Between 11 and 13 November 2015, the King's Brazil Institute at King's College London organized and hosted the International Aspects of Defence Policy in Brazil Conference.

The opening event at Bloomsbury House (IISS) was the lecture by Ambassador Celso Amorim, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Defence in Brazil. His lecture, entitled Brazilian Defence in International Perspective, stressed the importance for Brazil to have a hard power and potential of solid defence, to ensure and allow diplomacy of soft power. Ambassador Amorim made it clear that all Brazilian developments in the defence sector has an extremely positive impact on diplomacy as it ensures Brazil a stronger position as a global player. To view this opening lecture, please follow this link.

The lecture was opened by Prof. Anthony Pereira, director of Brazil Institute, Dr. Joanna Newman, Vice-Principal International of King’s College London, and had the presence of the Brazilian Ambassador to the UK, Eduardo dos Santos. 

The second day began with a lecture by Lieutenant General Floriano Peixoto Vieira Neto, discussing Brazil's participation in UN peacekeeping operations. General Floriano Peixoto made a historical overview of Brazil’s engagement in PKO, highlighting the country’s commitment to these operations, either by sending troops or the military observers. Then he highlighted the importance of Brazil's participation and leadership in MINUSTAH and how it endorsed greater integration of Brazil in the spectrum of PKO.  General Floriano’s talk was followed by a debate with Prof. Funmi Oloniskain, director of the African Leadership Centre at King's College London, and Dr. Henrik Breitenbauch, director of the Centre for Military Studies, Univ. Copenhague, Denmark. Follow this link to view General Floriano Peixoto's presentation.

On the same day, three other presentations debated specific aspects of Brazil's engagement in PKO (clicking on the titles will allow you to view each presentation): 

The purpose of the discussion of this theme was to highlight the role that Brazil has achieved in recent years as a reference for peace operations and how this has translated exactly into a global influence instrument for the country.

The day ended with a debate on the future challenges for Brazil's participation in PKO and as academic, military, political and other actors can contribute to research and work on sets to highlight and solidify the knowledge gained by Brazil in this field.

*Video footage of the day's events will be uploaded shortly.

The third day of the conference started with the lecture by Prof. Antonio Jorge Ramalho, director of Pandiá Calogeras Institute and the  Defence College of UNASUR. Prof. Ramalho stressed the role of innovation in defence of spectrum in the Brazilian context. He made a very careful analytical framework of the Brazilian current context in the defence environment and demonstrated how science and technology in the defence environment can not be displaced concern for national development. Follow this link to view Prof. Ramalho's presentation. 

His talk was followed by a panel discussion on the need for discussion between development of defence and strategic thinking industry and also on national industrial development policies for the defence. This panel included the following presentations (clicking on the titles will allow you to view each presentation):

A final panel concluded Congress debating future challenges for the defence in Brazil in an international context and the topics discussed were the possibility and necessity to operate in Brazil in the South Atlantic beyond the Blue Amazon and possible features of a military alliance between the BRICS (clicking on the titles will allow you to view each presentation):

This conference was the first held in a university in the UK entirely dedicated to the defence issues in Brazil and demonstrated that there is a public demand to know more about the subject.

*Video footage of the day's events will be uploaded shortly.

This conference was co-organized by the Naval War College (Brazilian Navy), Pandiá Calógeras Institute, the International Institute for Strategic Studies – IISS, INEST UFF, and NUPRI USP and had direct collaboration of War Studies Department and Defence Studies department, from King's College London and the Defence and Navy Attaché of Brazil in London and the Brazilian Embassy in London.