The Relationship between Diplomacy and Military Power in the Grand Strategies of Barão do Rio Branco and Amorim

Abstract

A Grand Strategy involves the coordination and direction of all the resources of a nation to achieve political goals, or at greater bias use of military power, the theory and practice of use and threatened use of organized force for political purposes. Favoring the latter bias, the “Grand Strategy of Baron", implemented in the period in which he headed the Foreign Ministry, used sometimes military power of coercive and deterrent manner. The “Great Strategy of the Baron” is distinct from the “Great Strategy of Amorim”, mainly in the form of articulating diplomacy with the Military Power. The differences in these articulations, as well as the concrete gains resulting from each one, are perceived, initially by the realistic bias – Baron - and by the combination of several internationalist theories – Amorim. The “Great Strategy of Baron” was based on the increase of military hard power, which resulted in the Acre issue. The “Great Strategy of Amorim” was guided more in Brazil's international insertion by increasing its “soft power”, but which did not achieve a perfect synthesis between diplomacy and defense. Therefore, this research has the objective to highlight the “different forms of articulation” between diplomacy and defense.