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February 12, 2001
Council on Foreign Relations
February 12, 2001 - With growing fears regarding the international economy, with Colombia on the edge of further chaos, and with the Summit of the Americas approaching in April and trade disputes between Brazil and Canada jeopardizing Brazil’s participation, Latin America in general—and Brazil in particular—are coming to the forefront of U.S. policy challenges. In response to this situation, a blue-ribbon Independent Task Force sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations offers two recommendations:
First, that the United States needs a focal point to its policy in South America and that Brazil become that focal point. This is because Brazil is the pivotal state there, and because the United States and Brazil now share many key objectives in the hemisphere.
Second, that President Bush move swiftly to establish a standing high-level dialogue with Brazil on key issues ranging from drugs to trade to democratization to combating terrorism and transregional crime. The Task Force stresses that this can and should be done without the United States diminishing its ties to other Latin American states. The purpose of the bilateral dialogue is to enhance coherence and effectiveness of policy, not to exclude others.
"Latin America is going to become more important to the United States in the coming years, and more troublesome as well," said Stephen Robert, chair of the Task Force and Chancellor of Brown University and Chairman of Robert Capital Management. The Task Force was under the direction of Kenneth Maxwell, CFR Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Inter-American Affairs and Director of the Latin America Program. The Task Force included leading industrialists, bankers, scholars, and policy analysts. A list of members is attached.
U.S. policy toward Brazil in recent years, the Task Force states, has been one of benign neglect de facto. This attitude has had a negative impact on U.S. interests in the region. Unless this neglect is arrested, costs will be far greater. To correct this situation and to focus the work of the high-level dialogue between the United States and Brazil, the Task Force recommends the following agenda:
In sum, the Task Force argues that both Brazil and the United States have much to gain from an enhanced relationship, and that now is the time to act.
The full report is available at Brazil Task Force. A list of Task Force members is attached.
INDEPENDENT TASK FORCE ON BRAZIL
Sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations
CHAIR:
Stephen Robert, Chairman, Robert Capital Management, LLC; Chancellor of Brown University; former Chairman and CEO of Oppenheimer Group, Inc.
SIGNATORY TASK FORCE MEMBERS:
Diego C. Asencio, President, Diego Asencio & Associates; former U.S. Ambassador to Brazil
Mario L. Baeza, Chairman and CEO, TCW/Latin America Partners, LLC
Alain Belda, Chairman, President, and CEO, Alcoa Inc.
Nancy Birdsall, Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; former Executive Vice President, Inter-American Development Bank
Christopher W. Brody, Chairman, Vantage Partners, LLC
Robert J. Chaves, Managing Partner, Key Emerging Markets Group
Eli Whitney Debevoise II, Senior Partner, Arnold & Porter (Arnold & Porter acts as legal counsel to Brazil on certain transactional and litigation matters)
Albert Fishlow, Senior Economist, Violy, Byorum & Partners, LLC
Gail D. Fosler, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, The Conference Board
Richard L. Huber, Senior Director, Kissinger McLarty Associates; former Chairman, President and CEO, Aetna Inc.
Oivind Lorentzen III, President, Northern Navigation America, Inc.
Thomas E. McNamara, President, Council of the Americas; former Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
Brian D. O’Neill, Managing Director and Chairman, Latin America, J.P. Morgan & Company
Arturo C. Porzecanski, Managing Director and Head of Emerging Markets Economics & Debt Strategy, ABN AMRO Inc.
Riordan Roett, Director, Western Hemisphere Program, Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University
John Thomas Ryan III, Chairman and CEO, Mine Safety Appliances Co.
James Baker Sitrick, Senior Partner, Coudert Brothers
Thomas E. Skidmore, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Professor of History, Brown University
Alfred C. Stepan, Wallace Sayre Professor of Government, Columbia University
J. Michael Turner, Professor of History, Hunter College-CUNY
STAFF:
Project Director:
Kenneth Maxwell, Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Inter-American Affairs, and Director, Latin America Program, Council on Foreign Relations
Research Associate:
Tomás Amorim, Research Associate, Latin America Program, Council on Foreign Relations
To order Task Force reports, Council Special Reports, and Critical Policy Choices, please call, fax, or order online from our distributor, the Brookings Institution Press: phone +1.800.537.5487, fax +1.410.516.6998.
For information on other reports that are not for sale, or for general publications information, please call +1.212.434.9516 or email publications@cfr.org.
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