The Foreign Service Journal, April 2006

A P R I L 2 0 0 6 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 27 he late Vernon Walters, linguist and American diplomat extraordinaire, joked that “I used to worry about Brazil falling into the abyss — until one day I realized that it is bigger than the abyss!” The jest is amusing — and very Brazilian. But it encapsulates the perennial question as to the country’s future: does its size offer a promise of greatness, or will it act forever as a brake on the country’s development? Brazil’s size is indeed its defining characteristic. It is the fifth-largest country in the world in terms of size and pop- F O C U S O N L A T I N A M E R I C A B RAZIL : L ATIN A MERICA ’ S S UPERPOWER ? T T HE U.S. AND B RAZIL ARE FATED TO WORK FOR ACCOMMODATION , CERTAINLY IN THE HEMISPHERE AND PERHAPS IN THE BROADER INTERNATIONAL SPHERE . B Y M ARK L ORE Elizabeth Lada