Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the resurgence of nonalignment across the global south has baffled Western officials. The United States and its allies seem confused that many countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America refuse to join the sanctions campaign against Russia or ship weapons to Ukraine. Many Latin American countries’ neutrality—and their unwillingness to become de facto belligerents in a European war—has been described as shameful, if not a moral failure. Some critics have even gone so far as to say that the region’s overwhelmingly nonaligned stance puts the rules-based international order at risk.
Brazil—Latin America’s largest country and diplomatic heavyweight—has come under particular scrutiny for its position. While the United States has pledged to support Ukraine in the war for “as long as it takes,” Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has pressed for a truce and peaceful solution to the conflict; some frank statements by Lula have generated pushback in Washington. But Brazil remains the country
