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

giving near-automatic assent to the requirements of the UN Security Council,through the country’s ratification of the UN Charter. 6847.4.4. International Implications: A clear case of classical Realist expansion?Brazil could not justify unilateral engagement, or mobilise and extract the requiredresources, for a unilateral operation in Haiti for reasons of domestic andinternational legitimacy, financial constraints, and its own foreign policy philosophy.As alluded to earlier, the Haiti mission was seen, particularly by the left, as animperialist intervention in the service of US interests. This would have been, andindeed was in some quarters, vehemently opposed as a foreign policy priority for ahistorically independent-minded Brazil, and moreover, one governed by a workers’party of the left. Internationally, Brazil could not justify acting on its own in Haitibecause it had long been a staunch opponent of the use of force in resolvinginternational crises, and of interference in the affairs of sovereign states.Nonetheless, the gap left by the US, which was “bogged down in Iraq, burnt by thefailed coup against Chávez in 2002, … counting down to the 2004 election, [and]chary of another military engagement”, 685 created an opportunity for Brazil at animportant moment in its quest for permanent representation on the UN SecurityCouncil. It is widely understood, in sources ranging from media reports to speechesby Deputies in Congress, that Brazil’s primary motivation for engaging in the Haiticrisis has been its intention to secure a permanent seat on the UN Security Council,or at least to bolster its credentials as a major and dependable player in multilateralpeace operations.Seven years after the inception of the Mission, it is not clear what Brazil has gainedfrom its involvement in Haiti. For one thing, the Mission almost backfired as Brazilfaced a raft of allegations of human rights violations through its subduing of thePort-au-Prince slums in July 2005. The Mission has also enjoyed mixed results,allowing for an election in 2006, but failing to pave the way for a deeper684 Ibid., 250-251.685 Justin Podur, “Review: Kofi Annan’s Haiti”, New Left Review, 37, (Jan-Feb 2006):151-152.264