Comparative Foreign Policy: cooperation, human rights and peace operations in the cases of Brazil, South Africa, China and Turkey

Abstract

Based on the assumption that the emergence of Southern actors, in particular China, results in systemic changes in the international order, and on a definition of foreign policy anchored in three dimensions (global; regional; and national), the main objective of this project is to analyze the singularities, similarities, challenges and opportunities that middle powers, regional powers and rising powers can find when formulating and implementing their foreign policies as far as three particular agendas are concerned: international development cooperation, human rights and peace operations. Countries have been selected on the basis of their non-belonging to the West, be it for geopolitical, political or economic reasons, be it for social, cultural or religious issues. Brazil is the central empirical focus of the proposed research, but three other cases (China, South Africa and Turkey) will be studied in a comparative perspective. Brazil and the three other cases of not fully Western countries were selected because they are middle-income countries that work in partnership with developing countries from different world regions (Africa, Latin America and Asia), in addition to playing a relevant role in the international political, strategic and economic agenda, particularly in the processes of reforming global governance (World Bank, IMF, WTO, G-20) and reconfiguring regional alliances and interregional coalitions, many of which are of geopolitical and strategic nature (SADC/Southern African Development Community, UNASUR/Union of South American Nations, IBAS Forum, BRICS Group, G-20 in trade, Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Belt and Road Initiative). It seems clear that the three countries selected in this comparison with Brazil present differences in terms of institutional design of their foreign policies, multilateral behavior, belonging to international coalitions and alliances, size of their respective economies, insertion regional, productive and development model, state and diplomatic capacities, as well as domestic policy – features that enrich the comparative method in the analysis proposed in this project. The project will contribute to the development of a research agenda both nationally and internationally on comparative foreign policy thanks, inter alia, to two seminars (one national, another one international) involving researchers from Brazilian and foreign institutions.

Manager at PPGCM

Dr Rubens de S. Duarte

Partners

IESP-UERJ e UNILAB

Support

CNPq - Edital Universal