Are the Determinants of Brazilian Foreign Policy the Same for the Rest of South America?

In a moment when all eyes are on Brazil in the academic community, the work of PhD. Octavio Amorim Neto “De Dutra a Lula: A condução e os determinantes da política externa brasileira (From Dutra to Lula: The determinants of Brazilian foreign policy)” is brought into discussion by using statistical tools and new findings to assess what were the determinants of Brazilian Foreign Policy throughout much of the twentieth century. In order to extend this discussion, this paper will seek to make a brief summary of existing theories regarding the Brazilian Foreign Policy Analysis and then, using the independent variable of his model, namely, the degree of convergence in the voting at the UN General Assembly between Brazil and the U.S., carry out a comparative analysis including other South American countries for the period 1970-2007. Ultimately we seek to determine whether that variable has behaved in the same way for other South American countries, and if so, find alternative explanations for this.