BRAZIL'S MILITARY-TECHNICAL COOPERATION WITH NAMIBIA: ASPECTS OF A STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP

Abstract

This paper analyzes why Brazil's technical-military cooperation with Namibia can be classified as strategic in the South Atlantic. As a hypothesis, the study starts from the assumption that the consolidation of Brazil's African policy and the intentions to reinforce its geopolitical position in its Strategic Environment were the main motivating factors for the military-technical rapprochement with Namibia and that this defense cooperation has become strategic due to factors related to (a) Brazil's African policy combined with its defense policy, (b) the potentiality of a consumer market for the Brazilian defense industrial base, and (c) the revaluation of the South Atlantic as an area of peace and cooperation. Based on the hypothetical-deductive method and the document analysis and bibliographic survey procedure, it can be verified that cooperation between Brazil and Namibia has significantly contributed to guaranteeing the sovereignty of the Namibian state. In turn, the Naval Agreement between Brazil and Namibia symbolizes a triumph of unquestionable value to Brazilian foreign policy