The current research evaluates the main reflections derived from the 30th National Defense Extension Course, held in Brazil, which addressed the contemporary defense challenges facing Latin America. In a regional context marked by hybrid hazards, technological disruption, climate disasters, and growing social demands for democratic participation, it is argued that national defense needs to transcend its exclusively military conception and become a genuine societal project, one that is articulated among the State, academia, citizens, and the industrial sector. Using a qualitative-descriptive approach with analytical-comparative and technical-normative support, this study identifies five key dimensions of regional strategic defense: multidimensional security, hybrid threats, technological sovereignty, climate defense, and educational innovation. It also contrasts the Brazilian model of defense-society integration with the Ecuadorian experience, highlighting military intervention in penitentiary centers as a state response to structural hybrid threats. It is concluded that a culture of democratic defense requires inter-institutional integration, adaptive planning, solid regulatory frameworks, and sustained investment in proprietary technological capabilities as a basis for addressing increasingly complex scenarios.