Argentina's critical infrastructures: topics for their regulation

Argentina's last National Defence Policy Directive (2021) explicitly mentions the protection of critical infrastructures, making it necessary to define them, establish priorities and responsibilities. However, Argentina published a first critical infrastructure standard in 2019 that lists vaguely those sectors to be included. The resolution does not allow to program actions and establish responsibilities since there is no identification of actors and, therefore, of their duties. In this article, we will discuss the relevant aspects that could be considered for future legislative work in Argentina and the role of the Ministry of Defence. Main topics are: 1) the genesis of the notion of critical infrastructures and the aspects that gave rise to their identification as the object of security policy and that of National Defence in particular; 2) those cases that are of interest in thinking about the national case in comparative perspective; 3) a synthesis of the elements under discussion that we understand structure the treatment of critical infrastructures.