Global powers and Global Shifts: An Ongoing Telenovela

Steaminess, love, passion—these words describe the concept of telenovelas, and it's their attractiveness that makes the complexity of the character’s relationships easier to understand. While comprehension of a forbidden-love trope becomes laughable in comparison to the complexity of interstate relationships, there is a key point of comparison between soapy television and reality: telenovelas are not just a story about love, they are a journey of self reflection and identification. The struggle to define one’s identity is a similar conflict seen in the transition from the non-alignment theory to the active non-alignement theory in Latin America. The non-alignment theory describes the attempt at neutrality during a global power shift,  a shift rife with betrayal, revenge, and confusion as the 120 member states pledged to avoid Cold War bloc politics. Contrary to the non-alignment movement, the active non-alignment doctrine is a twenty-first century foreign policy allowing developing countries—including Asia and Africa—to come to terms with their own position within the global order. “He loves me, he loves me not,” whispers a passive, tragically beautiful heroine in front of a captivated audience. “I will align, I won’t align” is a more powerful statement and choice voiced through the principles of the non-aligned theory. The shift from a neutral to an active standpoint in the global order makes it clear that there are new spotlights on new powers, and the old hierarchy is no longer on demand. Latin America is no longer a supporting character in someone else’s Cold War drama. 

There are several types of love tropes within telenovelas, with one of the most common including forbidden love, usually driven by classism or societal rivalries. Alliances in the international community are often as tension-filled and complex as the relationships behind the screen: bilateral alliances such as NATO are formed out of a defensive necessity; asymmetrical alliances, such as the United States and South Korea during the Korean war, are born out of a commitment for military power in exchange for protection; offensive alliances are spurred by a need for dominion and power, such as the actions by the Axis powers in World War II. During the Cold War, Latin American alliances, or relationships, with other states were formed through U.S. policy in the name of communist containment. The external Western policy led to the creation of its own aggressive trope slowly decaying Latin America’s identity. For example, in 1961, Brazil’s Joao Goulart maintained good relations with socialist Cuba in order to support non-interventionist policies, only for the West to intervene with anti-communist groups and undermine the Brazilian leader’s authority. There was a clear absence of independence across the region, a clear hierarchy of power some relationships are all too familiar with. 

Latin America during the Cold War could not claim they were happily independent nor could they claim they needed no man, in this case, no ally or economic support. Our heroine began to realize how their current system was evidence of external dominance, much like societal norms on television prohibiting tragic, and classist, forbidden romances. Economic policies such as the Import Substitution Industrialization, or economies protecting their goods close to the state’s heart, were keeping them vulnerable, and this was brought to the United Nation’s 1974 agenda for the New International Economic Order. Coupled with rapid worldwide decolonization and recognizing the harmful effects of the dependency theory, the shift in global powers and international hierarchies was becoming clearer. 

The journey to self discovery within the Non-Alignment Movement promised a shield from the global extremes, but the heights of external intervention were actions worthy of a true Telenovela villano. Nonetheless, over the years, the NAM created significant character development for signatories and participating observers. The NAM’s 1995 Summit in Cartagena, Colombia established a key final document addressing nuclear issues within the organization, recognizing the danger of the arms race and outlined restraint to achieve peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Cartagena was one of many examples of the conferences and treaties within the Movement throughout the late twentieth century and into the new millennium, these mobilized agreements indicated a new position of power for Latin America. A new character that would not fall so easily to the whispered-nothings and empty promises of the Cold War’s global powers, leading toward the shift to Active Non-Alignment. Latin America, our heroine, was creating space to define themselves on their own terms through the creation of the new foreign policy doctrine: the Active Non-Aligned Movement. 

Ambassador Jorge Heine and retired research professor at Boston University, is a director for one of this telenovelas' juiciest seasons yet! Professor Heine argues how the Active Non-Aligned theory prioritizes the states’ own interests instead of focusing on any particular allyship with a global power. The new diplomatic position is exemplified through some Latin American policy towards the Ukraine-Russia war. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva created a “shuttle diplomacy” between the United States and Russia, a strategy The Economist has dubbed “how to survive the superpower split.” The “shuttle” diplomacy maintains constant ties and movement between global superpowers as a method of conversation and active non-alignment. 

Further than just survival, the Active Non-Aligned Movement is a story about the Latin American self; specifically, a story about self-love and self-reflection similar to the character developments on the endless variations of telenovela love stories. The protective appeal of the Active Non-Aligned Movement became a necessary choice regardless of the dichotomous economic outcomes within Latin America. The shift in global power became apparent when the Gross Domestic Product in terms of purchasing power regarding the five BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) surpassed G7 Countries. Additionally, Latin America is maintaining ties with the two global superpowers, China and the United States. Although the United States is Latin America’s top trading partner, China surpassed the U.S. as a trade partner for South America and has even achieved a record of $518 billion in trade in 2024 in comparison to its two percent of exports in the early 2000s. There is a significant “wealth turn” within the global power through the BRICS organization as well as the emergence of new diplomatic theory, a shift as dramatic as the surprising hefty inheritance of a long-lost secret twin. In other words, the region, our heroine, is writing her own script, and it is claiming that all identities are fair in love and war. 

Due to the current shifts in global power, Latin American countries are beginning to accumulate economic independence, or at the very least, economic awareness. The "necessity" to be married to a global power in the name of security became an antiquated concept, and the Active Non-Aligned Movement provides a type of deeper, complex and even emotional security no rich spouse or material love could ever offer.