Impacts of prolonged peace on Brazilian politics

Abstract

The purpose of the thesis is to find out how prolonged peace affects the politics and national goals of countries. Peace has become one of the major study areas in both international and domestic politics. The relationship between war making efforts and increasing the state capacity has been examined in the cases of developed countries, especially in Europe in the twentieth century. However, the findings of such studies are not all applicable for the developing countries in the Third World, and the relation between the interstate peace and the state capacity of countries has not been analyzed in depth. Finding out the effects of regional peace on contemporary Brazilian politics is valuable to understand the course of international relations with the absence of a clear threat of international war. This is becoming increasingly true of other important regions of the world, such as the European Union, Southern Africa, and the former Soviet states, where major interstate war seems unlikely. Moreover explaining more cooperative foreign policies, the priority of economic wealth generation in domestic affairs, and the institutional changes, especially in the military, in the case of Brazil will be helpful in a comparative perspective to understand countries that will be experiencing similar environments.