The Establishment of a Humanitarian Assistance Force in the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP)

Abstract

The study seeks to identify advances in Defense Cooperation in the Community of Portuguese-speaking countries (CPLP, in Portuguese) by creating a Humanitarian Assistance Force (HAF). The research problem analyzes the opportunities and challenges of creating a HAF in the Community. The hypothesis indicates that the CPLP’s cooperation in Defense, since 1998, has had an extraordinary development since it is consolidated as a dynamic and committed Defense Architecture among all Member States, whose expertise in human resources and equipment are the main potential opportunities. However, the challenge lies in materializing this involvement into concrete resultsthat can respond, first, to the needs of each country and the CPLP and, second, to provide further vitality and operationality to the Defense cooperation under the guidelines for strategic collaboration in the organization and aligned with the CPLP’s New Strategic Vision. Therefore, it is understood that the CPLP, by proposing an HAF, seeks to become an organization with more capacity to react purposefully and positively to disasters in the Member States. Furthermore, risk management is essential to assess and analyze risks and plan and execute specific actions to prevent and reduce destruction. Based on hypothetical and deductive methods, the study applies the qualitative researchprotocol. Regarding the objectives, the study is characterized as descriptive explanatory and uses bibliographic and documentary surveys (which mainly originated in the CPLP).