While the IR literature expects cooperation on economic issues, in South America, the security domain has offered opportunities for cooperation. Brazilian authorities perceive regional instability as a constraint upon Brazilian domestic development, as well as their quest for international prestige. Since the 1990s, Brazilian governments show a high level of pragmatism in promoting security cooperation because they recognize the limited nature of their resources and the necessity of acquiescent neighbors in order to stabilize the region.
I intend to study the regional cooperation policies that former presidents Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva respectively promoted. I will focus primarily on the Brazilian efforts to construct a regional security regime. Though operative prior to these events, Cardoso’s regional security policies were reinforced following 9/11 and the American War on Terror by President da Silva, who proposed regional cooperation policies with the intention of fostering an institutionalized regional dialogue.
