What remains of the National Security Doctrine?

DSN's legacy in Public Safety post-1988

Abstract

This article seeks to analyze the ballast of the presence of the Armed Forces in Brazilian politics in the field of Public Security after 1988. Throughout the 20th century, military interventions in the country's political facts were constant through coups or tutoring civilian governments. This military presence in politics, which dates back to before the Empire and has the Proclamation of the Republic as one of its main milestones, begins to gain a clearer frame during the Vargas Era and consolidates itself with the Military Dictatorship installed in 1964. The guiding thread of the genesis of the military institution into a political actor led to the role of governing the country was the National Security Doctrine, whose elaboration was based on the need, perceived by the leaders of the barracks, to become a cohesive military organization capable of pursuing its political objectives, then conceived as physiological to those necessary for the country. The National Security Doctrine resulted in a national security regime that lasted 21 years and should have been superseded by the 1988 Constitution. Years later, it was deeply militarized, with disastrous consequences for Brazilian society. In this text, therefore, we will highlight the ontology of this doctrine, its central constitutive aspects, and its legacies after 1988, emphasizing the problem of public security.