Política e Cultura: a diplomacia cultural como ferramenta de política externa durante o regime militar brasileiro

Abstract

This research aims to analyze how the Brazilian military regime used cultural diplomacy as a foreign policy tool, to project an image abroad that was in line with the government's interests. To this end, the analysis will use as a basis the policies developed within the scope of cultural diffusion in the music sector, since the 1960s and 1970s are important for Brazilian musical production. Thus, the work seeks to make conceptual definitions of power, soft power, cultural diplomacy, and foreign policy, in addition to contextualizing the environment in which the 1964 coup took place and outlining the foreign policy guidelines of the military regime’s. Finally, we seek to understand how cultural diplomacy was inserted into the foreign policy of the period and present the practices developed within the scope of musical diffusion. The methodology used in the research was a descriptive and qualitative analysis carried out using the bibliographic review method and consultation of official documents from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs available on the Alexandre Gusmão Foundation (FUNAG) website. It is concluded that the military regime used several strategies to project Brazil's image abroad using cultural diplomacy.