Brazil’s strategic positioning over the last decades has led the country to pursue a place in the centrality of the international relations system as global order evolved in the three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall. When considering the main strategic challenges of contemporary Brazil, two topics emerge as relevant: territorial policies for the Amazon and the projection of the country to the external regional space—South America and the South Atlantic. In this context, and focusing on the South Atlantic, Brazil has been developing a South-South cooperation policy, signing a series of agreements with African countries, namely, those located on the western coast of the continent, boosting cooperation in the economic, political, and technological areas, but also in security and defence. This strategic option is better understood by acknowledging the rising international importance of the South Atlantic Ocean in recent years, namely, because of the many discoveries of mineral and oil resources on its basin that brought investment and economic development but also maritime territorial disputes back to the international agenda. In this chapter, we depart from the developing concept of Blue Geopolitics, focusing on two components of the geopolitical analysis—economy and security—to analyse Brazil’s contemporary geopolitics in relation to the South Atlantic Basin with a focus on its role in advancing the blue economy. The study will explore strategic bilateral relations with African nations and examine the contributions of regional and sub-regional security and defence organisations to this dynamic.

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Blue Economy and Maritime Security in the South Atlantic: Brazil’s Geopolitics and Strategic Positioning in Times of Power Rebalancing

  • Sónia Ribeiro,
  • Francisco Proença Garcia

摘要

Brazil’s strategic positioning over the last decades has led the country to pursue a place in the centrality of the international relations system as global order evolved in the three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall. When considering the main strategic challenges of contemporary Brazil, two topics emerge as relevant: territorial policies for the Amazon and the projection of the country to the external regional space—South America and the South Atlantic. In this context, and focusing on the South Atlantic, Brazil has been developing a South-South cooperation policy, signing a series of agreements with African countries, namely, those located on the western coast of the continent, boosting cooperation in the economic, political, and technological areas, but also in security and defence. This strategic option is better understood by acknowledging the rising international importance of the South Atlantic Ocean in recent years, namely, because of the many discoveries of mineral and oil resources on its basin that brought investment and economic development but also maritime territorial disputes back to the international agenda. In this chapter, we depart from the developing concept of Blue Geopolitics, focusing on two components of the geopolitical analysis—economy and security—to analyse Brazil’s contemporary geopolitics in relation to the South Atlantic Basin with a focus on its role in advancing the blue economy. The study will explore strategic bilateral relations with African nations and examine the contributions of regional and sub-regional security and defence organisations to this dynamic.