomy and dominance over the foreign policy process– though never beyond question – have come under increasing pressure. While theForeign Ministry’s influence has tended historically to wax and wane, depending onthe personalities holding power in government, and in the institution, respectively, ithas been noted that with the increasing demands on diplomacy brought byglobalisation, Itamaraty has found it challenging to keep up. Already in 1976, oncemilitary ‘decompression’, or a moderate form of liberalisation, had been set in trainby the government of Ernesto Geisel, ‘the foreign service [found] itself…becomingless important, not more important, at a time when foreign affairs [was] reallybeginning to matter for Brazil’. 291 This loss of importance was attributed to theincreasing mismatch between Brazil’s international economic goals, and itsinadequate diplomatic capacity in this area. 292 Itamaraty was not equipped to engagein the complex economic negotiations Brazil required to diversify its economicrelations at the end of the 1970s, when the phenomenal growth from earlier in thedecade was beginning to slow.This trend was strengthened in the early 1990s, under the leadership of FernandoHenrique Cardoso, who presided over an increasing internationalisation of theBrazilian economy, and therewith the diversification of Itamaraty’s role ininternational trade issues. Cardoso oversaw the inclusion of “new voices” in290 Fontaine, cited in Schneider, Brazil, 67.291 Schneider, Brazil, 95.292 Ibid.130