Utopias in International Relations: Brazil, the Global South and the West

Based on an in-depth reflection on the role of utopias in political projects that intervene in international relations, this article aims to analyse the change of direction of Brazil's foreign policy in the period 2003-2022. This involves observing the transformation of the country's international action, from a position of defender of the Global South to one of champion of the West. To this end, this proposal will make use of the information offered by primary sources -official documents and speeches of the presidency and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs- and secondary sources -analysis of academic publications-. With this in mind, it will provide an extensive theoretical introduction, through which it will genealogically address utopian thinking in the discipline of International Relations and the field of Foreign Policy Analysis. Subsequently, it will define two discursive strategies that allude to antagonistic projects of international insertion based on opposing utopian imaginaries, and which have guided the Brazilian worldview of international reality in the first two decades of the twentyfirst century: the Brazil of the Global South and the Brazil of the West. By way of conclusion, the paper will offer some final reflections, highlighting the role played by both representations in Brazil's domestic and international projection for the government's term of office that started in 2023. It is understood that both worldviews have their origins in Brazil's tradition of international thought, but also incorporate variables that refer to transnational utopian projects.