Foreign Policy Analysis methodology to understand the diffusion of Brazil's agri-food policy under Lula's government

The purpose of this article is to promote theoretical explanations about the international diffusion process of Brazilian agri-food policy under the two mandates of former President Lula da Silva (2003-2010), based on the analysis of Foreign Policy, widely used in International Relations to understand the course of action of governments based on their foreign policy. Methodologically, the intention is to clarify aspects of this dissemination process, based on the identification of the actors involved, their claims and the course of their actions, offering, in this sense, alternative and complementary explanations to the most established studies on the processes of public policy diffusion. The main findings are two set of actors, who have influenced two courses of action: the first one linked with the cooperation with Latin American countries about, mainly, family farmer and social public policies (cash transfer, school feed); and the second linked with the Brazilian cooperation with some African countries on topics related to agribusiness and scientific research and improvement of agricultural techniques.