Cooperação em defesa: desafios e oportunidades para a CPLP

Abstract

This research seeks to answer why the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) has developed cooperation interests in the area of Defense and to point out what opportunities and challenges have arisen in this context. To achieve this goal, Constructivism was used as a basis for understanding the construction of a collective Lusophone identity, which began during the period of Portuguese colonization and developed over the years through a single shared language and a common culture. As a result, cooperation arose and evolved into various areas, such as defense, the focus of this paper. In this way, the deductive method was used to understand the element of Defense cooperation in the Community, taking into account the constructivist theory of International Relations and the documentary analysis of data related to the subject, in order to guarantee the qualitative aspect of the research. The expansion of the security area in the 1990s, the emergence of new complex threats arising from globalization and the geostrategic importance of the oceans, especially the South Atlantic, are key factors in understanding cooperation in the CPLP's Defence Component, as well as the emergence and evolution of a collective identity in Defence. The results of the research found opportunities and challenges that point to the Lusophone organization as a growing diplomatic instrument and a tool for international projection, but also as a still peripheral element in the international system.