A “NOVA POLÍTICA EXTERNA BRASILEIRA” E A BUSCA POR UMA PARADIPLOMACIA ANTI-NEGACIONISTA

Abstract

Subnational governments, such as Brazilian cities and states, are occupying spaces and acting directly in activities that previously were states domains. Jair Bolsonaro’s election has changed many governmental aspects, and foreign policy represents a sphere of great turnaround. The article’s hypothesis is that the less conciliatory and progressively aggressive tone added to an agenda of the so-called "New Brazilian Foreign Policy" between 2019 and 2021 promoted federative imbalances that clashed with subnational governments’ interests. Consequently, states have increased their projections and international dialogues, generating new attributes to this process commonly called paradiplomacy. This was the case of northeastern states that, through the Northeast Consortium, promoted opposite international actions in relation to the central government. Based on bibliographic review and prospection of news media, this article aims to demonstrate that such international actions were alternatives adopted in opposition to the guidelines of Bolsonaro's foreign policy and Ernesto Araújo’s diplomatic agenda. The debate and the investigation support contemporary studies on subnational actors in Brazil, bringing light to a new phase of paradiplomacy often framed as a practice of contestation, antagonism, or confrontation to the central government, dismaying of denialist discourses.