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Three completely disconnected events occurred this week that will weave together the tapestry of the next decade — and, no, those events do not include the $700 billion Wall Street bailout or the U.S. vice presidential candidate debate.
First, Brazil on Oct. 1 made its short list of finalists to supply it with modern jet fighters as part of a large defense modernization program. The final list included the French Dassault Rafale, the Swedish Saab Gripen NG and the American Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.
By any measure, Brazil is a rapidly rising power, and this has nothing to do with the fact that it has discovered an obscene amount of oil in its offshore regions in the past year. Brazil’s traditional competitors — Argentina and Venezuela — are in the process of mismanaged economic collapse, leaving Brazil with no competitors in its neighborhood.
Of course, it takes more than incompetent neighbors to make one a regional hegemon. And in many ways — with its ridiculous labor laws, endemic corruption, runaway crime and rampant poverty — Brazil is its own most-limiting factor. But one of the ways in which Brazil can start acting like a real country — and thus a regional hegemon — is to develop a military with real power-projection capabilities. Setting aside a few billion dollars for the purchase and integration of jet fighters is an excellent way to turn potential into reality. The Brazilian moment has not yet arrived, but it may finally be on the horizon.
More notable than what designs made Brazil’s final cut is the design that failed to: Russia’s Sukhoi Su-35.
Brazil is emerging on the world stage. The decisions it makes now will shape its policy — and thus that of the rest of the world — for decades to come. Brazil deliberately chose to go with a Western system for its airpower.
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