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.
