Spain's Defence Diplomacy in Ibero-America: A Soft Power Strategy?

Spain has been deploying its defense diplomacy towards Ibero-America for decades but, despite the interest that this issue has triggered, a patent absence of theoretical approaches persists. However, there is a growing scientific literature making use of the soft power concept to explain the strategic implications of the defense diplomacy. For this reason, this research adopts the mentioned conceptual framework to examine a field of the political-diplomatic relations between Spain and Ibero-America with two objectives: first, to study whether the initiatives do indeed fit into this soft power concept; and second, to investigate its strategic approach. To accomplish those goals, an analysis of top-level Spanish political-strategic documents and other official documentary sources is carried out, as well as a review of the specialized bibliography of the area, and of other documents made from specialized institutions. The results show the ambiguity and limitations of the Spanish strategic objectives, the loss of prominence of Ibero-America in terms of interest for the national defense, or trade in the defense industry, and certain inconsistencies between the ways, means and ends. The conclusions section discusses the uncritical inclusion of various initiatives under the defense diplomacy category, and the lack of a strategic approach from a soft power approach.