Instrumentalization of Foreign Affairs for Hegemony Construction

neoliberalism, neodevelopmentalism, power blocks and historical block

Abstract

The paper makes use of the Foreign Policy Analysis to understand the key aspects of Brazil’s foreign affairs between 1995 and mid 2016, under Fernando Henrique Cardoso’s, Luis Inácio Lula da Silva’s and Dilma Vana Rousseff’s administrations, and its autonomy seeking models. From this comprehension, an analysis is developed through Gramsci’s and Poulantzas’ theories to express the instrumentalization of  foreign policy as a mean of hegemony construction and what relation it has with the rescpective autonomy seeking models, identifying the particularities of each administration, the wider process of transition from neoliberalism to neodevelopmentalism, in the context of the array of public policies which organize the brazilian capitalism, as well as the relation with the historical blocks formation. It is concluded that the foreign policies aplied during these periods insert themselves into wider movement of hegemony dipute.