inss.dodlive.mil SF No. 284 1
B
razil is a puzzling new player in the global system. Emerging as a
complex international actor, it has come to be seen as a signicant
economic competitor and dynamic force in world politics.
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But trans-
formational changes in the economic and political realms have not been ac-
companied by advances in military power. While Brazil has entered the world
stage as an agile soft power exercising inuence in setting global agendas and
earning a seat at the economic table of policymakers, its military capacity lags.
e national security strategy announced under President Luiz Inácio Lula da
Silva in 2008 intended to redress this power gap. President Dilma Rousse ’s
2011 White Paper—so detailed that it is called a “White Book”—provides the
conceptual roadmap to achieve a new military balance. But military modern-
ization is still a work in progress.
Brazil has developed a framework to deepen its strategic reach. e coun-
try remains committed to defending the territorial sovereignty of its 26 states
and nearly 17,000 kilometers (km) of borders with 10 neighbors.
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We observe
a multidimensional view of security in Brazil rooted in economic, political, and
environmental dimensions. In addition to these more traditional security con-
cerns, Brazil is particularly attentive to the returns from investments in technol-
ogy and the social sector for national security.
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e country aspires to deepen its
institutional framework in national security and enhance its global prole across
political, economic, and military domains.
But Brazil’s aspirations to transform hard power relations to match its soft
power status involve signicant tradeos. e current re-equipment program
in Brazil may underplay attention to balancing the costs and benets to soci-
ety.
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is paper explores the choices in the Brazilian quest for greater global
balance in military aairs by introducing the concept of the defense trilemma
The Defense Acquisition
Trilemma: The Case of Brazil
by Patrice Franko
Strategic Forum
National Defense University
About the Author
Dr. Patrice Franko is Grossman
Professor of Economics and Professor
of Global Studies at Colby College.
Key Points
Brazil is a puzzling new strategic
player. Currently, its economic clout
is not supported by strong opera-
tional military capabilities.
To make its military instrument
commensurate with its new geo-
political weight, Brazil is undergo-
ing military modernization. But it
faces a security trilemma: it must
choose among long-held aspira-
tions of sovereignty, integration
into the global value chain, and
economic sustainability.
Acute tradeoffs are being avoided
by leveraging diversication of
global partnerships into a wide
but shallow defense supply chain
integration.
With its new global reach, the
Brazilian defense industrial base is
not a continuation of the defense
industry of the 1980s. Instead,
complex industrial relationships
and civil society engagement
create a critical disjuncture from
the inward looking pattern of the
earlier phase.
Strengthening legal frameworks
between the United States and
Brazil to support defense coopera-
tion would allow private-sector
initiatives to deepen bilateral ties.
January 2014
CENTER FOR STRATEGIC RESEARCH
