Brazil is a puzzling new player in the global system. Emerging as a complex international actor, it has come to be seen as a significant economic competitor and dynamic force in world politics. But transformational changes in the economic and political realms have not been accompanied by advances in military power. While Brazil has entered the world stage as an agile soft power exercising influence in setting global agendas and earning a seat at the economic table of policymakers, its military capacity lags. The national security strategy announced under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2008 intended to redress this power gap. President Dilma Rousseff ’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 modernization is still a work in progress.

Brazil has developed a framework to deepen its strategic reach. The country remains committed to defending the territorial sovereignty of its 26 states and nearly 17,000 kilometers (km) of borders with 10 neighbors. We observe a multidimensional view of security in Brazil rooted in economic, political, and environmental dimensions. In addition to these more traditional security concerns, Brazil is particularly attentive to the returns from investments in technology and the social sector for national security. The country aspires to deepen its institutional framework in national security and enhance its global profile across political, economic, and military domains