This article aims to unfold the Brazilian conception of the future global order located between the extreme poles of a concert of great powers and a multiregional world order. The author demonstrates how Brazilian foreign policy makers contribute to the kind of global order, which offers most room to manoeuvre to the rising power. The foreign policy options of Brazil are limited in view of the superior hard power of the established great powers. Brazil's soft balancing strategy involves institutional strategies such as the formation of limited diplomatic coalitions or ententes to constrain the power of the established great powers. Brazil has been amongst the most powerful drivers of incremental change in world diplomacy and it benefits most from the connected global power shifts. In a global order shaped by great powers through international groupings and institutions, those players who effectively operate within them as innovators, coalition builders and spokesmen while preserving great amounts of sovereignty and autonomy have the potential to substantially influence the outcomes of future global politics.
Brazil; Foreign Policy; Soft Balancing; Alliance-Building; Global Order; Global Governance