No 5 (2023)

“Where Brazil goes, all of Latin America goes.” This expression by American President Richard Nixon has been repeatedly confirmed in history. In the middle of the second decade of the current century in Latin America, the left turn began to be replaced by the “right”. Brazil’s foreign policy has also undergone changes caused by the reconfiguration of domestic politics: after 16 years of the Workers’ Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores, PT), as well as building a system of South American regional integration, forming a new identity of the country, conducting an active foreign policy in a multilateralism paradigm, a cautious approach to relations with the United States, Brazil sharply changed course. The article examines the evolution of the country’s foreign policy towards the Latin American region in the XXI century, while focusing on the analysis of changes in Brazil’s foreign policy vector in the context of regional cooperation and integration formats. Particular attention is paid to examining the position of Brazil in terms of regional leadership. The formation and change of the conceptual positioning of Brazil, the construction of the idea of “South America” and its role in regional integration are also discussed.

At the beginning of the XXI century Argentina remains one of Moscow's main partners in Latin America. At the same time, the tools, problems, and context of modern bilateral cooperation were formed during the post-war period. This article examines the place and role of Argentina in the foreign policy of the USSR in the era of the Cold War. Based on state documents, the press, foreign policy documents, the article shows how the links between the left movement of Argentina and the USSR influenced the development of bilateral relations. Considering the history of relations, the author shows the factors that influenced their formation. The article shows the features of Argentina in the context of the Latin American vector of the foreign policy of the USSR in the second half of the 20th century, with special attention paid to the relationship between economic and political contacts between the two countries. The study shows that the peculiarities of the political regime in Argentina and the assessments of the Argentine policy made by the Soviet side did not have a direct impact on the volume of trade between the countries; the political, economic and ideological contacts between the USSR and Argentina developed in parallel directions and did not have a direct connection with each other.

The authors review the main events of the First Spring School of Iberoamerican studies held in Saint-Petersburg on March 24-24 of 2023.