XVII Congress of the Brazilian Studies Association

Cold War U.S.-Brazil interactions: self-help diplomacy, the seeds of neoliberalism, and foreign interference resistance

Session Submission Type: Complete Panel

Abstract

This panel features three research papers exploring the interactions between the U.S. government and Brazil from John Kennedy's administration in the early 1960s to the end of Jimmy Carter's term in the early 1980s. It brings a closer analysis of how Washington conducted its relationship with Brasília chronologically starting from the last years of its democratic period until the beginning of President João Figueiredo's administration, the last head of state of the military regime. This discussion explores different aspects of the U.S. foreign policy strategies that varied from the use of financial aid for housing projects during the Alliance for Progress era, the adoption of an economic narrative emphasizing 'self-help' and, finally, Carter's human rights discourse amid Ernesto Geisel's presidency and Brazil's government idea of a "slow, gradual and safe" transition to civilian rule. Collectively, these papers seek to demonstrate how dynamic economic, political, and social domestic landscapes in both countries shaped the interactions between both countries throughout two decades.

Sub Unit

• XVII Congress of the Brazilian Studies Association

Individual Presentations

• Aided Self-Help Housing and the Latin American City: The Contentious Relations between CEPAL and Alliance for Progress in Northeast Brazil during the Cold War - Yuri Gama, University of Massachusetts Amherst

• 'Real Self-Help' and the Seeds of Neoliberalism: Foreign Aid to Brazil from Kennedy to Johnson - Andre Pagliarini, Hampden-Sydney College

• Between human rights discourses and interference: the interactions between President Jimmy Carter's and the Brazilian military dictatorship - Lucas de Souza Martins, Temple University

Chair

• Rafael Ioris, University of Denver

Moderator

• Melissa Teixeira, University of Pennsylvania

Session Organizer

• Lucas de Souza Martins, Temple University