O The (Baron of) Rio Branco military thinking and the permanent use of military power in peace time

Abstract

In the relative peace we live, the Military Power may be permanently employed to support the national interests, as proposed by Rio Branco. Its presence, spreading prestige and demonstrating capacity in missions abroad, like: peace operations, military manoeuvrings with other countries, support to foreign armed forces, or simply “showing the flag”, well as its participation in crises, giving humanitarian help to other countries, as well as in missions which purpose is to persuade others reactions changing or reinforcing it, form a set of diplomatic missions. Actually, this Military Power diplomatic employment is supposed to be the main purpose for the existence of armed forces nowadays.