Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 11/2009

Brazil and the Transatlantic Community in the Wake of the Global Crisis

Thomas J Trebat

June 2009

Institute for Latin American and Iberian Studies at Columbia University

Abstract

As the great global crisis eases its grasp, it is a time to reconsider relations between Brazil and the North, especially the United States and the European Union. While the world economy is still reeling, it is very possible that a new and more productive period in Brazil’s relations with the US and Europe is possible. This positive outcome derives from numerous factors, most especially Brazil’s “peaceful rise” to a more prominent global role and the arrival of the Obama administration whose promise of a new beginning in U.S. foreign policy has been greeted with such evident enthusiasm in Latin America. Three preliminary observations about Brazil suggest that a more productive engagement with the transatlantic community of wealthier nations is feasible and desirable, and yet also challenging as it goes against the established grain of Brazilian foreign policy.