Cold War Relations between Hungary and Brazil from a Semi-Peripheral Perspective (1960–1980)

Abstract

During the Cold War, searching for trade benefits and opportunities of diversification motivated the Hungarian government and certain Latin American countries to build economic ties, especially between 1960 and 1980. Economic globalization as an external and state-led industrialization as an internal factor served as motivations to build links between command economy Hungary and “capitalist” Latin American states. The article focuses on relations between Hungary and Brazil, emphasizing their similar, semi-peripheral position in world economy that led to the perception of each other as dependent economies on the superpowers (the Soviet Union and the United States, respectively) attempting to loosen these ties instead of an ‘ideological rival.’