This thesis examines the development of thinking about security in Brazil between 1930 and 2010 in the light of Jessé Souza’s theory of emotional action (TEA). Souza’s TEA is a critique of Brazilian social theorizing in which the author argues that political and academic common sense in that country has been informed by a restrictive set of ideas on Brazilian identity and development. Thus, this thesis provides grounds for exploring the validity of his claims about Brazilian social theorizing by applying his critique to thinking about security in Brazil. It attempts this in three different political contexts. First, the thesis looks at the ideas informing security during Getúlio Vargas’ first government (1930-1945), when thinking about security was put forward by authoritarian actors under an authoritarian regime. Second, it explores thinking about security produced at the Escola Superior de Guerra (ESG) – the so-called Brazilian Doctrine of National Security (DNS). The ESG was where conservative and authoritarian actors regrouped after the Estado Novo regime to think about security during the democratic interregnum (1945-1964); these were the two decades between the end of the Estado Novo and the establishment of the 1964 regime, and the DNS became the only way of thinking about security until the end of the military dictatorship in 1985. Third, it investigates thinking about security in post-redemocratisation Brazil (1985-2010). In order to analyze thinking about security developed by democratic actors under a democratic regime, this thesis looks at knowledge production in Brazilian International Relations (IR). The analysis of these three different contexts sustains the argument that independently from the type of actor (authoritarian/democratic) or of political regime (authoritarian/democratic), thinking about security in Brazil has been mainly concerned with reifying and reproducing particular claims about identity and state development. By examining the relationship between the state and intellectuals, and intellectuals and knowledge production, the thesis also expands Souza’s TEA. Furthermore, it analyzes how different intellectual sectors have strategized their claims about identity and development to fit specific political purposes. After examining how Brazil has traditionally been ‘worlded’ in relation to the concept of security, the thesis concludes by contending that a ‘re-worlding’ of the assumptions that underlie thinking about security in Brazil is an important, necessary and urgent part of the engagement of Brazilian IR with contemporary forms of theorizing.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:546066 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Lima, Laura |
| Contributors | Booth, Kenneth ; Taylor, Lucy |
| Publisher | Aberystwyth University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hdl.handle.net/2160/e5d33550-2904-41f1-989d-ff6d0cd0924a |
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