A pending collective task in most of Latin American countries is a debate in a rigorous and systematic way, of the issues related to national defense. Even the relevance of defense policies and instruments in the political trajectories of these countries, as well as the important resources demanded by them in a scenario of very serious problems of governance and social justice, are not strong enough to put these issues on the public agenda. Subjects such as the mission, composition, attributes and requirements of armed forces are not discussed and frequently avoided, with no appropriation of them by the society, with no clear policy proposals discussed in Parliaments and absent from the party platforms, they remain as the sole incumbency of military institutions, without social control and political oversight. The Ministries of Defense, in such a context are extremely weak, without political, organizational and administrative capacities for formulation of policies and for discussing and evaluating strategic orientations and operative requirements of the armed forces. Their interventions in the planning programming and budgetting processes are frequently only formal, not supported by well developed analytical capabilities and without coordination with other policies and sectors of government. The Ministries of Defense are, in consequence, at best mechanisms for mediation and communication between the central government and the armed forces. These structural prblems are aggravated by the absence of policy entrepreneurs and a community policy integrated by academic centers, policy specialists and non-governmental organizations that could participate in the policy dialogue, generate proposals and illuminate the society on the importance of these matters in economic terms, as well as their implications for national foreign policy and regional integration.

The objective of this article is to present and evaluate some factors operating for this social output. The purpose is to contribute to an urgent and necessary debate on defense policies, with and involvement of the civil society and clear understanding of them by political parties and governmental officials. Some of the specific attributes of the policies are discussed, which in part explain its vulnerability to coporative appropriation. As a conclusioin, some recommendatioin are advanced: subjects to be incorporated to the research agenda, institutional capabilities to be developed and organizational reforms to enable an active role of the Ministries of Defense. The need for an increased social perception of the problematic and for a mobilization of social actors is a condition for avoiding that the defense policies remain isolated and without any social and democratic control.