The relative importance of countries on the Brazilian foreign policy agenda is a crucial element for understanding the country’s international insertion strategy. Whether due to systemic factors (power of nations, for example) or domestic interests (economic and social groups, for example), countries can be ranked in terms of relevance, crafting an empirical tool for mapping the Brazilian foreign policy agenda. One way to systematize this information annually is to count the frequency of times that countries are mentioned in the floor of the legislative houses, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. In the Brazilian presidential system, the Executive Branch is the initiator of foreign policy, dominating the agenda. The Legislative Branch, however, functions as an institutional veto point, capable of vetoing the ratification of agreements and diplomatic appointments, as well as acting through bills and requests to the Executive Branch.

Although the Legislative Branch does not have unrestricted powers over foreign policy, a substantial part of the agenda is discussed in both or one of the legislative houses, and both have a permanent foreign relations committee. Through speeches in the plenary, open to all legislators, preferences and perceptions about Brazil’s international position are revealed, whether or not they are limited to the agenda of the Executive Branch. Thus, by quantifying the frequency with which countries are mentioned in the floor of the National Congress, we produce an objective measure of the relevance of countries to Brazil. Regardless of the content of the speech, the more times a country is mentioned in speeches, the more relevant it is to the agenda in Brasília, whether positive, negative or neutral.

We present four data sets systematizing the same content in different ways. The first data set, called “Relevance of Countries”, presents the sum of all mentions in plenary sessions of both legislative houses by country and year. The map below corresponds to this spreadsheet. Next, we present the same data, but this time disaggregated by legislative house, country and year, called “Relevance of Countries by Legislative House”. The third table represents the same data again, that is, the sum of the frequency of mentions by country and year, but this time disaggregated by political party, called “Relevance of Countries by Party”. Finally, the last data set expresses all the data at a disaggregated level: country, year, party and legislative house. To obtain the spreadsheet by legislator, access: https://github.com/BrunoTCampos/. The data were compiled by POLEN researcher Bruno Taddeo.