This article provides highlights of the Perry Center's 2022 cyber policy course, “Cybersecurity Policy in the Americas: Challenges for Policy-Strategic Analysis,” led by Dr. Boris Saavedra.
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During the COVID-19 pandemic, life as we knew it changed dramatically as activities, both licit and illicit, moved to the virtual world. We witnessed shopping, college classes, diplomatic meetings, financial transactions, and organized crime activities transition online almost overnight. The pandemic has empowered transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) to establish new virtual markets for their drug, human, arms, and contraband trafficking and money laundering with cryptocurrencies.
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This paper studies the impacts of the military securitization of cyberspace in the international politics of the 21st century. Cyberdefense is chosen as the object of study precisely because it allows inferences to be made about the political-institutional materialization of this issue, seeking support in the theory of securitization, proposed by the Copenhagen School. In this sense, this paper seeks to: (i) identify the main existential (cyber) threats to the military sector, revealing why this process is intensifying in the 21st century; (ii) project the conditions for such securitization; and (iii) explain its effects on international politics, based on the cases of the United States, Brazil and Canada. To this end, the Spectrum of Military Securitization of Cyberspace (ESMC) is designed, a framework of analysis based on the theory of securitization with a focus on cyberdefense in a given time and space. As for the literature review, Brazilian and foreign authors in Political Science and International Relations figure mostly in the body of this work. As for the methodology, it uses the qualitative-quantitative analysis style, despite the use of interviews, case studies, discourse and document analysis. Its conclusion aims to corroborate the hypothesis that, in addition to the securitization of cyberspace by the military sector, this process is reflected in current international politics. Consequently, it is possible to situate the three cases in this ESMC.
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The National Defense Strategy (NDS) was the first defense strategy made public by the Brazilian government. Approved in 2008, the document marked a milestone in the sector, determining important changes in the stated objectives and the means - political and military - to be used to achieve them and the military means to be used to achieve them. However, the feasibility of its implementation has been widely questioned especially in academic circles. This is due both to inconsistencies in the strategy per se, and uncertainty regarding the government's capacity and/or ability and/or willingness to mobilize the resources required to adopt such the measures. This article discusses the main challenges the NDS faces. This article discusses the main points of the NDS and the main advances in its implementation between 2008 and 2011, as well as the obstacles to its implementation.
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Peace operations are pragmatic responses by the international community to a situation that threatens or undermines international peace and security. Although the charter of the United Nations does not make reference to peace operations, they are covered by chapters VI, VII, and VIII of that treaty. The organization also uses, as a theoretical basis for the treatment of the theme, mainly, the documents An Agenda for Peace and its Peace and its Supplement, which were presented by the then Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali Boutros Boutros-Ghali in 1992 and 1995, respectively. Since 1947, more than since 1947, more than a million military, police, and civilians have served in the 67 peacekeeping missions peacekeeping missions. South American countries, especially Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, have South American countries, especially Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, have had a significant presence in these operations. This paper presents a descriptive account of the participation of South American countries in UN peacekeeping in United Nations peacekeeping operations and the legal provisions that govern their participation. In conclusion, it presents some considerations on the experience accumulated by the countries of the region, leading the reasoning to the importance of joint participation in these operations.
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