Emerging Powers - Brazil

Geography: Edexcel A Level, topic 9.2.4

Brazil - Economic, Political and Military

Brazil has a large volume of natural resources, but it has not been particularly stable politically since 2010.

Brazil is a regional power in South America and produces half of the region’s GDP.
Its economy is growing and is predicted to grow by 2.3% in 2018.
However, it relies on primary products for export and this is considered less stable than manufacturing.
It has huge natural resource reserves.
It is self-sufficient in food and energy and has been a net exporter of oil since 2011.
It has a large oil and gas sector and is the world’s 10th largest oil producer.

Brazil has been politically less stable in recent years. It has had protests every year since 2013.
Recently a 10-day strike of Brazil’s truckers saw the country grind to a halt as nothing was transported around the country.
There is growing unrest because of government spending cuts and accusations of government corruption.
Dilma Rousseff, the 36th President of Brazil, found herself impeached in a growing corruption scandal involving the Brazilian upper classes.

Brazil makes up 60% of South America’s total military budget.
But Brazil’s military spending is significantly lower than that of the other BRIC nations.
As a percentage of GDP, the total military expenditure has been falling since 1985.
In 2017 Brazil spent 2.166% of its GDP on its military according to the World Bank.

Brazil has a global cultural influence and has favourable demographics over the next few years.

Brazil has global cultural influence through its world-famous Rio carnival and through sports.
Hosting the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympic games in 2016 has helped increase Brazil’s global influence.
However, its national language, Portuguese, is unlikely to be used globally, so it is hard to exert its power and culture through multimedia TNCs like the USA.

Brazil is arguably in a better demographic position than many of the other BRIC nations.
It has a young population with a median age of 31.3 in 2015.
However, the fertility rate is falling and fell from 6 in 1960 to 1.8 in 2015. If this decline continues, an ageing population could result.

Brazil faces major environmental issues- namely deforestation of the Amazon rainforest.
The Amazon rainforest is home to 13% of the world’s biodiversity.
Brazil does support global initiatives, such as the UN Global Climate Change Conference however it needs to deal with its own environmental issues too.

Brazil managed to see an 80% decrease in large-scale deforestation of the Amazon between 2004-2012 by increasing law enforcement, expanding protected areas and recognizing indigenous tribes and their territories.
They managed to achieve this whilst increasing production of cattle and soy. These were two of the main causes of deforestation.
However, between 2015-2017, Brazil’s deforestation rate has doubled again as the political unrest means the law enforcement efforts have relaxed.