Ernesto Dufour , professor at the national universities of Buenos Aires (UBA) and Lanús (UNLa), explained in Agenda Malvinas why sovereignty is a concept that must be addressed comprehensively, beyond the legal and regulatory sphere. “Sovereignty is also the existential defense of our community,” he maintained , “of the right to be masters of our destiny. And what does it mean for a nation to lose that? It would mean being subject to the determinations of power generated in other latitudes, without the possibility to have a say in what is decided.”
For Professor Dufour , sovereignty issues in Argentina are unresolved problems from the past that persist to the present, with new characteristics and configurations, but with the same power schemes. "Although this affects us as subjects of law - he commented - the discussions around the notion of sovereignty cannot be reduced to the diplomatic sphere or the normative framework of law." The researcher explained that, in addition to the material and intellectuals that are usually discussed, the concept of sovereignty operates in a dimension of feelings and identities that give meaning to the institutions of the State. “Sovereignty goes beyond law and diplomacy,” he assured, “because it depends on it whether a national community can continue to exist as such.”
According to his analysis, the world order is undergoing a transfiguration that will have great consequences at the local level. “The issue of strategic resources ,” he noted , “is being analyzed in a context whose conflict has reached the dimension of war.” Currently, the issue of resources is one of the central elements for the agendas of States, since food and natural resources used as materials or energy are the two engines that explain the conflict over the world order. "Argentina -he considered- , as part of Latin America, it still has those resources that the great powers need to ensure. These objective factors of reality allow us to have a more concrete geopolitical awareness .
For the professor and researcher, the notion of sovereignty must begin to be worked on comprehensively within society, since limiting this issue to the specific areas of the Chancellery or the Armed Forces implies relegating the importance of national sentiment for defense. of the country at a critical moment.“Without going any further,” he pointed out, “ in recent months the head of the United States Southern Command, Laura Richardson, said without any hint that they are interested in our lithium and our water.”
The people know
Within the framework of the conference “Luis Piedrabuena and Argentine sovereignty” , organized last Thursday by the Ema Nozzi Museum of Carmen de Patagones , Professor Ernesto Dufour was invited to speak about the bicontinental condition of the Argentine Republic and its implications. At the end of this presentation, the geographer specialized in Latin America and member of the UNLa Malvinas Observatory commented in dialogue with Agenda Malvinas why the idea of sovereignty must be anchored in civil society.
“Our existence always occurs within the framework of a community ,” he reflected, “ because humanity is not a sum of individuals. And if we talk about the international system, we observe that communities are national states.” The professor explained that in order to exist A country needs to defend the territory, which implies being clear about its dimensions and scope. “It's about knowing what our sovereignty is,” he said, “so that others know it too.This is how a sovereign State is expressed in reality; This is Argentina, it begins here and it ends here, and through this territory we are a national community.”
Dufour considered that these ideas are established in the traditional environments of international law or Defense, but that they remain less defined in highly relevant fields such as environmental discourse.
