Portugal and National Defense: Between Myths and Realities

In this different time (and not for the better), everything recommends rethinking the framework, policies and instruments of National Defense.

The circumstance that we are entering a new cycle, with a new President of the Republic and with a horizon of apparent governmental stability ahead of us, favors this action.

But there is a preliminary point that needs to be addressed. This point corresponds to the need to dismantle some myths that, in a very generalized way, hover over national thought, thus conditioning and deceiving it.

One of them concerns the idea that there is an opposition between Europe and the Atlantic, ignoring that the Atlantic is a very important identity element of Europe, particularly Western Europe.

Another has to do with the idea that Portugal is a maritime power, especially if this is intended to create a context that tends to divert us from our intrinsic belonging to Europe and the dynamics that are emerging in the EU in order to promote its greater self-sufficiency in matters of Security and Defense.

A third is linked to the pseudo-grandiose vision of Portugal as a hinge between North America and Europe. As if Portugal had the political and territorial scale for this function… Of course it doesn’t! If this hinge exists, and even leaving aside the turmoil that emanates from the USA today, then it is the entire European region, which Portugal is part of, that fulfills it.

There is also the myth of the archipelagic country. Which is nothing more than a fallacious construction. The Portuguese Continent is the geohistorical and geoeconomic nucleus of Portugal, an essential definer of our European nature and this continental expression is extended by the archipelagos of Madeira and the Azores. It’s prosaic, but it’s reality.

Another fallacy is that of the strategic triangle, whose supposed vertices would be the Mainland, Madeira and the Azores. One must, from the outset, doubt the substance of these abstract geometric visions. Furthermore, and reasoning in terms of strategic functionality, the truth is that there is no functional complementarity between the three installments. Therefore, there is no triangle.

Finally, Sebastianism. It is not a myth that is directly projected into our Security and Defense culture. But, as it is something that so frequently obscures our perceptions, it is worth meditating on it and paying attention. As Eduardo Lourenço wrote, even though it is linked to the aspiration for a better future, Sebastianism reflects a culture of absence. It is a form of dream, not based on a serious and repeated effort that builds progress. The Sebastianists are to be feared, but the mythical “Dons Sebastião” are absolutely to be rejected.

Also in Security and Defense this criterion must prevail.