“Brazil above Everything or God above Everyone?”

Abstract

Abstract Brazil, limited in military capability or economic reach in comparison to other emerging nations, has resorted to soft-power strategies in recent years. Brazilian presidents have incorporated religious actors and frames as an important piece of their soft-power strategies, since the country is home to globally significant Catholic and Protestant populations. This chapter identifies three potential explanations for variation across presidential administrations: (1) religion is used to convey a particular national identity or to construct a specific foreign policy narrative; (2) presidents use religion as part of their struggle for power vis-à-vis other international actors; and (3) deployment of religion is the outcome of domestic religious groups fighting for domestic power. All three hypotheses shed light on how religion has moved from a matter of international power to a matter of national and partisan identity, thanks to the growing influence of religious groups in Brazilian politics and foreign policymaking.