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Geopolitical Thinking in Latin America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2022

John Child*
Affiliation:
Inter American Defense College
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Extract

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Geopolitics as an approach to politico-military matters was of considerable significance up to the end of World War II, when it declined in respectability and prestige due to its association with Nazi theories of world conquest. As a result, very few strategic or military writings in the United States or Western Europe since World War II have been called “geopolitical,” even though they might include many of the concepts subsumed under the pre-1945 term. But, interestingly enough, the concept is alive and well in Latin America, especially in those Southern Cone countries (Brazil, Argentina, and Chile) where the most prolific thinking and writing on geopolitics has taken place in the last thirty years.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1979 by the University of Texas Press

Footnotes

*

The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance provided by Mercedes Bailey, Toni Bermúdez, and Gioconda Vallarino of the Inter American Defense College Library.

References

Notes

1. Robert Strausz-Hupé, Geopolitics: The Struggle for Space and Power (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1942), pp. viii–ix.

2. Mario Travassos, Projeção Continental do Brasil (Rio de Janeiro: Editorial Brasiliana, 1938).

3. General (Argentine Army) Juan E. Guglialmelli, “Argentina frente al ‘Operativo Misiones’ del Brasil,” Estrategia 19–20 (Nov. 1972–Feb. 1973):7–8.

4. General Golbery do Couto e Silva, Geopolítica do Brasil (Rio de Janeiro: Editora José Olympio, 1967), pp. 137–38.

5. Teresinha do Castro, “Antartica—Assunto do Momento,” Revista do Clube Militar (1958).

6. Rear Admiral (Brazil) Paulo Freitas, “Uso del mar,” Estrategia 34–35 (May–Aug. 1975).

7. General Carlos de Meira Mattos, Brasil–geopolítica e destino (Rio de Janeiro: Biblioteca do Exército, 1975), pp. 74–76.

8. Colonel Jorge E. Atencio, ¿Qué es la geopolítica? (Buenos Aires: Editorial Pleamar, 1965), p. 125.

9. General Juan E. Guglialmelli, “Argentina-Brasil: enfrentamiento o alianza para liberación,” Estrategia 36 (Sept.–Oct. 1975).

10. Ibid., p. 14.

11. Lieutenant Colonel Florentino Diaz Loza, “Geopolítica del Brasil,” Estrategia 29 (July–Aug. 1974):35.

12. Guglialmelli, “Argentina frente,” p. 7.

13. Julio E. Sanguinetti, “Geopolítica del Cuenca del Plata,” Estrategia 19–20 (Nov. 1972–Feb. 1973):72–76.

14. Ibid., p. 73.

15. T. A. Kozlowski, Nuevos potenciales en la política mundial (Buenos Aires: Editorial Pleamar, 1967), p. 60.

16. Coronel Augusto B. Rattenbach, “Estados Unidos y la venta de Armas a América Latina,” Estrategia 28 (May–June 1974):85.

17. General Juan E. Guglialmelli, “Argentina-Brasil: enfrentamiento.”

18. Walter M. Daniels, ed., Latin America in the Cold War (The Reference Shelf, vol. 24, no. 6 [New York: H. W. Wilson Co., 1952]), pp. 126–27.

19. General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, Geopolítica (Santiago, Chile: Editorial Andrés Bello, 1974), pp. 63–64.

20. Interview with senior Argentine general, Washington, D.C., 1 Sept. 1976.

21. A Bianchi, “Análisis del valor estratégico del Atlántico Sur,” Estrategia 34–35 (May–Aug. 1975).

22. General Juan E. Guglialmelli, “Análisis del Acuerdo Nuclear Brasileño-Alemán” Estrategia 34–35 (May-Aug. 1975):40–41.

23. Pinochet, Geopolítica, p. 165.

24. Miguel Lastarria Servat, El espacio vital (Santigo, Chile: Editorial Simiento, 1944), p. 135.

25. Pinochet, Geopolítica, p. 97.

26. Robert N. Burr, By Reason or Force (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1974), p. 184.

27. General Ramón Cañas Montalva, “Reflexiones geopolíticas,” Revista Geográfica de Chile 13 (May 1955).

28. Alipio Valencia Vega, Geopolítica en Bolivia (La Paz, Bolivia: Librería Juventud, 1965).

29. Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Latin America (31 March 1977), page H–1; (4 April 1977), page C–1.

30. General Edgardo Mercado Jarrín, “La política nacional y estrategia militar en el Perú,” Estrategia 27 (Mar.–Apr. 1974):26.

31. See, for example, Colonel Jorge Hernández Méndez, Estudio geoestratégico del Istmo Centro-Americano (Guatemala, Guatemala: Ministry of National Defense, 1967).

32. Jefes de Estado Mayor Centro-Americanos, Primera Reunión de Jefes de Estado Mayor del Istmo Centroamericano (Guatemala: Jefes de Estado Mayor, 1961), pp. 32–33.