Brazil

Brazil, formally the Federative Republic of Brazil (República Federativa do Brasil), is the fifth-largest country by area (~8.5 million km²) and the largest in Latin America, occupying nearly half of South America and bordering every South American state except Chile and Ecuador. Its 1988 Constitution (the "Citizen Constitution," Constituição Cidadã) established a federal presidential republic comprising 26 states, the Federal District (Brasília, the planned capital inaugurated 1960), and roughly 5,570 municipalities. Power is separated among an executive headed by a directly elected President serving a four-year term (renewable once), a bicameral National Congress (the 81-seat Federal Senate and the 513-seat Chamber of Deputies), and a judiciary topped by the Supreme Federal Tribunal (Supremo Tribunal Federal). Portuguese is the sole official language, a legacy of colonization that began with Pedro Álvares Cabral's landfall in 1500 and the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) dividing Iberian claims. Brazil gained independence in 1822 under Emperor Pedro I, abolished slavery via the Lei Áurea (1888) — the last Western state to do so — and became a republic in 1889.

The economy is the largest in Latin America and ranks among the world's top ten by nominal GDP, driven by agribusiness (soybeans, beef, sugar, coffee — Brazil is the leading global exporter of several), mining (iron ore through Vale), hydrocarbons (Petrobras and the offshore pre-salt fields), and a substantial industrial base around São Paulo. Brazil hosts roughly 60% of the Amazon rainforest, making its deforestation policy a central variable in global climate negotiations; it will host COP30 in Belém in 2026. Diplomatically, Brazil is a founding member of Mercosur (Treaty of Asunción, 1991), the BRICS grouping (alongside Russia, India, China and South Africa, expanded from 2024), the G20, and a perennial aspirant to a permanent UN Security Council seat through the G4. It champions South-South cooperation and non-alignment in great-power contests.

Politically, Brazil has oscillated between left and right since redemocratization following the 1964–1985 military dictatorship. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party (PT) governed 2003–2010 and returned to the presidency in 2023 after defeating the incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in the October 2022 runoff; the January 8, 2023 storming of Brasília's government buildings by Bolsonaro supporters tested institutional resilience. The Lava Jato (Car Wash) corruption investigations from 2014 reshaped the political class. Brazil assumed the rotating G20 presidency in 2024 and the BRICS chair in 2025, positioning Brasília as a voice for the Global South.

For the FSOT Job Knowledge component, Brazil appears under world geography, regional affairs, and U.S. foreign policy toward the Western Hemisphere. Expect questions on its capital (Brasília, not Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo), its membership in Mercosur and BRICS, the Amazon's environmental significance, Portuguese as official language, and its bilateral relationship with the United States. Candidates should distinguish Brazil's federal structure and its leadership role in regional integration from that of Spanish-speaking neighbors.