A identidade sul-Americana na política externa brasileira: uma análise de discurso do terceiro governo Lula (2023-2026)

Abstract

This paper analyzes South American identity in Brazilian foreign policy. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s third presidential election brought the issue of South American integration back to the forefront of the Brazilian Foreign Policy (BFP) agenda, which resumed its engagement with regional organizations. Among his speeches, one of the priority regional themes is the strengthening of the South American bloc through the formation of a collective identity. Thus, the research question examines how a South American identity may have been incorporated into the presidential foreign policy discourses of Lula’s third administration (2023–2026). This study employs the Discourse Analysis methodology, based on Eni Orlandi (2012), given the understanding of discourse as a linguistic practice in which meaning is produced through the relationship between the subject’s ideological formation - which is influenced by language and discursive memory - and the socio-historical process in which the subject is embedded. The analysis revealed that the discursive process generated two distinct meanings for the speeches intended to shape identity, depending on their context of production and their audience. At the regional level, the meaning of Brazil’s reintegration and its return to its responsibility toward the region is observed; while at the global level, South American identity emerges as a means for Brazil’s international integration.