Chapter six: eat me, drink me.

• Author: Roett, Riordan
• Position: Great Powers in Wonderland - Critical essay

"It was much pleasanter" at home, when one wasn't always growing larger and smaller, and being ordered around by mice and rabbits."

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BRAZIL'S GRANDEZA (greatness) years, defined by the desire to become a major power, ended when the military dictatorship fell in 1985. Subsequent weak civilian regimes had little time for foreign policy.

However, Brazil's ongoing economic stability has enhanced its status globally, and the country is now often included on the lists of "rising powers."

Since Fernando Henrique Cardoso's election in 1994, there has been a growing consensus among policy elites and within the middle class that the country is prepared for a greater regional and global role. The new approach to foreign policy is defined by a two-track strategy of asserting Brazil's new prominence: utilizing both regional integration and multilateralism on the global stage.

Brazil played a major role in the creation of Mercosur, the common market of the south, in 1991. Mercosur briefly played a positive role in trade and investment, but the financial crisis in Brazil in 1999, which resulted in the devaluation of the currency, along with the economic meltdown in Argentina in 2001-2002, stalemated the organization. Its future has been further thrown into question by the intention of President Hugo Chavez to make Venezuela a member. Venezuelan membership, if successful, would politicize the common market and further impede the economic and financial integration of the region.

In the late 1990s, Cardoso took the lead in organizing the first-ever South American heads-of-state summit meeting in Brasilia. This led to a second Brazilian initiative: the South American Community of Nations (CASA). Established in Cuzco, Peru in December 2004, CASA was originally thought to be a model for further subregional integration, but it has fallen victim to the increasing ideological polarization in the Andean region. Little progress has been made to date in using CASA as a model for more permanent collaboration.

What gives Brazil's push for regional leadership greater heft, however, is energy policy. Brazil's desire to become a leading force in ethanol is already known. Moreover, a huge underwater oil field was discovered late in 2007 that has the potential to turn South America's largest country into a sizable exporter--and that brings perhaps even representation in OPEC with it. The subsalt basin that contains Tupi, the new deepwater field...