Pivotal States: A New Era for U.S.-Brazil Relations?

With his trip to Washington in February 2023, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, better known as Lula, set out to “kickstart a new era of relations” with the United States under President Joe Biden—voicing shared commitments to safeguarding democracy and addressing climate change. Yet six months later, U.S.-Brazil relations have deteriorated, with the two states at odds over the response to Russia’s war against Ukraine and relations with China.

As the United States seeks to broaden its coalition beyond traditional allies, what potential does the U.S.-Brazil relationship hold for U.S. foreign policy? And how might these geopolitical divergences affect the United States’ and Brazil’s ability to cooperate on key transnational challenges, like climate change?

Join the director of the Carnegie Endowment’s American Statecraft Program, Chris Chivvis, for a discussion with Margaret Myers, director of the Asia & Latin America Program at the Inter-American Dialogue, and Matias Spektor, professor and associate dean at the Fundação Getulio Vargas’s School of International Relations, on Washington’s strategic alternatives in its relations with Brazil.