Pluralization of Brazilian foreign environmental policy

Abstract

The project aims at understanding how the transformation in patterns of participation in Brazilian environmental foreign policy affect Brazilian international positions on climate change. Over the last 30 years, Brazilian environmental foreign policy evolved from an insulated discussion, centralized by diplomats, to a complex subsystem, open to the participation of various state and non-state actors. The inclusion of new actors in these debates radically affects the policy process and outputs, with impacts over the ideas, interests and institutions that produce climate and foreign policy. To understand these transformations, we integrate quantitative and qualitative analysis. We use Network Analysis techniques and a database covering all participants in Brazilian environmental foreign policy from 1970 to 2018 (product of FAPESP Project 2020/07387-1) to describe the evolution of participation patterns and changes in actor influence in the policy network over time. This is combined with the analysis of semi-structured interviews with members of the climate foreign policy community, primary documents and diplomatic discourse to identify ideas held by participants and the relations between participation and policy. To better develop the qualitative analysis of the interaction among actors and their ideas and to refine theoretical implications of the research, it will be better developed in a global center with excellency in Foreign Policy Analysis with experience in Brazilian foreign policy, global climate and constructivist studies, such as the POLSIS at the University of Birmingham.