Foreword
1. The Tehran Declaration: a Missed Opportunity?
2. Brazil and the Middle East
3. Doha: the Crucial Years
Index
Celso Amorim is Brazil’s longest-serving foreign minister (1993-1994; 2003-2010). He was also Minister of Defense (2011-2014). Foreign Policy magazine referred to him in 2009 as the “world’s best foreign minister,” and in 2010 placed him sixth in its list of “Top 100 Global Thinkers.”
This is an interesting account of Brazil’s newly assertive foreign
policy during the years the author was the country’s longest
serving foreign minister (1993–94, 2003–10). Three detailed case
studies illustrate how Brazil extended its diplomatic reach to the
global stage during these years. First, Brazil pursued a peaceful,
negotiated solution to the Iranian nuclear issue; second, Brazil
engaged in sustained diplomatic efforts in relation to the Middle
East, including recognition for Palestine; and, third, the country
played a leading role in the Doha Round of multilateral trade
negotiations. The behind-the-scenes discussion of each case study
illustrates how an ambitious actor such as Brazil was able to have
influence in each global issue.... The book closes with extensive
notes and an index. The volume will be of particular interest as a
reference document for those interested in Latin American foreign
policies as well as in rising powers in general. Summing Up:
Recommended. Graduate students through faculty.
*CHOICE*
During the 2003-10 presidency of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the
energetic foreign minister Amorim traveled widely to expand
Brazil's global influence. In his highly intelligent and richly
detailed memoir, the wily, sharp-tongued diplomat seeks to justify
his controversial and ill-fated attempt to insert Brazil into
negotiations over Iran's nuclear program and to explain his more
sure-footed and well-informed but equally unsuccessful effort to
secure a deal during the World Trade Organization's failed Doha
Round of trade negotiations.
*Foreign Affairs*
As Brazil's foreign minister in the government of President Lula da
Silva, Celso Amorim turned Brazil into a major actor on the world
stage. In this thoughtful and instructive memoir, he perceptively
reviews some memorable achievements, among them initiatives that
could have led to an early resolution of the issue of the Iranian
nuclear program. The record he compiled is a model of what the
world desperately needs: not threats and violence, but judicious
and careful diplomacy.
*Noam Chomsky*
Celso Amorim’s latest book provides a vivid and insightful account
of the roles and responsibilities of the foreign minister as Brazil
rose to be a world power. Brazil must take a leading role in
tackling the complex challenges facing our global community, and
Celso Amorim has shown how that can be done.
*Kofi Annan, Former United Nations Secretary-General, Nobel Peace
Prize laureate*
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