Level-­linkage in European Union – Brazil relations: an analysis of cooperation on climate change, trade, and human rights

This thesis explores EU-Brazil relations and answers the question of why these two actors have failed to use the bilateral level of their cooperation as a platform to enhance their coordination in multilateral arenas. The thesis develops a framework to explain the linkage between levels of cooperation within a particular bilateral relationship that focuses on both agents and issues. The argument of “level-linkage” is empirically tested in three case-studies: climate change, trade, and human rights. The thesis finds that the greater the openness of a regime to influences from other levels of cooperation, the more likely level-linkage is to occur. However, level-linkage is restricted to where the approaches of the two partners towards multilateralism are compatible. Preferences for partners were also not the main constraint to the promotion of an EU-Brazil strategic partnership in multilateral arenas. Instead, as this thesis reveals, the degree of coordination in national foreign policy-making institutions is the key determinant of level-linkage. These findings support the argument that the dynamics between agents and the specificities of issues do matter in explaining the relation between bilateral and multilateral levels of cooperation. In this light, this thesis contributes to the analysis of bilateral relationships within a multi-level structure, ultimately advancing academic research in international cooperation. It also contributes to the literature on foreign policy analysis and to an emerging body of scholarship in EU-Brazil relations