The Right and Duty to Defend Spain in the 21st Century

Abstract

The transformation that the defence and security has undergone in recent years requires a thorough review of the right-duty to defend Spain. In this respect, it is pertinent to ask ourselves if there is room for ways of defending the nation other than the military.Defence policy, that is, the set of actions aimed at defending Spain, is currently manifested in a variety of activities aimed at ends shared by other policies not strictly considered as «defence», that is, military. Consequently, what today is considered to be «defending Spain» (protecting both its independence and territorial integrity, as well as the Social State and the full exercise of rights and freedoms) can be and is also carried out by non-military subjects by means other than the military. If we put the constitutional State, and not the security itself, in the center of our interest, it is necessary to assume that a wide notion of security and defence (of the State) requires correlatively a wide notion of the right-duty to protect it.