O “Universalismo” em marcha forçada: a política externa do governo Figueiredo (1979-1985)

Abstract

João Figueiredo’s government (1979-1985) had to deal with an unfavorable scenario in political and economic terms – especially considering the growing concerns regarding the Brazilian foreign debt crisis. Despite that, the government decided to reinforce a foreign policy strategy that began with Ernesto Geisel’s tenure as President (1974-1979): while refuting the possibility of a bandwagoning strategy alongside the United States; Brazil opted to value its political and economic ties with the so-called Third World countries – especially from South America, Africa, and the Middle East. We seek to find the motivations for such movement from the Brazilian officials, especially considering the adverse conditions in both the domestic and international arenas. We use the role theory to point to Ramiro Saraiva Guerreiro’s, as the Foreign Policy minister, as Universalismo’s architect. Considering internal and external variables, we indicate how Saraiva Guerreiro designed a role set that would fit his perceptions about the most suitable roles for Brazil’s context and reality at the time, considering foreign feedback too. We show how Guerreiro used his perceptions about this feedback to justify his choices – and to shield them from critics who favored an Americanist approach to Brazilian foreign policy. Declassified documents from Arquivo Saraiva Guerreiro, available at the Centro de Documentação e Pesquisa da Fundação Getúlio Vargas (CPDOC/FGV) in Rio de Janeiro, are the sources for this thesis. This thesis operationalizes Role Theory for the Analysis of Brazilian Foreign Policy and highlights the importance of considering the interaction of domestic and international factors in order to investigate the reasons behind the choice of a particular foreign policy course.