Using an approach that the author calls "hyper-realist" and a "transformational" perspective, this work attempts to establish the 16 parameters on which Colombia's security and defense system has been built and evolved. It also attempts to partially assess its impact on the dynamics of the most conflict-troubled strategic complex in the Western Hemisphere.
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In combating international terrorism in Latin America the great challenge is, unquestionably, the strengthening of institutions within nations, without which public assets, including security, cannot be guaranteed. When public opinion is consulted within the region the tendency is to look at how societies view the threat of terrorism and its relationship, for example, with the image of the United States, its foreign policy in particular and its means of addressing terrorism. Nevertheless, one point not usually noticed is that public opinion is also a factor to bear in mind in the struggle against terrorism, because it can be a condition for, although it does not determine the responses of institutionally weak states and can also detract from their institutional growth. Based on the Argentine experience, in which public opinion did not recognize the threat of international terrorism and a shortage of institutions dealing with it, the present work attempts to alert readers to that importance and propose a model of possible scenarios for bringing together the variables of public opinion and political will.
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The purpose of this article is to study the threat perception process from a theoretical point of view. Using a philosophy-based, preparatory approach that provides the means for subsequent discussion, we will study the phenomenon of threat perception, prioritizing the data on the decision process formulated by political science and international relations. In this setting, threats can be perceived in different ways by the State bureaucracy because there are various factors influencing the process, including people's education, constitutional and legal systems, bureaucratic clashes and the quantity and quality of information. Consequently, the purpose of this article is to analyze the subject of threats from the classical perspective of national defense studies, but including in the debate contributions from economic and environmental studies related to the subject of international security, seeking conclusions about how much they favor the formation of defense policy and regional cooperation.
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Like other countries in Latin America, Venezuela received the principles of the National Security Doctrine that developed during the Cold War period. This doctrine has profound repercussions on the definition of the country's national interests and its security profile. Consequently, concepts such as territoriality, sovereignty, the internal and/or external enemy and the development of the nation have guided the policies adopted by Venezuela's military and political actors in matters of security and defense over the last fifty years. However, the presidency of Hugo Chavez Frias since 1999, has implemented the Bolivarian Revolution, which includes a re-evaluation of the traditional conception of security. It is, therefore, imperative to study and analyze the components of the new geopolitical and geo-economic vision of his political project, which includes redefining strategic objectives to respond to ongoing and new national interests, establishing new civilian-military relations, the need to create a new National Armed Forces, the goal of putting aside old doctrines that are not indigenous to the country and adopting security reforms.
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Every state has faced, in various forms, the challenge of modernizing, transforming and/or creating intelligence systems aimed at meeting the needs of decision-making processes, with an evident change in terms of their function in the Cold War, which basically centered on identifying and neutralizing internal or external threats. Nevertheless, this process faces political, economic and especially conceptual obstacles in establishing the intelligence system most appropriate for each country. The present article sets forth the characteristics of these systems, which must be coherent with interests, objectives and existing resources under a criterion of democratic consolidation, in which intelligence is one medium operating under strict political and legal controls, but the results of which are aimed at being a fundamental component of the decision-making process of political leadership, either by the head of state and/or by the government.
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This article focuses on demonstrating the direct relationship between governability and security in Latin America, based on the role of democratic institutions. A description of the region's socio-political framework is the basis for an accurate definition of these concepts understood as desired consequences, while it also reveals the structural sources of the difficulties in order to successfully achieve these goals. The fundamental premise is that the value of institutions must be recovered, because it is only through creating the opportunity for collective action that social interactions take form beyond private intention. Institutions are the nexus between effective governability and formal security perceived as authentic, because they embody three elements that lead to the achievement of these results: social containment, representation and confidence.
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An analysis and discussion of the struggles and demands of indigenous peoples for autonomy, in the countries of Latin America, must rise above predictions of disaster. It must avoid the chronic temptation to classify this influential trend as a potential threat to nationhood that must be addressed decisively by reducing or eliminating the demand. The present work discusses a potential future crisis between Chile and Argentina if the Mapuche demand for one people, one territory becomes established and develops forcefully on both sides of the Andes. What is known as the Mapuche Conflict could become a bi-national variable. It must be recalled that this area contains significant numbers of Mapuche communities on both sides of the Andean range. If it intensifies, the actors in the crisis, in addition to the Mapuche, will be two states with not a few disputes in their history since independence from Spain. We still have unresolved border issues and other significant, and recently expressed, misunderstandings and differences of a serious tone. In the event of a nationalistic-type Mapuche Conflict, these differences could lead to a crisis in border relations in which the two sides could find themselves in highly disparate positions regarding the "what," "how," and "when" to do and in benefit of whom to act, as occurred and continues to occur in many other matters, including indigenous issues, beginning with ILO Convention 169 that Argentina signed six years ago and Chile has refused to sign.
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South America, and the Andean region in particular, do not constitute a military or economic threat to the United States, but they are a potential setting for a pax Mafiosa, a tendency toward chaos and disorder. The process taking place in the Andean region is characterized by unstable states (Bolivia, Ecuador), seriously damaged sovereign states (Colombia), damaged democratic regimes (Venezuela) and higher levels of militarization (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru). In addition to inter-state tensions (Venezuela-Colombia, Chile-Bolivia) there are growing transnational security situations (drug trafficking, money-laundering and guerrilla warfare) and social conflicts that arise not only from economic but from identity factors as well. At this juncture, we should reflect on the possibility that Argentina, Brazil in particular and the region in general may find in this list of challenges to citizen and to national security a true opportunity for a converging of viewpoints and a development of policies to endow MERCOSUR with greater substance and identity in political and security matters.
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Historically, Brazil's legislature has displayed outright disdain in addressing issues relating to national defense. The prerogatives that the new (1988) Constitution confers upon this important segment of the political system have not been fully utilized. The purpose of the present work is to establish how the Brazilian legislative process functions in the post-authoritarianism period within the broad field of security and defense. It compares the impacts of the recent establishment of the Ministry of Defense in Brazil (1999) and of the events of September 11, 2001, in order to analyze issues related to security and defense in our nation. It especially considers Parliament because, as a pluralist and representative entity, we believe that it functions as a synthesis of the nation with respect to society's attention to the topics of security and defense and to its armed forces. In the early 21st century, as we will stress throughout the article, there appear to exist new elements aimed at the social and institutional appreciation of this important field in Brazil, which could result in the maturation and intensification of our young democracy.
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On March 1, 2004, Chilean president Ricardo Lagos informed the nation of the decision to send troops to Haiti as part of a multinational peace mission (MINUSTAH), under the mandate of the United Nations. This decision made Chile the first country in Latin America to join the United States, Canada and France in a stabilization force in the Caribbean after the fall of Haitian president Jean Bertrand Aristide and it is Chile's the largest deployment in its long history of support for peace missions. In Chile, this initiative generated intense political debate in international analysis and defense circles concerning the suitability of sending this deployment on a mission such as MINUSTAH. It is the purpose of this document to discuss the conditions that led Chile to take part in this mission and its context and to offer a documented assessment of an issue that is still new within the country and of the participation of Chilean forces in missions under Chapter VII.
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