ABSTRACT
The United States (US) and Brazil both occupy the American continent, although plainly the northern location of the former and the southern location of the latter marks a real distinction and brings with it important policy consequences. Moreover, the US is not only a regional actor in the Americas but also arguably the world’s ‘only superpower’. The emphasis in this chapter, therefore, is on what might be termed the ‘politics of predominance’ in US foreign policy and the ways in which this has changed during the post-Cold War period. As for Brazil, it is a large and potentially influential country, but one which has a rather different experience of change and challenge. Its domestic economic and political circumstances have been much more turbulent than its northerly neighbour and (also unlike the US) it cannot be regarded as a significant global actor. The foreign policy of Brazil is perforce one in which the regional dimension is the dominant trend.
