Be Worried About Brazil’s Tantrum

If the United States Can’t Make Friends With Brasilia, Who Can We Get To Join Our Club?

It has become one of the clichés of American diplomacy: The United States welcomes the rise of new powers and wants them to continue rising—especially when those new powers are democracies. The White House’s first-term National Security Strategy committed to “actively supporting the leadership of emerging democracies.” President Obama has repeated this pledge in India, in South Africa, in Brazil. “The American people,” he said in Rio de Janeiro in 2011, “don’t just recognize Brazil’s success—we root for Brazil’s success.”

Unfortunately, the people on the receiving end of those assurances aren’t …