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

Guimarães is Brazil’s General Representative to MERCOSUL, Celso Amorim wasappointed Defense Minister in August 2011.In the field of academic research, there are many prospects for innovating researchpresented by Brazil’s emergence, and its connection to domestic political processes.Using the current research as a basis – particularly the variables of institutionalfreedom and legitimating capacity – it will be possible to interrogate the impact ofother social actors, such as the military, on a state’s prospects for and means ofemergence. It will also prove productive to conduct studies over a more extensiveduration of time of variations and continuities in Brazil’s international outlook, andhow perceptions of external threat, along with domestic constraints and capabilitiesinfluence changes in foreign policy outlook. There is no question that Brazil, likeSouth Africa, presents a unique face of emergence to the international community.The principles on which it self-consciously bases its foreign policy in abstraction areadmirable and inspire a measure of confidence for a new way of conductinginternational relations. However, researchers must go beyond Brazil’s claims of‘friendship’ with all nations 721 and ‘incidental’ political and economic gains, 722 to gaina better understanding of Brazil’s objectives and available means in the WesternHemisphere, and in Africa, to better inform the policies of all interested parties,both those who rely on Brazil as an international partner, and those who competewith it for new markets and international prestige.8.5 Concluding remarksActivism by large developing states on issues such as landmines, trade, and militaryinterventions – for humanitarian or other purposes - rendered the early years of thetwenty-first century ripe with anticipation about the new world order that wastaking shape following the decade of drift and US unilateralism that followed theGulf War of 1990-91. Emerging states from the developing world were seen asbearers of some measure of moral stature because they claimed to speak for themarginalised, impoverished and disempowered of international politics. However,these moral positions have needed to be re-examined in the light of growing721 National Defense Strategy, p6.722 Amorim, “Overview”, 233.297