Economic relations between Brazil and Africa: A brick in the southern bridge to multilateralism?
[Thesis]
;supervisor: Cobbe, James H.
The Florida State University: United States -- Florida
: 2012
86 Pages
M.S.
Globalization has been associated with the hegemony of traditional Western economic powers. However, the twenty-first century announced the emergence of new economic powers. The financial crisis crippling the West has not been as detrimental to these Southern economies and could introduce a new international balance of power. It also demonstrated that economic activities should serve humanity. While the BRICS club (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) constitutes a plurilateral--because of its selectiveness--challenge and strength to multilateralist Western institutions, developing economies are attracting growing attention, especially Africa in the past decade. Similarly, Brazil's social and political conditions have been considerably ameliorating, thus distinguishing it from the other emerging powers. The South-South bridge between Africa and Brazil could then announce a new international economic and diplomatic order. A presentation of Brazil and Africa will lead to the description of the levels of governance interactions between the two regions and their economic exchanges. Finally, the socio-economic prospects of such relation and their consequences in the multilateral globalized world will be presented. I will then argue the possibility for the Brazil-Africa relationship, a mainly plurilateralist one, to initiate a new form of multilateralism, one uniting economic and social development