How Leadership Matters: China's Implication To Brazil

Currently, the world is experimenting a new world order, where there is a growing number of states with influence and power in its own geographical region. There is no unilateralism anymore. Multilateralism faces the new international scenario. Each region seems to have its own leadership. This new world order led Jim O `Neill, an economist at Goldman Sachs Group, to talk about the BRIC, that means, Brazil, Russia, India and China, based on the thesis that the economies of these countries have been developed so that, in the year 2050, will eclipse the richest countries in the world today. These countries together represent more than 40% of the population of the whole world and together have a GDP of more than 85 trillion U.S. dollars. With all its importance and the BRICS exercise to promote great influence on economic and military policy worldwide.However, the object of this research is going to be the two bigger countries in the east and west regions, China and Brazil, respectively. Considering this two regional powers and their different region, one in the East and the other in the West, and also considering the fact that both countries share some similar identities like their size, economic development, demography, geography and military skills. Obviously, they are not the same and their database is far from being the same, but it would be interesting for International Relations studies to analyze how these different factors work in their own continent, considering different historical and cultural perspective, and how those factors create different kind of international relations in the world.In the last thirty years, China introduced a program of economic reforms, a combination of government policy and private initiative in local levels with the use of efficient and cheap labor in the context of an open economy to the international trade, attracting foreign investment and importing of new technologies.The rise of China has been altered the structure of power and the nature of the regional system. The neighboring countries strengthened their economic ties with China to promote a strategic partnership and maintain the stability in the region.Brazil has, in this sense, the geo-economic and demographic weight, the considerable size of the internal market, the assessment of economic and political indicators, the immensity of the problems and challenges as well as the traditional attributes of power that has exercised, the natural ability of a regional power, resulting for being an active player of international relations and a regional anchor in South America. In this context, the neighboring states live in the most pacific way, ensuring the stability in the region, like happen in East Asia.Chapter 1. Regional Power and Leadership: a theoretical analysisRegional power is a term used in the field of international relations to describe a country with power and influence that allows it to have a given control over their geographic region. A regional power can be considered as a term interchangeable, all regional powers carriers are in a different position in the hierarchy of power. If it has any great power or superpower on a main region, the given status of a regional power is automatically, even if its power influence and spread out well beyond the limits of the region.For the analysis of the case study it is interesting to appraise regional power and leadership and explain both meanings according to realist assumption. The realists predict that when has an emerging country in a region the smaller states tend to balance against this hegemon, like it was a threat for the peaceful coexistence of the other states in the region. However, this research is going to criticize this theory and prove with the study of Brazil and China case that is happening the opposite in the international arena.Chapter 2. China's Leadership in East AsiaAsia is highlighted by the absence of war among the major states and the continuity of its fixed boundaries. This region was considered more stable than the European continent in the period 1300-1900, which will be the object of this case study, including the decline of Mongol Yuan dynasty in the years of 1300 and the arrival of the West in 1900. Japan, Korea and Vietnam are the countries in focus in the relations involving China in Asia, for being the main actors in this hierarchical and stable system. The system of Asia was a formal hierarchy and informal equality in the system. Since the less powerful countries paid tribute to China, the powerful country in the region, this would not have reason to interfere in the domestic politics of neighboring countries. The behavior of countries surrounding China in that time is against the most famous theory in international relations and the anomaly exists because there was a bandwagon with, instead of having a balance against China, which was the most powerful country in the system.Chapter 3. Brazil's Leadership in Latin AmericaBrazil is historically rich and recently had experimented an expressive economic growth. Also, it is known for its localization, the fifth biggest land area in the world and growth inhabitants. The study case is focused in the historic background of this country since its Independence in 1822. Also, it is important to emphasize the great wars in the region after Independence, the Argentina-Brazil War, Platine War and Paraguayan War, which were the ones that made Brazil to consolidate its territory, its borders and power in South America.Despite all of this, the smaller neighboring countries seem to be less worried about Brazil's emergence and consequently, leadership in the region. Since the Paraguay War, there was not any conflict that could threat the instability in the region and to bother the peaceful coexistence between Brazil and the smaller countries.ConclusionThe conclusion of this research will discuss about the China's implication to Brazil, due to the similarities found in both continents that are contradicting the famous International Relations theory of Realism.After the study of these particular cases, Brazil and China in international relations, it seems important to emphasize the fact that both regional powers shared the same relations with their surrounding countries. The realism theory predicts that, with an emerging power the smaller states tend to balance against and to cooperate to threat it. However, this is not occurring in Latin America and East Asia. These regional powers are sharing the same experience in international relations, showing that the western theories bring a lack in trying to explain the peaceful rising of a regional power and the absence of balancing against it in the eastern region.Therefore, with this comparison of Brazil and China and their relations with the neighboring countries, the study intend to explain how this leadership create different kind of international relations and curiously make the surrounding countries, actually, to bandwagon with the rising power instead of balancing against them and, so, building a peaceful environment for the growing of these regional powers.