Abstract
Colloquially referred to as Itamaraty, after the palace that has housed the ministry since its inception in the nineteenth century, the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs began as an institution reserved primarily for the aristocracy. Though still an elite institution, Itamaraty has since become more open and modern, with respected diplomats who are widely regarded as among the most distinguished and effective in the world. Because of its prominence in Brazilian history, Itamaraty traditionally has played a strong role in the making and execution of foreign policy, with relatively little political interference during periods of democratic and authoritarian rule alike. Itamaraty’s distinctive role is beginning to change however, as decision making has become more centralized in the office of the president.
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Notes
- 1.
The original Itamaraty Palace, built in the mid-nineteenth century, housed the Foreign Ministry in Rio de Janeiro from 1899 to 1970; the new one, designed by the architect Oscar Niemeyer and given the same name, has housed the ministry in Brasilia since 1970.
- 2.
Celso Amorim, Acting Globally: Memoirs of Brazil’s Assertive Foreign Policy (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2017).
- 3.
Sean W. Burges and Fabrício H. Chagas Bastos, “The Importance of Presidential Leadership for Brazilian Foreign Policy,” Policy Studies vol. 38, no. 3, 278–9.
- 4.
“French Republic,” http://www.itamaraty.gov.br/en/ficha-pais/6080-french-republic. Accessed February 11, 2019.
- 5.
See, e.g., the interview with Eumano Silva, author of “The Death of a Diplomat.” in Gazeta Online, January 15, 2017: https://www.gazetaonline.com.br/noticias/politica/2017/11/itamaraty-tinha-rede-clandestina-de-espionagem-e-perseguia-adversarios-no-exterior-1014109418.html. Accessed February 4, 2019. See also Fabiano Post, “CIEX: Itamaraty and the Military Dictatorship,” Revista Opera, October 24, 2018: http://diplomatizzando.blogspot.com/2018/10/ciex-o-itamaraty-e-ditadura-militar.html. Accessed February 4, 2019; and a doctoral dissertation on the Itamaraty’s role during the ditadura, published in 2010 by the Federal University of Pernambuco: Habitus Diplomático: Um Estudo do Itamaraty em Tempos de Regime Militar (1964–1985) (Diplomatic Structures: A Study of the Itamaraty Under Military Rule (1964–1985)), https://repositorio.ufpe.br/handle/123456789/9199. Accessed February 4, 2019.
- 6.
Carlos R. S. Milani and Leticia Pinheiro, “The Politics of Brazilian Foreign Policy and Its Analytical Challenges,” Foreign Policy Analysis vol. 13, no. 2 (2017): 13, 281.
- 7.
José Vicente de Sá Pimentel, ed., Brazilian Diplomatic Thought—Policymakers and Agents of Foreign Policy (1750–1964) (Brasilia: Fundação Alexandre de Gusmão, 2016), 3.
- 8.
Ibid., 19.
- 9.
Interview with Ambassador José Estanislau do Amaral Souza Neto, Director of the Rio Branco Institute.
- 10.
Parecer Preliminar: Projeto de Lei Orcamentaria para 2015, Portal Orcamento Orcamento (Preliminary Opinion: Draft Budget Law for 2015). (Congreso Nacional, Comissão Mista de Planos, Orcamentos Publicos e Fiscalizacao, 2014), 25; Oliver Stuenkel, “Brazilian Foreign Policy: Into the Dark.” Post-Western World. 12 December 2014. https://www.postwesternworld.com/2014/12/12/brazilian-foreign-policy-into/. Accessed February 11, 2019.
- 11.
There were nine under-secretariats up until the new Bolsonaro administration, which reduced the number to seven.
- 12.
The organizational structure of the Foreign Ministry has been changed under the new administration of President Jair Bolsonaro in 2019, but the scope of these changes was not clear at the time of this writing.
- 13.
“Itamaraty and the Foreign Service Careers.” Ministry of Foreign Affairs. http://www.itamaraty.gov.br/en/perguntas-frequentes-artigos/19384-itamaraty-and-the-foreign-service-careers#I9. Accessed February 10, 2019.
- 14.
Ibid.
- 15.
Interview with Ambassador José Estanislau do Amaral Souza Neto, Director of the Rio Branco Institute.
- 16.
“Concurso De Admissao a Carreira Diplomatica.” http://www.institutoriobranco.itamaraty.gov.br/concurso-de-admissao-a-carreira-de-diplomata. Accessed February 11, 2019.
- 17.
See, for example, Lucia Garcia-Navarro, “For Affirmative Action, Brazil Sets up Controversial Board to Determine Race.” National Public Radio. 29 September 2016. http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/09/29/495665329/for-affirmative-action-brazil-sets-up-controversial-boards-to-determine-race; Cleuci de Oliveira, “Brazil’s New Problem With Blackness,” Foreign Policy, April 5, 2017, https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/04/05/brazils-new-problem-with-blackness-affirmative-action/. Accessed February 11, 2019; and Edward E. Telles, Another America: The Significance of Skin Color in Brazil (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004).
- 18.
Carlos Aurélio Pimenta De Faria, Dawisson Belém Lopes, and Guilherme Casarões, “Itamaraty on the Move: Institutional and Political Change in Brazilian Foreign Service under Lula Da Silva’s Presidency (2003–2010),” Bulletin of Latin American Research vol. 32, no. 4 (2013): 468–82. https://doi.org/10.1111/blar.12067.
- 19.
“Instituto Rio Branco.” The International Forum on Diplomatic Training. 14 March 2010.
http://forum.diplomacy.edu/profile/instituto-rio-branco. Accessed February 11, 2019.
- 20.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “The Ministry.” http://www.itamaraty.gov.br/en/the-ministry. Accessed February 11, 2019.
- 21.
“Itamaraty and Foreign Service Careers.”
- 22.
These insights are based on discussions with current Brazilian diplomats, Washington, D.C., August 2, 2018.
- 23.
Ibid.
- 24.
Carlos Aurélio Pimenta De Faria, Dawisson Belém Lopes, and Guilherme Casarões, “Itamaraty on the Move: Institutional and Political Change in Brazilian Foreign Service under Lula Da Silva’s Presidency (2003–2010),” Bulletin of Latin American Research vol. 32, no. 4 (2013): 468–82. https://doi.org/10.1111/blar.12067.
- 25.
Milani and Pinheiro, “The Politics of Brazilian Foreign Policy,” 278–9.
- 26.
Sean W. Burges and Fabrício H. Chagas Bastos, “The importance of presidential leadership for Brazilian foreign policy,” Policy Studies vol. 38, no. 3, 283.
- 27.
Ibid., 284–5.
- 28.
Amorim, Acting Globally.
- 29.
Ibid., 289–90.
- 30.
Milani and Pinheiro, “The Politics of Brazilian Foreign Policy,” 281. See also Oliver Stuenkel, “The domestic politics of Brazilian foreign policy,” Post-Western World, May 1, 2017 https://www.postwesternworld.com/2017/05/01/domestic-politics-brazilian/. Accessed February 3, 2019.
- 31.
“The Wholesale Attack on Brazilian Sovereignty: An Interview with Former Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, Truthdig, May 23, 2018. https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-wholesale-attack-on-brazilian-sovereignty-an-interview-with-former-foreign-minister-celso-amorim/. Accessed February 3, 2019.
- 32.
Oliver Stuenkel and Matthew M. Taylor, “Brazil on the Global Stage: Origins and Consequences of Brazil’s Challenge to the Global Liberal Order,” in Oliver Stuenkel and Matthew M. Taylor, eds. Brazil on the Global Stage: Power, Ideas, and the Liberal International Order (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), p. 3.
- 33.
Ibid., 2–4; and Arlene B. Tickner, “Rising Brazil and South America,” in Steve Smith, Amelia Hadfield, and Tim Dunne, eds., Foreign Policy: Theories, Actors, Cases (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, 2012), 368, 373, and 375–80.
- 34.
Tickner, “Rising Brazil,” 376; and Rodrigo Mallea, Matias Spektor, and Nicholas J. Wheeler, eds., The Origins of Nuclear Cooperation: A Critical Oral History Between Argentina and Brazil (Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2012): https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/the-origins-nuclear-cooperation. Accessed February 9, 2019.
- 35.
These cases are all examined in Oliver Stuenkel, The BRICS and the Future of Global Order (New York: Lexington Books, 2015). See also Stuenkel and Taylor, “Brazil on the Global Stage,” 4–10.
- 36.
Cited in Stuenkel and Taylor, “Brazil on the Global Stage,” 12.
- 37.
Celso Amorim, “Let Us In: Why Barack Obama must support Brazil’s drive for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council,” Foreign Policy, March 11, 2014. See also Eugênio Vargas Garcia, Maria Clara de Paula Tusco, and Sérgio Eduardo Moreira Lima, eds., A Security Council for the 21st Century: Challenges and Prospects (Brasilia: Fundação Alexandre de Gusmão, 2017).
- 38.
Cited in Stuenkel and Taylor, “Brazil on the Global Stage, 12.
- 39.
Caio Pizetta Torres, “What (not) to Expect from Brazilian Diplomacy.” Plus55: Brazil Opinion. February 19, 2016. http://plus55.com/opinion/2016/02/what-not-to-expect-from-brazilian-diplomacy.
- 40.
“The contradictions of Brazil’s new foreign policy,” The Economist, January 12, 2019, 30.
- 41.
“‘Brazil is too important to stay out of global issues’, says Celso Amorim.” http://www.institutolula.org/en/brazil-is-too-important-to-stay-out-of-global-issues-says-celso-amorim. Accessed February 9, 2019.
- 42.
Cited in “Open or closed? The contradictions of Brazil’s new foreign policy,” The Economist, January 12, 2019, 30.
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Acknowledgment
The authors wish to thank the following diplomats and scholars who were consulted in researching and writing this chapter: Larissa Schneider Calza, Jean Karydakis, Franklin Neto, Jose Estanislau do Amaral Souza Neto, Carla Silva-Muhammad, Antonio de Aguiar Patriota, Paulo Sotero, and Chandler Stolp.
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Pereyra-Vera, M., Jimenez, D., Hutchings, R. (2020). Brazil. In: Hutchings, R., Suri, J. (eds) Modern Diplomacy in Practice. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26933-3_1
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