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At a Workers’ Party convention in August, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva made an unusual appeal to his own political camp: “I want to ask the left-wing people,” he said. “Stop this nonsense of thinking that we don’t have to worry about defense.”

Lula then explained what Brazil had to protect, including nearly 10,500 miles of land borders, the Amazon rainforest, 12 percent of global freshwater, and mineral wealth. Though Lula said the country should promote peace rather than war, his message was clear: Brazil needs armed forces capable of deterring threats.

At a Workers’ Party convention in August, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva made an unusual appeal to his own political camp: “I want to ask the left-wing people,” he said. “Stop this nonsense of thinking that we don’t have to worry about defense.”

Lula then explained what Brazil had to protect, including nearly 10,500 miles of land borders, the Amazon rainforest, 12 percent of global freshwater, and mineral wealth. Though Lula said the country should promote peace rather than war, his message was clear: Brazil needs armed forces capable of deterring threats.

Lula has run seven presidential campaigns, and this is the first to feature defense policy as a key pillar of his platform. This may be surprising, given the close ties between the Brazilian military and influential former right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro. Some military leaders cooperated with Bolsonaro’s failed efforts to overturn Lula’s 2022 victory; Bolsonaro has since been convicted of plotting a coup and barred from politics. His son Flávio Bolsonaro is running in his place ahead of the Oct. 4 first-round vote.

Lula’s shift on defense can be explained at least in part by U.S. foreign policy. U.S. President Donald Trump’s new military campaign in Latin America as well as his sanctions and tariffs targeting Brazil have given a new life to the idea that the country’s sovereignty needs to be protected. A longtime backer of industrial policy, Lula has also leaned into the potential of Brazil’s military-industrial complex to boost the economy.

During Lula’s previous presidential terms—between 2003 and 2011—he was not hostile to military spending. He advanced some of Brazil’s biggest defense programs, such as a conventional and nuclear submarine partnership with France, the development of Embraer’s KC-390 tactical transport aircraft, and the Guarani armored vehicle initiative. In 2008, Lula’s administration enacted Brazil’s first National Defense Strategy.

However, what is new is how forcefully Lula is pushing the subject and the language he uses to do so. Lula presents Brazil’s defense industrial base as an instrument of reindustrialization, technological autonomy, skilled employment, and exports. The word tying those ideas together is soberania........

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