The Strategic Dimension of Defense Policy: an approach for the conceptualization from the Argentine case

Abstract

This article inquires about the strategic subfield of the studies of national defense and highlights it as a strand that has been scarcely addressed by the literature. After positioning the subfield in the studies on national defense, bridges are established between the concepts ‘defense’ and ‘strategy’ with the aim of having a better theoretical and analytical approach to what we will call ‘Strategic Dimension of the Defense Policy’ (SDDP), indicating that it is made up of four elements that, although closely related to each other, can be analyzed separately. In this sense, the Argentine case is used to address, through the analysis of official documents, current laws and conducting in-depth interviews with key actors; each component of the DEPD and illustrate both the link between them and the relationship between the concept and the empirical case used.