Latin America and the transitions in global power: the case of Brazil

During the last twenty-eight years, the structure of the international system has undergone changes that have reconfigured the capabilities of the States and their correlation of forces, creating opportunities for countries that project themselves as emerging and challenges for the United States that seeks to maintain its power to shape the world order. These constitutive transformations show that, in this early stage of the 21st century, the world has entered a new cycle of dispute between powers, forcing the countries of Latin America to apply strategies to insert themselves in this unprecedented order and thus to achieve opportunities to influence the international agenda. That is the case of Brazil, which under post-neoliberal governments, positioned itself as the leader of South America and sought to become an emerging power.