US-Brazilian relations.(Reseña de libro)

The United States and Brazil: A Long Road of Unmet Expectations By Mônica Hirst; conclusion by Andrew Hurrell. London, New York: Routledge, 2004, 160 pages. $75 hardcover; $18.95 paperback.

The US-Brazil relationship is so complex and so different from US relations with the countries of Hispanic America that, even among hemispheric policy makers, few in the United States understand it. When other countries of the region looked to the United States for leadership, Brazil sought partnership. When others looked northward for direction, Brazil looked inward. US insensitivity to the differences Brazil cherishes, combined with Brazil's insistence that it owes the US no explanations, have for too many years left each side believing the other has acted unreasonably, capriciously or simply from a desire to provoke. As this book notes, the result has been "unmet expectations" in both countries.

By discussing the contemporary bilateral relationship in historical context and examining some of the factors shaping it today, Mônica Hirst does an admirable job of describing what makes US relations with Brazil different from those with other countries in the region, explaining the complexities of alliance between two of what George Kennan has termed the world's five "monster" countries. But Hirst's task, complicated from the start, is made more difficult by the format of the series of which it forms a part.

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