Paper short abstract:

The analyse of the geopolitical consequences for Portugal determined by Brexit and by the Trump Doctrine, evaluating alternative options to an anticipated weakening of the euro-Atlantic link that has been the main Portuguese geostrategic bet, by the centrality that gives the Country.

Paper long abstract:

The Portuguese geopolitics rests on three large spaces: European Union (EU), Atlantic Alliance (NATO) and Community of Portuguese-Language Countries (CPLP). If it is true that NATO and the CPLP are geopolitical spaces dominated by maritime factor, it is not evident the same in the EU, traditionally dedicated to assume as a continental power. The successive UE enlargements, first to the United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark (1973), then to Greece (1981), Spain and Portugal (1986), gave her a greater maritime dimension, both in the West (Atlantic) as in South (Mediterranean). With the end of the cold war and the enlargements to the East, the EU assume as practically pan-European and with a policy centrality and geographical in Germany. The announced United Kingdom EU output and an isolationist stance of the new US Administration vis-à-vis the EU can strengthen the continental pillar in Europe at the expense of the euro-Atlantic. However, it was under the Presidency of a Portuguese, Jose Manuel Barroso that the European Commission launched, in 2007, the European Integrated Maritime Policy, recognizing the importance of the sea in trade and in the EU economy, having been based in Lisbon the European Maritime Safety Agency. The aim of this paper is to analyse the geopolitical consequences for Portugal determined by Brexit and by the Trump Doctrine, evaluating alternative options to an anticipated weakening of the euro-Atlantic link that has been the main Portuguese geostrategic bet, by the centrality that gives the Country, as opposed to their peripheral position in Europe.