General Carlos de Meira Mattos: the geopolitical soldier.*

General Carlos de Meira Mattos was born in São Paulo on July 23, 1913. In 1936, he sat in the army as a cadet, at the Escola Militar de Realengo (Realengo’s Military School – Rio de Janeiro/RJ). During World War II (WW II), as Captain, he fought the German and Italian troops in the fields of Italy in the Força Expedicionária Brasileira (Brazilian Expeditionary Force – FEB). His fearless performance in the main achievement of that front—the Monte Castelo takeover—earned him the Second Class Combat Cross of the Brazilian Army and the Bronze Star Medal of the US Army.

Upon his return to Brazil, he graduated from the Escola de Comando e Estado-Maior do Exército (ECEME) and Escola Superior de Guerra (ESG). In 1965, as Coronel, he commanded the Brazilian Detachment (FAIBRAS) of the Inter-American Force of the Organization of American States (OAS), in the Dominican Republic.

He became General in 1968, and in 1969 he was appointed commander of the Academia Militar das Agulhas Negras (Military Academy of Agulhas Negras – AMAN). After this command, thanks to his extensive experience in the area of education, he coordinated the commission that developed the guidelines for university reform in Brazil. As General-of-Division, in 1973, he was appointed Deputy Chief of the former Estado-Maior das Forças Armadas (Military Staff – EMFA) and then, in 1975, Vice Dean of the Inter-American Defense College. He left active service in 1977, at the age of 64, after 44 years of proficient services.

Once in reserve, he can devote himself fully to his second passion—the first was the Army—, the literary production about geopolitics and military strategy. With a Doctorate in Political Sciences by Mackenzie University (São Paulo/SP), he gave us a vast work in the fields of Geopolitics and Military Strategy, responsible for the definition of the Objetivos Nacionais Permanentes (Permanent National Objectives – ONP) and for the application of National Power, respectively.

In Geopolitics, he knew how to study, examine and analyze the interaction between geography and politics, with autochthonous solutions to national problems, all with a vision for the future.
In the Military Strategy, he contributed to the improvement and updating of national strategic concepts, with credibility guaranteed by his experiences in combat and his in-depth studies on the subject.

Geopolitical Thinking

Considered the greatest authority in geopolitics in South America for many scholars, his line of thought is proposed to be the continuation of the ideas exposed by the former captain Mário Travassos in the work “Projeção Continental do Brasil,” from 1931, considered the genesis of the Brazilian geopolitical thinking. His studies did not stop in the inheritance received from Mário Travassos, they moved forward until he defined his own concepts around an “applied geopolitics,” according to which “the geographic relations understood must be applied in government policy.”

Here we mention the most outstanding themes, among the many that he dedicated himself to and that make up his geopolitical legacy committed to future generations that envision Brazil as a world power:

- the complex issue of integration and defense of the Amazon under a geopolitical approach;
- potentialities and challenges to overcome in order to make Brazil an “expanding world power”;
- Brazilian capacity to build a “Civilization n the tropics”;
- real awareness of the discrepancies between national potentials and underdevelopment;
- development of policies and strategies to address the vulnerabilities mentioned above;
- relevance of the historical “Hispanic encirclement” in the South American continent;
- strategic importance of the South Atlantic, here seen as “lung to the world”; and
- reaffirmation of the concept that Brazil has all the conditions to become a world power.

The prospective character of his geopolitical thinking became public in 1960, when he published “Projeção Mundial do Brasil,” in which he gave greater political-strategic dimension to the concepts of Mário Travassos’ book, aforementioned. In this work, the General addresses current issues for those years, such as: economic growth diagnosed by the increase of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), increase of the road network with priority for the Brazilian unknown interior, exploitation of unexplored riches, improvement of the responsibilities towards the future of regional security and the extension of Brazil’s “security perimeter.”

In spite of the wide range of topics with geopolitical approaches, he exposed in many books his central concern with the integration and valorization of the Amazon, but it was in “Uma geopolítica pan-amazônica,” from 1980, that he accurately and deeply showed his attention to the theme.

In it, the author emphasizes the three historical directions that defined the occupation of the region, establishes the difference between the terms “Amazon” and “Pan-Amazon” and dwells on the latter, since it contemplates the geopolitical option of creating a multinational-regional space for the neighboring countries of the great hiléia. After characterizing the macro-area, he identified the dichotomy between the formidable natural resources and the impossibility of exploiting them on a commercial scale and using them in favor of National Power, because of the restriction of human resources due to the inhospitable environment. It concludes by the sequence of obstacles that transform the defense of the Amazon into a great vulnerability of the Brazilian State: without occupation there is no use; the lack of use does not attract integration, and without integration the possibilities of defense become scarce.

In “Geopolítica e Trópicos,” he presents an innovation on the controversial theme of Brazil's capacity to build a tropical nation, deepens the known geopolitical theories and establishes the connection between the strengthening of national power and the Brazilian people's ability to overcome the challenges of their territoriality (continentality). This will depend on Brazil's capacity to reach the category of 21st century’s world power, a reality out of date due to the economic restrictions experienced during the 1980s, but which remains one of the Brazilian ONPs, given the national effort to achieve a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

*Originally published in the PADECEME Journal, n. 14, 1st Quarter of 2007. p. 4-6.