Contesting perspectives on South Atlantic maritime security governance: Brazil and South Africa

ABSTRACT

Faced with significant changes to the economic and strategic scenario in the South Atlantic over the past decade, the region’s two major powers – Brazil and South Africa – have taken divergent approaches to policymaking for the maritime sphere. Whereas Brazil has, in essence, transferred its terrestrial security policy to the oceans and maintains a state-based deterrent approach, South Africa has invested heavily in governance-based approaches at the national, regional and international levels. While results have been limited on both sides due to the South Atlantic’s subordinate status, this contribution argues that South Africa’s approach has been significantly more successful in attaining both national (and regional) goals and providing policy solutions for the South Atlantic Ocean as a whole.

KEYWORDS:

• Oceans governance
• maritime policy
• maritime security
• blue economy
• South Atlantic
• South Africa
• Brazil

Notes on contributors

Érico Esteves Duarte is Adjunct Professor in the Department of International Strategic Studies at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. He has published on theory of war, maritime security, and Brazilian defence policy.

Kai Michael Kenkel is Associate Professor in the Institute of International Relations at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro. He has published extensively on peace operations, intervention norms, and related aspects of Brazilian security policy. The research for this article was supported by funding through the ‘Pró-Defesa’ program funded by the Brazilian Ministries of Education (CAPES) and Defense, for which he is the coordinator of one of the executing consortiums.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

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Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (Pró-Defesa III).