Grande estratégia brasileira: análise dos governos Médici e Geisel (1969-1979

Abstract

The Grand Strategy broadly represents the State's capacity to direct its current objectives towards achieving a specific long-term goal, in an effort to design the necessary means for the successful attainment of such an end. The demands placed on a country to devise and actualize a grand strategy are substantial, resulting in a body of literature predominantly focused on case studies of so-called great powers. Contrary to this trend, the present research aims to analyze how Brazil, as a middle power, operationalized its grand strategy during the E. G. Médici and E. Geisel governments (1969-1979), through the development and implementation of the "Brazil Potency" Plan, as translated in the National Development Plans I and II documents. To aid in this analysis, elements of Peripheral Realism (Escudé, 2012) are incorporated, which contribute to addressing the following question: How did Brazil operationalize its Grand Strategy during the proposed period? The work is structured into three chapters. The first chapter theoretically discusses the concepts of Grand Strategy and Peripheral Realism, highlighting their characteristics that will assist in analyzing the proposed period, which is done in the second chapter. This chapter explores the National Development Plans formulated during the proposed interval, focusing on three themes: economic policy, foreign policy, and governance policy. In the final chapter, Brazil's actions are analyzed based on the economic, foreign policy, and defense policies of the respective governments, and how the intersections between the Grand Strategy literature and the chosen theoretical approach aid in the understanding of the implementation of a power project. This qualitative work was conducted through documentary research of primary sources, specifically the documents suggested as the object of analysis, along with books and periodicals, aiming to extract the main projects that assisted in the implementation of the proposed political objectives.