Abstract

Departing from Euro- and Western-centric approaches, a more recent scholarship has explored the role of memory and trauma in the Global South in an effort to explore traumatic experiences and memory politics beyond the Holocaust. Looking into the case of Brazil, this chapter shows how colonial trauma has an impact on foreign policy. The chapter contends that Brazil suffers from a broad psychosocial condition that has come to be known as a “mongrel complex” that generates the desire for international validation of the country’s potential. As a result, Brazil’s long-held national aspirations to become a member of the United Nations Security Council, to lead peace operations, and to appoint the heads of key international organizations should be understood as a coping mechanism to transcend its mongrel complex. This is fueled by resentment and anxiety originating from Brazil’s socialization in a hierarchical international system that stigmatizes inferior, subaltern nations.

Erica Resende (ESG) and Paula Sandrin (IRI/PUC-Rio) | Chapter published in the book ”The Oxford Handbook of Emotions in International Relations, edited by Simon Koschut e Andrew A.G. Ross.