In the mid-1970s the Brazilian government introduced systematic changes in Brazilian foreign policy on the basis of an Ecumenical, Responsible Pragmatism. Their main thrust was to facilitate and foster the emergence of Brazil as a middle power in what was seen as a uniquely malleable international system. Brazilian officials made a conscious attempt to reconcile their own foreign policy traditions with notions typical of political realism. This article draws on recently declassified documents to account for the preconditions, origins and initial tensions of pragmatism.
Brazilian foreign policy; emerging power; authoritarian rule; pragmatism; realism; Ernesto Geisel; Antônio Francisco Azeredo da Silveira