Download - LSE Theses Online - London School of Economics and ...

limitations on its capacities for wealth redistribution through employment creation,social services and land reform. In a broader sense, the global economy was still inthe shadow of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001, resulting inslowed demand for Brazilian output internationally, and diminished inwardinvestment. According to UNCTAD figures, FDI into Brazil declined from $22.5bnin 2001 to $16.6bn in 2002, by more than a quarter. 579PT’s own public legitimacy, and legitimacy in government, was based on socialpolicy promises, especially poverty reduction and the improvement of social equityconditions, 580 which were notoriously poor in Brazil. These goals were, however,relegated to secondary importance after fiscal stability and reducing the deficit in theearly phase of Lula’s first term. A number of observers assumed that foreign policyfocus on ‘social’ goals such as various campaigns against hunger and poverty, wouldsomehow deflect domestic attention from the government’s economic conservatismin the domestic arena. 581Civil-military relations, long a controversial subject in Brazil’s domestic politics,were productively advanced 582 under Cardoso. Yet, the military’s new role in societywas still under construction, and the armed forces were therefore not a viableinstrument of foreign policy by this time. Indeed, a decade earlier, Brazil was rathercautious about engaging its military abroad, abstaining in July 1994 on SecurityCouncil Resolution 940 which first authorised the use of force to restore Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power in Haiti. 583In terms of Brazil’s regional context, while the new PT government immediatelystarted to enjoy the support of fellow Leftist governments, such as those of Cubaand Venezuela, relations with its most powerful neighbour and most important579 UNCTAD. 2002. “FDI in brief: Brazil”, Accessed online at:http://www.unctad.org/sections/dite_fdistat/docs/wid_ib_br_en.pdf on 6 September,2011.580 Hunter and Power, “Lula’s Brazil at Midterm”, 131.581 Barbosa et al., “Brazil in Africa”, 65.582 Filho and Zirker note how the creation of a Ministry of Defense under civilianleadership in 1998, and the promulgation of the Law on Disappearances, whichreconsidered the question of military amnesty for torture and disappearances during the21-year regime, represented progress in civil-military relations. See Filho and Zirker,“The Brazilian Military Under Cardoso”,148.583 Sebastian Von Einsiedel, and David M. Malone, “Peace and Democracy for Haiti: AUN Mission Impossible?”, International Relations, 20, No.2 (2006): 166.228