Research on Brazilian Foreign Policy

My research on Brazilian foreign policy focuses on identity and the behavior of middle powers. In 2013, I established a research group at IRI-USP, involving both graduate and undergraduate students, to produce articles and books on these topics. Since its inception, the group has been generously funded by the University of São Paulo Research Provost seven times, in 2013, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023.

Published work on Brazilian Foreign Policy:

• Guimarães, Feliciano; Bezerra, Gustavo e Moreira, Marianne. (2025). Divide et Impera: Trump y America Latina. Revista Assuntos Globales, Consejo Argentino de Relaciones Internacionales, No. 02, p. 255-268. 

link: https://cari.org.ar/asuntos_globales

• Guimarães, Feliciano. (2025). Autonomia pela Reconstrução: a política externa do governo Lula III. Cadernos de Política Exterior IPRI/FUNAG, no. 16,  p. 149-172.

link: https://funag.gov.br/biblioteca-nova/produto/1-1314

• Buarque, Daniel; Guimarães, Feliciano; and Ribeiro, Miguel. (2025). Hindered Reform: How Brazil’s Failed Bid for a Permanent UNSC Seat Reflects the Council’s Immutability, Global Studies Quarterly, p. 1-12.

link: https://academic.oup.com/isagsq/article/5/3/ksaf072/8250827

• Wehner, Leslie; Guimarães, Feliciano; and Saraiva, Miriam. (2024). Populists and Regional Organizations: Bolsonaro's Brazil.  Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional (RBPI), Vol. 67, No. 01, p. 1-21.

link:  https://www.scielo.br/j/rbpi/a/WvggrLMdfRdD7JwLvcH985w/?lang=en

• Guimarães, Feliciano; Saraiva, Miriam; and Dutra, Irma. (2024). Brazil's rise and fall in world politics. In: Steve Smith, Tim Dunne, Amelia Hadfield, Nicholas Kitchen. (Org.). Foreign Policy Theories, Actors, Cases. 4ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 300-325. 

link: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/foreign-policy-9780192863072?cc=us&lang=en&

• Guimarães, Feliciano; Silva, Miquelasi, André; Silva, Irma; Alves, Gustavo; and Calandrin, Karina. (2023). The Evangelical Foreign Policy Paradigm: evangelical groups and Bolsonaro's foreign policy in Brazil. Third World Quarterly, Vol. 01, No. 01, p. 1-18

link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01436597.2023.2181154?src=&fbclid=IwAR1ptPo_7TeWnUli9IdR3hah_UhNf0STS-wLDSAnz1LKx7topy4W27IUUAc

• Kalout, Hussein and Guimarães, Feliciano. (2023).  The Restoration of Brazilian Foreign Policy: How Lula can make up for the lost time. Foreign Affairs, Vol. 01, No. 01, p. 1-18.

link: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/south-america/restoration-brazilian-foreign-policy

• Guimarães, Feliciano; Moreira, Davi; Silva, Irma; and Mello, Anna. (2023). Conspiracy Theories and Foreign Policy Narratives: Globalism in Jair Bolsonaro's foreign policy. Latin American Perspectives, No. 00, p. 1-32.

link: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0094582X221147504?fbclid=IwAR0dAprwHtSaoUNTaGL44BtDnGVxco1zH2yE9yWzi1Lnmp-6s18Q7gTlJcs#.Y9xM3zx4fF0.facebook

• Mongelli, Letícia; Guimarães, Feliciano; Silva, Irma; and Mello Anna. (2022). Populist Foreign Policy in the Global South: comparing Brazil and India far-right identity-sets. Book chapter in "The Rise of the Radical Right in the Global South" by Tatiana Vargas and Rosana Pinheiro-Machado (eds.). New York: Routledge.

link: https://www.routledge.com/The-Rise-of-the-Radical-Right-in-the-Global-South/Pinheiro-Machado-Vargas-Maia/p/book/9781032040356

• Guimarães, Feliciano; Silva, Irma; and Alves, Gustavo. (2022). From Regional Leader to Regional Antagonist: Bolsonaro’s anti-South American stance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Book chapter in "Regional and International Cooperation in South America: Challenges and Opportunities in the Post-pandemia" by Melisa Deciancio and Cintia Quiliconi (eds.) New York: Routledge. 

link: https://www.routledge.com/Regional-and-International-Cooperation-in-South-America-After-COVID-Challenges/Deciancio-Quiliconi/p/book/9781032129457

• Kalout, Hussein e Guimarães, Feliciano. (2022).  Uma política externa pendular entre EUA e China: o Brasil se protegendo para sobreviver. CEBRI-Revista, N. 04, p. 1-20.

link: https://cebri.org/revista/br/artigo/57/uma-politica-externa-pendular-entre-eua-e-china-o-brasil-se-protegendo-para-sobreviver

• Guimarães, Feliciano; and Silva, Irma. (2021).  Far-Right Populism and Foreign Policy Identity: Jair Bolsonaro's ultra-conservatism and the new politics of alignment. International Affairs, Vol. 97, No. 02, pp. 345-263.

link: https://academic.oup.com/ia/article-abstract/97/2/345/6159425?redirectedFrom=fulltext

• Guimarães, Feliciano; and Estre, Felipe.  (2021). Foreign Policy Analysis in Brazil: The Use of Middle-Range Theories. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of International Studies. Oxford University Press, p. 1-25. 

link: https://oxfordre.com/internationalstudies/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190846626.001.0001/acrefore-9780190846626-e-671

• Guimarães, Feliciano. (2020). The Uneasy Well-Placed State: Brazil within Latin America and the West. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, vol. 33, no. 04, pp. 603-619.

link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09557571.2020.1723059

• Wali, Waslam; Wasthuizen, Janis; Wehner, Leslie; Koga, Kei; Guimarães, Feliciano; and Thies, Cameron. (2020). Misplaced States and the Politics of Regional Identity. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, vol. 33, no. 04, pp. 505-526.

link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09557571.2020.1723061 

• Guimarães, Feliciano; and Maitino, Martin. (2019). Socializing Brazil into Regional Leadership: the 2006 Bolivian Gas Crisis and the role of small powers in promoting master role transitions.  Foreign Policy Analysis, Vol. 15, No. 01, pp. 1-20.

link: https://academic.oup.com/fpa/article/15/1/1/4564717

• Guimarães, Feliciano; and Almeida, Maria Hermínia. (2018). From Middle Powers to Entrepreneurial Powers in World Politics: Brazil’s Successes and Failures in International Crises. Latin American Politics and Society, Vol. 59, No. 04, pp. 26-66.

link: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/latin-american-politics-and-society/article/from-middle-powers-to-entrepreneurial-powers-in-world-politics-brazils-successes-and-failures-in-international-crises/A41A29EA8FCE0EDB3C0D11D1A5CD125E

• Guimarães, Feliciano; and Almeida, Maria Hermínia. (2018). Brazil's Entrepreneurial Power in World Politics: the Role of Great Powers and Regional Politics for Successful Entrepreneurship. International Journal, Vol. 78, No. 04, pp. 518-534.

link: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0020702018810876

Published book on Role Theory and Foreign Policy:

My book "A Theory of Master Role Transition: small powers shaping regional hegemons" was published in July 2020 by Routledge on the "Role Theory and International Relations" series (https://www.routledge.com/Role-Theory-and-International-Relations/book-series/RTIR).

In the book, I created a theory of master role transition for the interaction between regional powers and small powers. I developed five cases in which a small power contested and changed the dominant role of a regional power using an interactional strategy involving material and ideational instruments. The cases are the 2006 Brazil-Bolivia gas crisis, the 2008-2009 Brazil-Paraguay Itaipú Dam crisis, the 2008-2009 Brazil-Ecuador Odebrecht crisis, the 1994 South Africa-Lesotho military intervention crisis, and the 1996 India-Bangladesh Ganges water crisis.

Ongoing working papers on Brazilian Foreign Policy:

• Lafer, Celso and Guimarães, Feliciano. (2026). The Thriple Memory of Power: Brazil's Third World, Global South, and Western Foreign Policy Idenities.  Accepted at International Affairs.

• Guimarães, Feliciano; Buarque, Daniel and Calandrin, Karina.  (2024-2025-2026). Neutrality with a Bias: Brazil's Diplomatic Strategy in Ukraine. Paper under construction...

• Moraes, Tainá and Guimarães, Feliciano (2024-2025).  Agribusiness and Foreign Policy under Bolsonaro: The Role of the Parliamentary Agricultural Front (2019-2022) . Paper under construction...