Legitimising Emerging Power Diplomacy: an Analysis of Government and Media Discourses on Brazilian Foreign Policy under Lula

This study analyses whether Brazilian foreign policy under Lula successfully legitimised the country's international identity as a rising power in the eyes of the domestic and international media. Based on a constructivist framework, we have applied French Discourse Analysis to a corpus of 36 official addresses by the President of the Republic and the Minister of Foreign Relations and 137 news articles from four news outlets, two Brazilian and two international, concerning two diplomatic episodes deemed representative of Brazil's quest for greater pre-eminence: the leadership of MINUSTAH (2004) and the Nuclear Deal signed with Iran and Turkey (2010). Results show that official discourse characterises Brazil's identity as a rising power chiefly by South-South diplomacy, while media discourse was more heterogeneous, being the discursive formation of each news outlet determinant in explaining their interpretation of Brazil's international identity.

Keywords:
Constructivism; Brazil's International Identity; Brazilian Foreign Policy; Discourse Analysis; Journalism; Legitimacy

Authorship

Rafael Mesquita

Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, PE, Brazil; rafaelmesquita_5688@ hotmail.com; Federal University of PernambucoBrazilRecife, PE, BrazilFederal University of Pernambuco, Recife, PE, Brazil; rafaelmesquita_5688@ hotmail.com;

Marcelo de Almeida Medeiros

Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, PE, Brazil; mam14@uol.com.brFederal University of PernambucoBrazilRecife, PE, BrazilFederal University of Pernambuco, Recife, PE, Brazil; mam14@uol.com.br

Rafael Mesquita is a Political Science/International Relations Doctorate student at UFPE (Recife - PE, Brazil), Master in Political Science/International Relations and Journalist from the same university. He is a member of the Centre of Comparative Politics and International Relations - NEPI/CNPq/UFPE. He holds a grant from CAPES. He is also a graduate in Business Administration from UPE and has undertaken part of this undergraduate studies at the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po). He recently published as a co-author The Impact of Summitry on the Governance of Mercosur. In: Gordon Mace et al. Summits and Regional Governance. New York: Routledge, 2016. His current research topics include emerging powers, regional leadership and Brazilian Foreign Policy.

Marcelo de Almeida Medeiros received his PhD in Political Science from the Institut d'Études Politiques de Grenoble and his Political Science Habilitation Thesis from the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po). He is Associate Professor of Political Science at the Federal University of Pernambuco - UFPE and PQ-1C Research Fellow of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development - CNPq. He was Rio Branco International Relations Chair - St Antony's College - University of Oxford (2015) and Simon Bolivar Political Science Chair - Institute of Latin American Studies - University Sorbonne Nouvelle (2009). He recently published The Impact of Summitry on the Governance of Mercosur. In: Gordon Mace et al. Summits and Regional Governance. New York: Routledge, 2016.

SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, PE, Brazil; mam14@uol.com.brFederal University of PernambucoBrazilRecife, PE, BrazilFederal University of Pernambuco, Recife, PE, Brazil; mam14@uol.com.br

Figures | Tables

Figures (6)
Tables (3)

Thumbnail

Figure 1
International identity update model associated with the evolution of the paradigms of Brazil's international insertion

Thumbnail

Figure 2
Compatibility between government and media on national interest and editorial ideology

Thumbnail

Figure 3
Importance of the themes of Brazilian international identity combining MINUSTAH and Nuclear Deal statements

Thumbnail

Figure 4
Comparison of the relative importance of Brazilian international identity for MINUSTAH and Nuclear Deal cases

Thumbnail

Figure 5
Percentage of converging and diverging sentences for all four news outlets across identity themes in their coverage of MINUSTAH and the Nuclear Deal

Thumbnail

Figure 6
Comparison of the total percentage of converging sentences for all four news outlets in their MINUSTAH and Nuclear Deal coverage

Thumbnail

Table 1
Total addresses by the PR and MRE and press articles for the FT, NYT, CC and OESP concerning MINUSTAH and Nuclear Deal episodes

Thumbnail

Table 2
Number of sentences coded into multiple categories in official discourse

Thumbnail

Table 3
Content of official and media discourses on the eight identity themes in the MINUSTAH and Nuclear Deal cases

Figure 1 International identity update model associated with the evolution of the paradigms of Brazil's international insertion

Source: Mesquita (2014Mesquita, Rafael. 2014. 'Contradições identitárias do Brasil emergente: uma análise dos discursos do Estado e da imprensa'. Compolítica, 4(1): 149-180.)