Brazil President Lula looks on as President Obama welcomes

Lula’s then chief of staff, Dilma Rousseff, to the White House.

 

 

El Pais, Spain

Brazil’s Rousseff and America’s Obama: An ‘Irresistible Pair’

 

“A powerful alliance between Brazil and the United States may be one of the most important geopolitical innovations of our time … these commitments would be a price worth paying to forge an alliance that can have such enormous positive impact. ... For Brazilians, this will involve a difficult change: to stop believing that what’s good for the United States is bad for Brazil.”

 

By Moisés Naím

 

Translated By Andrea Rouse

 

November 14, 2010

 

Spain - El Pais – Original Article (Spanish)

In June 2003, Brazil’s new president traveled to Washington to meet George W. Bush. On the eve of that meeting, I published a column in the Financial Times in which I urged Bush to be as bold with Brazil as he was still in regard to Iraq. Only, in the case of Brazil, I asked that instead of seeking regime change in Brasilia, he should do everything possible to bolster the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Bush should have proposed an offer that Lula couldn’t refuse: a wide-ranging and generous trade agreement, solid backing for social programs that the Brazilian leader had promised during his campaign, and he should have made it clear to global financial markets (which still viewed Lula with suspicion) that the White House believed in the former union leader and would give him unconditional support.

 

I wrote then that such a pact between the two giants would transform not only Brazil, but the entire region. If both countries pledged to reduce restrictions on international trade, jointly safeguard democracy on the continent, and invite neighbors to join this alliance, it would trigger a positive economic and political revolution in the hemisphere; because for other countries to be excluded from an agreement of this magnitude would impose prohibitive costs.

 

In that column I also recognized how easy it would be to make fun of my proposal … and my naiveté.

 

That first meeting between Lula and Bush was very successful and the conservative American and Labor Party Brazilian shocked the world with a very cordial beginning. But nothing else happened. There was no interest from the White House in following through on such proposals to Brazil. And fortunately, Lula didn’t need Washington to fuel the tremendous progress his country achieved during his presidency. But seven years later, my idea is still valid.

 

A powerful alliance between Brazil and the United States may be one of the most important geopolitical innovations of our time - and perhaps the most viable. It isn’t that Brazilian soldiers are going to die in arbitrary U.S. wars or that Brasilia would abide by the dictates of Washington. Those times are gone, and the United States can't even rely on the unconditional support of traditional allies like the British or Canadians.

 

This is about reaching a series of “very possible” agreements on key issues that are important for both countries as well as the rest of the world. From trade relations to climate change, from financial reform and international trade to nuclear proliferation or the way the world handles the inevitable dislocation caused by the growing economic and political might of China, India, and of course, Brazil. It’s obvious that both countries should make concessions and that for the superpower of the North and the giant in the South, it won’t be easy to accept some of the other’s conditions. But that’s the way things work. It’s vital to understand that these commitments would be a price worth paying to forge an alliance that can have such enormous positive impact.

 

 

SEE ALSO ON THIS:

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Estadao, Brazil: Rhetoric Triumphs Over Reality in Latin America

El Tiempo, Colombia What Good is Latin America's New U.S.-Free 'Community'?

Folha, Brazil: Latin American Unity Cannot Be Dependent on Excluding the U.S.

La Razon, Bolivia: Latin America Has Excluded the U.S. … So What Now?

La Jornada, Mexico: Latin America's March Toward 'Autonomy from Imperial Center'

 

 

My suggestion, then, is that Dilma Rousseff, Brazil’s next president, make Barack Obama an offer so attractive that he can’t afford the luxury of rejecting it. For many reasons, Obama will be much more receptive to this chance to make history than his predecessor. For Brazilians, this will involve a difficult change: to stop believing that what’s good for the United States is bad for Brazil. Sometimes it is, and the interests of one clash with those of the other; but in many cases - no. In fact, the areas where there are common interests are more numerous and important than those where there are, and will remain, irreconcilable differences.  

Posted by WORLDMEETS.US

 

I’m quite familiar with the list of objections and obstacles to this proposal. And I know that it’s still a bit naive. But it’s not a bad exercise for the next president of Brazil to think boldly about how to revolutionize the country’s relationship with the United States. The potential for progress that such a partnership would unleash if this naiveté becomes reality is too great for Rousseff not to imagine and explore. Skepticism can sometimes be more of an obstacle and a constraint than naiveté.

 

mnaim@elpais.es  

CLICK HERE FOR SPANISH VERSION    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US November 19, 1:49pm]