This dissertation argues that the participation of Brazil in the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) may be understood beyond traditional explanations that understand foreign policy as a bridge between internal and international politics, resulting from rational decisions, objective interests and fixed identities. Based on the assumption that discursive articulations are not a superficial rhetorical construction behind which one may find real causes or real explanations, it does not aim to discuss the intentions and motivations behind Brazilian foreign policy decision makers resolution to participate in the UN mission in Haiti. Contrary to conventional approaches on the role of identity and difference in foreign policy studies, this dissertation analyzes dominant discourses and practices constructing the modern state in Brazil between the 19th and beginning of the 20th Century, and how these discourses and practices produce a specific understanding of the state self – and of the relation between self and other. Through the study of two pacification narratives, this movement allows one to think about the discourses and representations that made possible Brazil s decision to lead the military component of MINUSTAH; it also helps one to reflect on the permanent attempts – past and present – to reproduce and stabilize a specific identity for Brazil and for those acting in its name, both inside and outside.