Theses defended
Security identity and foreign policy changes: Brazil's relations with Argentina from 1985 to 2018
December 9, 2021
International Politics and Conflict Resolution
Maria Raquel Freire
The present work seeks to analyze how a State's Security Identity performs in the realm of strategic partnerships. Understanding policymakers as Security Identity bearers, institutional values form the State's ideas and are what distinguishes its collectivity. These policymakers create their perceptions, which can also create misperceptions based on diffuse society values. Therefore, our research question is "how do policymakers change strategic partnerships built through Security Identity?".
The case study of Brazilian - Argentinian relations - with a stronger emphasis on the Brazilian case - allows us to analyze how Foreign Policy ideas and values are modified or maintained throughout the years. The analyzed period (1985 to 2018) comprehends most Brazilian acting under its new redemocratized period, therefore allowing us to observe different interpretations of values and connect these to various administrations. Even governments with different ideologies and in different international environments, will pursue Foreign Policy values that end up forming a Security Identity, appearing in this way many times along history. Relations with Argentina are a challenging case, as it went through many changes in these 32 years. From a deeply-rooted rivalry to an unavoidable strategic partnership, Brazil - Argentina relations show rapid reinterpretation capacity of the Self and the Other. Using discourse analysis facilitated by computer software, it was possible to perceive Brazil's ambitions in the relationship with Argentina through the years and the Argentinian reactions to these intents. We concluded that, although value perennity in the Brazilian Security Identity, each government's interpretation was distinct. The Argentinian reception to these changes in Brazilian actions was one of caution and distrust, although the country needed better world integration, sought through the bilateral partnership. The case study illustration shows that the Self and Other perception carries not only personal values, psychologic based, as defined by traditional Foreign Policy Analysis frameworks; there are also intersubjective values shared by the population, captured by policymakers, that impact the State's international acting.
Keywords: Brazil, Security Identity, Foreign Policy, Argentina, Strategic partnerships
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Abstract
The case study of Brazilian - Argentinian relations - with a stronger emphasis on the Brazilian case - allows us to analyze how Foreign Policy ideas and values are modified or maintained throughout the years. The analyzed period (1985 to 2018) comprehends most Brazilian acting under its new redemocratized period, therefore allowing us to observe different interpretations of values and connect these to various administrations. Even governments with different ideologies and in different international environments, will pursue Foreign Policy values that end up forming a Security Identity, appearing in this way many times along history. Relations with Argentina are a challenging case, as it went through many changes in these 32 years. From a deeply-rooted rivalry to an unavoidable strategic partnership, Brazil - Argentina relations show rapid reinterpretation capacity of the Self and the Other. Using discourse analysis facilitated by computer software, it was possible to perceive Brazil's ambitions in the relationship with Argentina through the years and the Argentinian reactions to these intents. We concluded that, although value perennity in the Brazilian Security Identity, each government's interpretation was distinct. The Argentinian reception to these changes in Brazilian actions was one of caution and distrust, although the country needed better world integration, sought through the bilateral partnership. The case study illustration shows that the Self and Other perception carries not only personal values, psychologic based, as defined by traditional Foreign Policy Analysis frameworks; there are also intersubjective values shared by the population, captured by policymakers, that impact the State's international acting.
Keywords: Brazil, Security Identity, Foreign Policy, Argentina, Strategic partnerships