Aspirational Power examines Brazil as an emerging power. It explains Brazil's present emphasis on using soft power through a historical analysis of Brazil's three past attempts to achieve major power status. Though these efforts have fallen short, this book suggests that Brazil will continue to try to emerge, but that it will only succeed when its domestic institutions provide a solid and attractive foundation for the deployment of its soft power abroad.
David Mares holds the Institute of the Americas Chair for Inter-American Affairs at the University of California, San Diego, USA, and is a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies and the Council on Foreign Relations, author of Latin America and the Illusion of Peace and co-editor of the Handbook of Latin American Security Studies,. Harold Trinkunas is the Charles W. Robinson Chair and senior fellow and director of the Latin America Initiative in the Foreign Policy program. His research focuses on Latin American politics, particularly on issues related to foreign policy, governance and security. He is currently studying Brazil's emergence as a major power, and Latin American contributions to global governance on issues including energy policy, drug policy reform and internet governance. Trinkunas has also written on terrorism financing, borders and ungoverned spaces.
Acknowledgments 1. Brazil, the Emerging Powers, and the Future of the International Order 2. Interpreting Brazil's Attempts to Emerge in Historical Perspective 3. Selling Brazil's Rise: Brazilian Foreign Policy from Cardoso to Rousseff 4. Brazil, Order Making, and International Security 5. Brazil and the Multilateral Structure of Economic Globalization: Governance Reform for the International Economy 6. Brazil and the Global Commons 7. Emergence: Why Brazil Falls Short and What It Might Do Differently Notes Index
Mares and Trinkunas have produced an insightful and highly readable overview of Brazil's foreign relations. Doubly framed against Brazil's specific aspirations (the country is neither a rule maker nor a rule taker, but a 'rule shaper') and the dilemmas facing all emerging powers in the 21st century, the book successfully links together both the foundational myths of Brazilian foreign policy and the specific objectives that drive it today. In equal parts accessible and sophisticated, the book displays a contextually sensitive understanding of Brazilian politics and policymakers."- Timothy J. Power, University of Oxford; "The writing is professional but accessible, and the topic has broad significance because the authors treat Brazil's striving for prominence as a benchmark for efforts of other emerging powers and for the reliance on soft power. Recommended."- CHOICE
