Portugal's participation in international missions: the contribution of the National Defense Policy to the national interest and the production of international security
This project aims at analyzing Portugal’s participation in international missions, focusing on the contribution of the National Defense Policy to the national interest and the production of international security, identified here as a key axis of Portuguese foreign policy. The goal is to reflect upon and systematize the existing knowledge on the subject in three major dimensions of analysis:
1) Contextualization, decision-making, and definition of political and strategic goals;
2) Articulation between external constraints/opportunities resulting from Portugal’s participation in different alliances and international organizations;
3) Analysis of case-studies corresponding to Portugal’s participation in international missions (in different regional, institutional and operational settings), through distinct subsystems of the National Defense Policy.
The analysis of these dimensions comes across as paramount to understand how Portugal articulates different platforms for foreign relations within the scope of its National Defense Policy to project soft power and generate opportunities to strengthen the national contribution to the production of international security in the framework of alliances and international organizations. Likewise, this articulation is key to the understanding of how the subsystems of the National Defense Policy support the improvement of the country’s defense capacities, generate gains relevant to the Portuguese society, and alleviate the constraints faced by Portugal in this domain.
The project’s conclusions aimed to contribute to the advancement of knowledge in this area, but also to support the political decision-making process, resulting in the following outputs:
• Roundtable “International missions and the promotion of peace and security: the Portuguese case”, in collaboration with the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence of the University of Coimbra. January 31st, 2022
• Report of the Roundtable “International missions and the promotion of peace and security: the Portuguese case”, in collaboration with the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence of the University of Coimbra. April 2022
• Public presentation of the project’s results “A participação de Portugal em missões internacionais: contributos para o interesse nacional e a segurança internacional”. Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra, July 5th, 2022
• Policy brief 1 “International missions and the promotion of peace and security: the Portuguese case”, in collaboration with the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence of the University of Coimbra. April 2022
• Policy brief 2 “A doutrina e o processo de tomada de decisão sobre a participação de Portugal em missões internacionais”. July 2022.
• Policy brief 3 “Constrangimentos e oportunidades endógenos e exógenos”. July 2022.
• Policy brief 4 “O contributo de Portugal para a produção de segurança internacional e a concretização do interesse nacional”. July 2022.
• Policy Report “O contributo da Política de Defesa Nacional para a concretização do interesse nacional e a produção de segurança internacional”. July 2022.