O ocidente como ideal, propósito e programa: a ESG e a geopolítica do Brasil de Golbery do Couto e Silva

Abstract

The study and understanding of the period called Democratic Republic - or Liberal Republic - elapsed between 1946 and 1964, highlights a national political process primarily affected by a dynamic foreign policy, the Cold War, which was characterized by ideological bipolarity with effects extended to numerous other aspects, especially the military one. In Brazil, it was followed by the alignment trend with the US against the bloc formed by the USSR and its allies. Within this context, the Superior School of War (ESG) was founded in 1949. The institution was responsible for drafting the Homeland Security Doctrine (DSN) and its acting within the State’s scope during the 1950s made it a locus of production and diffusion of Geopolitical studies. Such intellectual construct, in the form of the Superior War School Courses contents, gave sequence to the work of men and state institutions that had begun in the 19th century and which was based on a logic that put in question the interests and state priorities, in a timeless way and independent of established governments. The narrative of the formation of the Brazilian territory, inherent to the studies conducted at the school, would be followed by the making of a historiography that wove a speech that evoked a "Western Christian" tradition and the anticommunism, while outlining the guidelines for accomplishing the geopolitical project of making Brazil a strong nation, a potency. In this sense, the study of general Golbery do Couto e Silva's political thinking – from his work “Geopolitics of Brazil” – is presented as an indispensable element to the understanding of that period in Brazilian history.