Outsourcing anti-dependency: Brazil’s fraught embedded-autonomy approach to China

Rute Ester Brasileiro da Silva discusses the key points from her new Review of International Studies article co-authored with Joel Atkinson - Outsourcing anti-dependency: Brazil’s fraught embedded-autonomy approach to China.

Want to know more? You can read the full article at DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210525101381

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Abstract 

Brazil partnered with China to foster industrial and technological progress, and to increase autonomy and prestige. The outcome, however, has been de-industrialisation and increased dependency. Nevertheless, the perception persists that Brazil is rising alongside China towards a post-hegemonic, multipolar world. We argue this can be understood through the deep-rooted embedded-autonomy narrative that shapes Brazil’s approach to the world. This positions the United States as the primary obstacle to national goals and China as part of the solution. Brazil reached out in solidarity to China, expecting outsized material and ontological security gains. This outsourcing of anti-dependency played a key role in Brazil’s accommodation of China’s preferences, locking in path dependency. By seriously considering the ideas guiding Brazil’s foreign policy, we examine how the trajectory of Sino-Brazilian relations was sustained despite the apparent mismatch between goals and outcomes.

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