Translated and reviewed by Matheus Lucas Hebling
September 9, 2025
The book Política Externa, Lideranças Autoritárias e Ultraconservadorismo [Foreign Policy, Authoritarian Leaderships, and Ultraconservatism] (Appris, 2024), edited by Rubens de Siqueira Duarte (Brazilian Army Command and General Staff College, ECEME) and Carlos R. S. Milani (State University of Rio de Janeiro, UERJ), brings together research by twenty-one authors affiliated with the World Political Analysis Laboratory (Laboratório de Análise Política Mundial, LABMUNDO). The collection examines how ultraconservative and authoritarian governments, leaders, and movements shape the formulation of foreign policy, particularly in the Brazilian case.
The volume is the product of three years of collective reflection carried out between March 2021 and November 2023. Its point of departure is the question of whether there exists a transnational wave of authoritarian and ultraconservative governments, and what its effects on international agendas might be. Among other things, the authors ask how these leaders conceive of foreign policy and what the effects of Bolsonarismo have been in this field.
The book proposes a critical reassessment of the recurrent use of terms such as “populism” and “populist foreign policy,” arguing that these concepts, while useful, have limits when it comes to accounting for the empirical and historical specificities of the phenomena under analysis.
The first part of the book is devoted to analyzing the relationship between authoritarianism and multilateralism, focusing on the effects of Brazilian foreign policy between 2019 and 2022. One of the chapters proposes the concept of “democratic foreign policy” as a way of assessing whether executive branch actions align with constitutional precepts, with respect for institutions, and with political pluralism.
The authors argue that the Bolsonaro administration broke with these principles by weakening institutional channels of participation and by tying foreign policy to a personalist and ideological logic.
In the second part of the book, the chapters concentrate on themes such as LGBTI rights, gender policy, the environment, and international cooperation. These studies show how particular agendas were affected by the government’s ideological orientations, with special attention to climate denialism and the use of religious narratives in foreign policy. Also discussed are the consequences of alignment with far-right governments and the effects of downgrading multilateral and regional bodies.
In closing, the editors return to the proposal of assessing foreign policy as a public policy subject to rules, norms, and constitutional principles. The conclusion emphasizes that the Bolsonaro administration departed from these parameters by centralizing decision-making, weakening institutions, and promoting a diplomacy grounded in exclusion and antagonism. The book also proposes future research agendas on the effects of foreign policy on the construction — or erosion — of democracy, above all in countries of the Global South.
In summary
- The book investigates the effects of authoritarian and ultraconservative leaders on the formulation of foreign policy, with emphasis on the Brazilian case.
- The research is the product of three years of collective work carried out by twenty-one authors from the World Political Analysis Laboratory (LABMUNDO) between 2021 and 2023.
- The volume questions whether concepts such as “populism” and “populist foreign policy” are adequate for analyzing recent phenomena and proposes an approach centered on the idea of “democratic foreign policy.”
- The chapters offer a critical analysis of the foreign policy of the Bolsonaro administration (2019–2022), identifying ruptures with constitutional, institutional, and democratic principles.
- Themes examined include multilateralism, LGBTI rights, gender policy, the environment, the international activity of religious groups, and transnational far-right networks.
- The study concludes that Bolsonarista foreign policy broke with democratic parameters by centralizing decision-making, weakening institutions, and using diplomacy as an instrument of ideological antagonism.
About the editors
Rubens de Siqueira Duarte is an associate professor in the Graduate Program in Military Sciences at the Meira Mattos Institute, within the Brazilian Army Command and General Staff College (Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Militares, Instituto Meira Mattos, Escola de Comando e Estado-Maior do Exército — PPGCM-IMM-ECEME), coordinator of the World Political Analysis Laboratory (LABMUNDO), and a researcher at the Interdisciplinary Observatory on Climate Change (OIMC).
Carlos R. S. Milani is a full professor of International Relations at the Institute of Social and Political Studies of the State University of Rio de Janeiro (Instituto de Estudos Sociais e Políticos, IESP/UERJ), affiliated with the Graduate Program in Political Science. He coordinates the research group World Political Analysis Laboratory (LABMUNDO) and the Interdisciplinary Observatory on Climate Change (OIMC).
Publication details
Title: Política Externa, Lideranças Autoritárias e Ultraconservadorismo
Editors: Rubens de Siqueira Duarte and Carlos R. S. Milani
Publisher: Appris
Year of publication: 2024
ISBN: 9786525065540
Available from: Appris
Keywords: Brazilian foreign policy, authoritarianism, ultraconservatism, Bolsonarismo, democratic foreign policy, multilateralism, far right, LABMUNDO, populist foreign policy, climate denialism, LGBTI rights, gender policy, Global South, democratic erosion, international relations
