The following is an edited transcript of remarks by Roberto Amaral to Panel 1 of the Sept. 4, 2026 EIR-IPC Roundtable, “An Alternative to War and Looting in the Americas.” Mr. Amaral is the former Brazilian Minister of Science and Technology during the first Presidency of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2011). Subheads have been added. The video is available here.

Thank you very much for your kind remarks, and good afternoon to everybody. I’m going to speak to you today about the fact that the race driven by the technological revolution—the foundation and prerequisite for any form of development—is the challenge the world faces today. But advances in education, science, technology, and innovation are even more immense when we consider countries like Brazil, which still finds itself on the periphery of capitalism.

Scientific and technological progress creates the minimum conditions necessary to fuel the dream of sovereignty in a markedly asymmetrical world, amid a globalization heading toward a new Cold War that, as we know, does not serve the interests of humanity. Science, technology, development, and sovereignty do not exist in a vacuum: they take the form imposed on them by the interests of power. All science, like all technology, is dual-purpose. They serve peace just as much as they serve war. They are not neutral concepts. They respond to values, whether ethical or political.

No country is an island, and we are once again living in a polarized world. Without renouncing war outright, so-called “hybrid warfare” makes use of economic and political blockades and tariff hikes. What are the limits of national sovereignty in a world where a single nation can—and does—act on a global scale, despite everything we know as international norms and treaties? And, ultimately, by imposing its own law, based on the primacy of force that dictates the legal norm after the fact?

Vision for the Nation

The central issue, as far as we Brazilians are concerned, is the lack of a vision that unifies the nation around concrete goals; defining who we are and who we want to be. The project of building a society—if not a just one, then at least one free from the current appalling levels of inequality—is once again at risk in the face of a powerful neo-fascist, anti-democratic, and anti-national threat, which also enjoys the strong backing of the neo-fascist international that plagues the world from Washington, with the well-known consequences. One of its stated objectives, as far as we are concerned, is absolute control—already nearly achieved—over South America. Brazil and Uruguay are the last two nations that remain democratic. And Venezuela, reduced to the status of a protectorate—and, moreover, subjected to the plundering of its principal wealth—will not be its only victim. We know this.

Brazil, due to its size, population, and level of development, as well as its vast reserves of strategic metals—such as the so-called “rare earths”—could serve as a bastion of resistance; as it stands, it is already a nuisance that must be eliminated. Brazil’s immediate future depends, objectively speaking, to a large extent on our upcoming presidential elections. For, tragically, these elections foreshadow, internally, the new polarization we referred to earlier.

Having made this necessary caveat, let us return to the central issue: science, technology, and innovation as the core of development and the guarantors of sovereignty. Let us now state that sovereignty is neither a legal, political, nor military concept, but rather a multidisciplinary one, as it encompasses a social vision, an economic vision, a political vision, a final or strategic vision, a scientific and technological vision that is integral to it, and, above all, a political and cultural vision, since it also signifies a proposition of values. It presupposes a national project that seeks the development of social forces, the consolidation of the country, and its historical continuity. Sovereignty implies the possibility for an independent state to integrate autonomously into the community of nations; to be what its people desire. A sovereign country is one that enjoys the capacity for self-determination.

The challenge facing countries on the margins of hegemony is to integrate into the global economy and international relations without losing sight of their national interests, while remaining proud yet open to international exchange and cooperation. For this integration must be such that it seeks to capitalize on the gaps in the new Cold War for the benefit of their people.

In the contemporary world, there is a new factor that permeates all human activity, altering worldviews, visions for the future, and national strategies—and even reshaping concepts such as development, national security, and sovereignty, as well as the concepts of war and peace, and even the very concept of life. I am referring to the technological revolution—of which artificial intelligence is merely a new element—which brings into the present a future we failed to foresee, just as we still cannot foresee the political and social transformations that await us in the short and very short term.

We are already experiencing the profound changes brought about, for example, by production processes, and one of these is the universal and progressive subordination of labor, with its obvious social and political consequences. This is one of the great challenges for Brazil’s future.

Strengthen Bonds of Cooperation

Once again, foreign policy, science policy, and defense policy converge. For our projects, it is essential to strengthen relations with the other countries of South America and establish deep bonds of cooperation. The same applies to our long-standing collaboration with China, South Africa, India, and Russia—countries that, together with us, form the core of the BRICS and with which we have negotiated scientific cooperation programs. Producing our own technology is the path that must be taken by those who wish to emancipate themselves.

A division even deeper and more insurmountable than those found in the societies of the Global South will, in the very short term, separate peoples into those who possess science and technology, on the one hand, and, on the other, those excluded from knowledge, technology, and training. They will be the new underdeveloped.

Brazil, however, despite serious difficulties in its technological development, already possesses a considerable scientific base, accumulated knowledge, and technological advances. We have over 2,500 higher education institutions, many of which are universities.

I make these points to highlight the existence of objective conditions for accelerating our scientific and technological development, which depends on investments in education (at all levels), science, technology, and innovation. Education and science, strategic science and technology, industrialization and defense, economic planning and state intervention are essential and interdependent ingredients—a sine qua non—for any project of a sovereign and democratic nation; namely, one without exclusion or hunger, which encompasses income distribution and growth of the domestic market, social mobility, and the integration of the people into the nation—goals that are unattainable without economic development. Self-determination is precisely that: the right to be what one wishes to be.

Thank you.