Criticism of the concept of subimperialism: the South American dimension of Brazilian foreign policy and the limitations of dependentist analyzes

Abstract

The article aims to analyze the concept of sub-imperialism, inherent to the Marxist Theory of Dependence (TMD), verifying its formulation, application and validity to conceptualize the South American dimension of Brazilian foreign policy throughout the Lula governments (2003-2010). The hypothesis of the work is that the concept has limitations to define the Brazilian international insertion, reproducing visions that it claims to challenge. In the first section, a theoretical review of the concept of sub-imperialism will be presented. Then, the main criticisms of Brazilian foreign policy based on the concept of sub-imperialism will be exposed. Finally, these criticisms will be opposed to the propositions of Brazilian foreign policy regarding regional integration and bilateral relations with South American countries.

Keywords

• subimperialismo brasileiro. teoria marxista da dependência. integração sul-americana.