Two sides of a coin? The security-development nexus in Brazilian diplomacy and military

Abstract

ABSTRACT The military and diplomacy would be two sides of a coin, two means of following the national interest. Regarding the security-development nexus, that should not be different: soldiers and diplomats are subordinate to the governments to which they respond. This article aims to compare how the nexus is articulated by Brazilian diplomacy and armed forces in official speeches and documents. The main hypotheses are that (1) a great deal of congruence is to be expected, and (2) different audiences would require Foreign and Defence Ministries to shape the security-development nexus differently. To investigate these hypotheses, the article relies on combined content and discourse analysis. The results indicate that the security-development nexus is differently articulated by diplomacy and the military, depending on their audiences and objectives.