Measuring International Engagement: Systemic and Domestic Factors in Brazilian Foreign Policy from 1998 to 2014

The literature on Latin American Foreign Policy Analysis has long called for more empirical and theoretical rigor. Because foreign policy making is a multifaceted concept, there is a wide array of outcomes that scholars use interchangeably to proxy it, thus leading to unclear results on its main determinants. Using Brazil as a case study, we offer a methodological tool that, we believe, can contribute to further close this gap. We developed an index that quantifies the level of foreign policy engagement taking into account the decisions made by different governmental actors for 192 country dyads along 16 years.

长期以来，拉美外交政策分析领域的学术研究始终呼吁提升研究的实证与理论严谨性。由于外交决策是一个多维度的复杂概念，学者们常混用多种结果变量作为其代理指标，这使得学界难以就其核心决定因素得出清晰的研究结论。本研究以巴西为案例对象，提出了一套方法论工具，我们认为其可进一步助力填补这一研究缺口。我们构建了一项量化指数，该指标综合考量16年间192组国家二元关系下不同政府行为体的决策内容，以此量化外交政策参与程度。