European-South American Cooperation in the Field of Defence Material

Abstract

There is a worldwide tendency for the elaboration of public policy to depend more and more on the setting-up of policy networks among public and private actors, who take part in the decision-making process by means of a non-hierarchical governance. In Brazil there is a policy network which is working towards the revitalization of the defense industry. The focus of the current article is to analyse an alternative that is already being discussed in this network to revitalise this industry through cooperation among South American and European countries. Information about this sector is scarce and controversial, which is no surprise for anyone who has researched this sector. Nevertheless, it has been possible to analyse the actors involved, the markets, the production capacity, and the main benefits and threats that this cooperation represents. The article points out that there is still need of a deeper assessment of these potential benefits and the impacts of the revitalization of the Brazilian defence industry.

Keywords: policy analysis, policy networks, cooperation, defense industry

JEL Classification: L98, D78, H77