The title at hand is a valuable and timely edited volume that sheds light onthe economic, political, literary, social, cultural, religious, and historical connectionsbetween Brazil and the Middle East. Whereas the Middle East in thisrespect primarily means the area historically referred to as bilād al-shām (i.e.,Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Israel), the book also tackles the historicallinkages among Brazil, Muslim Andalusia, and West Africa. Structurally,the volume is divided into three parts, which are preceded by anintroduction by the editor.Part 1, “South-South Relations, Security Politics, Diplomatic History,”includes five papers, the first four of which are more or less straightforwardtreatments of political history/science. Paul Amar sketches the dynamic strategicchanges in policy toward the region and hegemonic American power duringthe early presidency of Dilma Rousseff (2010-13) in the face of majorchanges in the Middle East that rendered her continuation of the “handshakepolitics” that her predecessor Lula had extended toward the now-crumblingdictatorial regimes unfeasible. In the following chapter, Paulo Daniel EliasFarah discusses one of the fruits of Lula’s endeavors: the formation of theSummit of South America-Arab States in 2003. He situates this diplomaticconcord within a long history of contacts between Brazil and the Arab/Muslimworld as well as the transnational flows of forced and free migration, as epitomizedby the presence of enslaved West African Muslims and then, later on,Syro-Lebanese settlers in Brazil.Carlos Ribeiro Santana’s contribution sheds light on Brazil’s pragmatismin fostering relationships with the Middle East to secure its oil supplies againstthe background of the energy crises of the 1970s. This thread is also pickedup in the following paper by Monique Sochaczweski, which details how thesevery configurations caused Brazil to abandon its “equidistance” policy ...
The Middle East and Brazil