Is Brazil Really a “Diplomatic Dwarf?”

Abstract

This text seeks to present some reflections of Brazilian scholars on the subject and on previous actions carried out to develop a national project that is constant and immune to domestic or external political oscillations. The research had as a motivation factor the recurrence of the epithet “diplomatic dwarf” to Brazil, recovering each occasion when the country takes a stand about sensitive themes in the international scenario. This work has a qualitative-analytic methodological bias and is based on bibliographic and hemerographic sources. The text contains ideas professed by different authors, with emphasis on Golbery do Couto e Silva, Hélio Jaguaribe, and Jorge Calvario dos Santos. It also contemplates reflections on the Brazilian War College (ESG) foundation, its inspiration, and purpose. For didactic reasons, the content has been divided into four sections. The first has an introductory and conceptual feature. The second exposes contemporary national strategic thinkers’ experiences. The third focuses on the institutional capability to develop a methodology destined to design a national strategic thinking and, to end the text, in the fourth section, are the final considerations on the topics issued and a brief evaluation on the impropriety of the label “diplomatic dwarf” to Brazil.