BETWEEN EUROPEAN MULTILATERALISM AND PAN-AMERICANISM

BRAZILIAN FOREIGN POLICY IN THE PERIODIC PRESS IN THE CONTEXT OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS - 1926

Abstract

The press can be understood as a “map maker”, that is, as an “environment maker” where foreign policy formulators, agents and analysts can act and contribute to form and inform parts of public opinion. The newspapers Correio da Manhã, Jornal do Commercio and O Estado de São Paulo, contributed to form distinct maps of how Brazil's foreign policy in the context of participation in the League of Nations took place. For the primordial year of 1926, the newspapers assume positions and build different maps on the performance of Brazil. Jornal do Commercio takes a broadly favorable stance towards Brazil's performance and realizes that the future of Brazilian foreign policy involves “firm” and “incisive” action and multilateral action on the global stage. Correio da Manhã, on the other hand, took a broadly critical stance towards what it called the president’s “intransigence”, defending that Brazil should consolidate its alliances with its American neighbors, defending a pan-americanism perspective. In turn, O Estado de São Paulo assumed a position of non-automatic alignment and, at the same time, critical of the actions of Brazilian diplomacy, creating another specific perspective for its readership.