Government updates defense policies without civil society – 11/10/2023 – Power

The process of updating national defense policies is being carried out by the Lula (PT) government without the participation of civil society.

In total, two working groups were created in the Executive with the aim of debating the National Defense Policy and the National Defense Strategy for the years 2024 to 2027, in addition to two other groups to discuss the White Paper on National Defense.

The legislation provides that, every four years, it is up to the government to forward to Congress the update of these three documents, which guide the planning of the country’s defense actions, covering, for example, the definition of investment programs and threats to national sovereignty.

Started at the end of Jair Bolsonaro’s (PL) administration, the process has continued in 2023 without the inclusion of associations, academics and specialists, despite the rules themselves providing for the possibility of inviting people or representatives from other institutions for advice or participation, even without the right to vote.

Experts consulted by Sheet they defend greater openness and institutionality of debate with actors outside the government or the Armed Forces – which has been restricted to symposiums. They also point out that these events have been increasingly restricted.

The importance of diversifying the debate appears under different arguments. The accelerated change in technologies and the geopolitical situation, for example, appears as an element that would justify the presence of more actors in an attempt to encompass an increasingly complex global scenario.

There are those who also point out the importance of preventing corporate interests from each of the Forces – Army, Navy and Air Force – from ending up dominating the content of these documents.

For the process of updating the National Defense Policy, two distinct working groups were created.

It is up to them to debate the National Defense Strategy, which seeks to detail actions to put into practice what is foreseen in the policy, which is considered the most important of the three documents.

The Ministry of Defense group had a total of 24 meetings, 12 of them from October to December last year, still under Bolsonaro, and the rest from February to May this year.

On the other hand, the interministerial working group, composed of different departments, was only established in September this year and met only once.

According to the Defense department, three other meetings are planned, with new meetings possible as work continues. The deadline for the end of the work is May 2024.

The decree that established the group, however, provided that the meeting schedule should be approved at the first meeting, while extraordinary calls would be made by the Ministry of Defense, which presides over the group.

In the Defense group, the debates only included members of the Armed Forces and the ministry. According to the appointment ordinance at the end of 2022, of the 16 members designated to make up the group, 2 are civilians. No external actors were invited, despite the ordinance allowing it.

Also in the interministerial group, Defense is responsible for inviting public and civil society bodies and entities. When asked about it, the department said that there was an invitation to the Foreign Relations and National Defense committees of the Senate and the Chamber and to the Special Advisor to the President of the Republic.

Throughout the process, the only event organized on defense policy in which academics participated, for example, was a symposium at the Escola Superior de Guerra (ESG) in Rio de Janeiro on November 30 last year.

The scenario is similar in the two working groups created to debate the White Paper on National Defense, a document that has the function of informing society and the international community about the country’s policies and visions in the area.

There were 6 meetings in the Defense group, which has the majority of its members military personnel. The interministerial group only had one meeting in July, with the intention of holding 3 to 5 meetings.

Defense reported that a fixed agenda of meetings was not defined in the first meeting, due to the “work carried out by permanent contacts” with the group’s members via electronic means.

It also reported that it held, in a complementary manner, two symposiums, one in March and another in April, with various ministries and that it maintains permanent contacts with National Defense scholars belonging to civil society institutions.

Marina Vitelli, associate professor at UFRRJ (Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro) and researcher in the area, assesses that it would be important to have more participation from civil society, but emphasizes that the basic thing would be to have a body of civil servants in the Ministry of Defense , with specialized knowledge.

“We have very little civilian participation in the formulation of defense policy”, she says, who also points out the importance of greater involvement of parliamentarians when considering these policies.

The final stage of the updating process is President Lula sending the texts to the Legislature. To date, however, the policies sent in 2020 by Bolsonaro have not yet been approved by the Chamber. The Senate voted on the topic in June last year, which was also considered by the Joint Committee for the Control of Intelligence Activities of Congress.

Professor at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul Eduardo Svartman says that there has been a progressive closure of spaces for dialogue on these documents over the last few years

He states, however, that even in moments of greater openness, there was a point where no progress was made: the design of these documents, in his view, continued to come mainly from the vision of the Armed Forces, making it possible to even identify which sections were drawn up by each one of them.

Among the consequences of this, Svartman points out, is the lack of a broad and articulated strategy. “These programs do not dialogue with each other, nor are they hierarchical,” he says.

For Alcides Costa Vaz, professor at the Institute of International Relations at the University of Brasília, there is a lack of civil society participation in the process of updating these policies, but, he says, there is above all a lack of an institutional mechanism that defines organizations or entities that should be heard –decision that ends up being the responsibility of the Ministry of Defense.

“They are the ones who define where, how, who and when this participation and consultation will take place,” he says, pointing out organizations that deal with peace and security and entities linked to academia and the defense industry as possible actors that could contribute in the debate.

According to Vaz, participation in the stages that take place within the Ministry of Defense is also important, because, he points out, it is the moment in which the document is substantively created.