Understanding Brazil-United States relations: comtemporary history, current complexities and prospects for the 21st century /

Coleção política externa brasileira..

If the bilateral relationship between Brazil and the United States is one of enormous potential, it is also one that has suffered, in recent decades, from a dearth of communication and a lack of mutual understanding between academics and policymakers of each country. This informational barrier acts as a brake between the two largest democracies of the Western Hemisphere, impeding the deepening relationships between the United States and Brazil. Monica Hirst's thorough and insightful study goes a long way toward uncovering and demystifying this relationship. The sweeping scope of her study, encompassing the history of U.S.-Brazilian relations from the closing decades of the nineteenth century to the era of the Rousseff and Obama administrations, captures the political, economic, and diplomatic contexts that define the modern-day U.S.- Brazil relationship. Furthemore, the analytic frameworks she develops to explain the evolution of this relationship in particular, her proposal of five distinct historical states in the relationship (Alliance, Alignment, Autonomy, Adjustment, and Affirmation), and her innovation, building on Barry Buzan's concept of macro-securitization, of the concept of micro-securitization - provide invaluable analytic tools for scholars and policymakers interested in U.S.-Brazil relations. Hirst also visits the evolution of Brazil's participation in international politics, examining Brazil's collaboration with the United States in assembling the G-20, its initiative within the United Nations in manning and directing peacekeeping operations, and especially its leadership of the United Nations Mission in Haiti, and the implications of its relationships with its South American neighbors as well as with international heavyweights such as the European Union, China, India, and South Africa. Her analysis is certain to provide valuable insight into the future evolution of Brazil's evolving role in global politics. Available in both English and Portuguese, Hirst's analysis will prove an essential guide for both policymakers and the general public interested in American and Brazilian readers alike.