Brazil's Place in the Global Economy

Abstract

Brazil is a country with long-standing ambitions for a major role in the world economy and in global governance, but its footprint in various measures of both remains relatively modest. On current trends, the gap between ambition and achievement will likely remain large, so we provide a critique of Brazil’s strategy in terms of economic statecraft; reflect on the wisdom of choices made in the past in terms of multilateralism vs. regionalism; and suggest a new approach that could enhance Brazil’s leadership role at the regional and global levels. It would involve the Brazilian government and business elites making clearer and more daring national choices, including shedding increasingly arcane and detrimental strategic alliances, in order to enable the country to become more involved with and thus influential on the global economic stage.