IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/ctwqxx/v46y2025i1p38-58.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The curious case of vandals: Brazil’s environmental and regional policies in the Bolsonaro years

Author

Listed:
  • Monika Sawicka

Abstract

This paper aims to contribute to the debate on foreign policy strategies of state actors in the international system with a particular focus on policies pursued by far-right populist leaders. On the theoretical level, it builds on role theory and status-seeking strategies drawn from social identity theory (SIT) to offer an enhanced conceptual framework suitable for scrutinising more radical forms of international activism. The theoretical points are then illustrated empirically by exposing the findings from content analysis of Brazilian policymakers’ speeches and their juxtaposition with the Bolsonaro government’s policies in the areas of environmental protection and regional cooperation. The author’s main claim is that President Jair Bolsonaro and his Foreign Affairs Minister Ernesto Araújo, through their rhetoric about cooperation in South America and the Amazon and the actions undertaken by the administration in these fields, envisioned for Brazil the role of vandal. This had substantial consequences for the country’s international standing.

Suggested Citation

  • Monika Sawicka, 2025. "The curious case of vandals: Brazil’s environmental and regional policies in the Bolsonaro years," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(1), pages 38-58, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:ctwqxx:v:46:y:2025:i:1:p:38-58
    DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2024.2435482
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/01436597.2024.2435482
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/01436597.2024.2435482?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:ctwqxx:v:46:y:2025:i:1:p:38-58. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/ctwq .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.