DEVELOPMENTISM, NEOLIBERALISM AND FOREIGN POLICY: implications for relations between Brazil and African countries

The analysis of recent years of political and economic relations between Brazil and African countries shows a tendency to repeat a pattern present throughout the 20th century – short periods of approximation followed by longer periods of estrangement. It is possible to notice that Brazilian investment in these relations has varied according to the political orientation adopted, whether developmental or neoliberal. The purpose of this article is to understand how the adoption of developmental and neoliberal policies and their versions of the 21st century has affected relations between Brazil and African countries. We start from the initial understanding that the stability and deepening of relations between Brazil and African countries are largely dependent on state action, whose variations in action result from some limitations inherent to the peripheral position of these countries in the world-economy and from the internal relations held within of those countries.

Developmentalism; Neoliberalism; Foreign policy; Brazil; African countries