Description
The paper seeks to analyse, through Brazilian government’s official documents and diplomatic telegrams, the process of building a strategic partnership between Brazil and the Kingdom. This process began in 1995, after Brazil's political and economic stabilisation, but gained momentum from 2003 onwards, driven by Lula's international popularity and Brazil's rise as an emerging power. On the other hand, this research also seeks to understand how the symbolic dimension of this mechanism of international cooperation can communicate political messages. Thus, the central idea is that this symbolic dimension can be politically instrumentalised and therefore incorporated into a strategy of cultural diplomacy. Based on this framework, the research argues that during Lula's government, Brazil not only deepened its strategic partnership with the UK but changed its terms in favour of Brazilian interests. It demonstrates that this was due to Celso Amorim's "bold and active" foreign policy, together with the impact of the symbolic dimension of the Brazil-UK strategic partnership. Finally, this research contributes to the field of International Relations in three ways. Firstly, by presenting an original empirical study of the Brazil-UK strategic partnership case. Secondly, by proposing a broader reflection on the practice of cultural diplomacy, by analyzing the symbolic dimension of strategic partnerships as a conduit for cultural diplomacy initiatives. Thirdly, by producing it from a Brazilian perspective.
