The article has two goals: first, to show how Brazil, when compared to other Latin American countries, represents a successful case of incorporating the military into the new democratic order; and second, to demonstrate that part of this process of subordinating the military to civilian power – and the consequent redefinition of civilian-military relations – can be credited to the way in which Brazil conceived and negotiated political amnesty during the transition to civilian rule. In addition, it will be argued that this success can also be explained by the ways in which the democratically elected governments of the 1990s dealt, in name of the State, with persisting uncertainties about "past scores to be settled."
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This paper discusses the enrollment of women and homosexuals in the Armed Forces of South American and NATO countries. There are discrepancies in the discussion of this issue in both groups of countries. It seems to be easier for the military to deal with the enrollment of women than to accept the enrollment of homosexuals. The paper conducts a detailed analysis of the development of this issue in Brazil, because this is the country where the writer of this paper has the larger bulk of information and the one that, militarily speaking, is the most important in South America. This is a preliminary study, and some data are lacking, precisely due to the fact that there has not been a widespread academic debate on the issue at hand. However, the purpose of this paper is to encourage discussion, to disseminate previously collected information and to present a number of possible viewpoints.
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This article provides a general introduction for the so-called intelligence activities. Intelligence means the collection, analysis and dissemination of information needed by policy makers and decision takers. But it does not include all kinds of information or data in general, since intelligence is part of a conflict dealing with denial of knowledge and secrets. The unique methods, procedures, technologies and techniques of intelligence make it more relevant in some fields than others. National defense, foreign policy and law enforcement are the main users of intelligence. The article also addresses the tensions between intelligence and democracy and the expected impacts of the intelligence in peace and war.
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