Perceptions and Images in the Foreign Policy of the Portuguese “Estado Novo Português” [New State Portugues]: The Importance of the Identity Triangle

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes the national perceptions and images of the Portuguese foreign policy during Salazar´s Estado Novo [New State]. We have framed the ideational context of the Portuguese foreign policies from the Post-War until the 1960s and explained Portugal´s position in the face of two international challenges: the European integration project and the decolonizing movement. The article is based on documentary research from primary and secondary sources related to the ideas and discourses of Portuguese foreign policy elites. The article addresses two key ideas. Firstly, foreign policy actions and doctrines must be understood taking into account their historicity and the perceptions and images of their decision-makers. Secondly, foreign policy is an identity policy, that is, the national images that States historically build to legitimize their interests cannot be disconnected from the processes of identity imagination and affirmation of a particular national political culture. This article presents an ideational and identity theorization about the reasons for the anti-Europeanist and anti-colonialist postures of the Estado Novo’s foreign policy. The main argument is that a sophisticated analysis of Portuguese foreign policy in this period must start from what we call the identity triangle: essentialism, specialism, and westernism.

Estado Novo (New State, Portugal; foreign policy; national images; identity; authoritarian elites