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New book by NPIHP Partner Matias Spektor

Azeredo da Silveira: um Depoimento (Azeredo da Silveira: A Testimony)

The Nuclear Proliferation International History Project (NPIHP) is pleased to announce the publication of Azeredo da Silveira: um Depoimento (Azeredo da Silveira: A Testimony) edited by Matias Spektor. One of Brazil's most influential diplomats, Silveira's tenure as foreign minister from 1974-1979 marked a reorientation of Brazil's foreign policy as well as a new assertiveness in the nuclear realm.

Based upon a series of interviews with Silveira conducted between 1979 and 1982 as well as thousands of memoranda, telegrams and official letters donated to Fundacao Getulio Vargas, Azeredo da Silveira: um Depoimento aims to provide a window into Brazil's foreign policy and leadership during the height of military rule.

Among the most incisive source documents is a set of talking points--still classified in the United States--prepared for Secretary of State Cyrus Vance in advance of 27 January 1975 meeting with Silveira outlining in detail the United States' negotiating posture on the then-nascent Brazilian and Argentine nuclear programs. Left behind by Vance following the meeting, the notes formed the basis for Silveira's subsequent detailed analysis of the future of US-Brazilian relations.

Matias Spektor is an assistant professor of international relations at Fundacao Getulio Vargas in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he also coordinates the Center for International Studies (CPDOC). He earned his Ph.D. from Oxford University in 2007 and specializes in Brazilian nuclear history and the history of US-Brazilian relations since the end of the Cold War.

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