Geopolitical discourses are constitutive moments within the expression and construction of ‘national’ identities. Approaching geopolitics and identities as contested and fluid domains, we examine the relationships between geopolitical narratives and visions of Portugueseness (Portugalidade). The focus is on the frames of geopolitical thought developed in 20th-century Portugal, with particular reference to the post-1945 period and with some consideration of the transformations since 1974 accompanying the collapse of what was both the first and the most enduring European overseas empire. This study of Portuguese geopolitical discourses leads to a conclusion in which we reflect on the significance of relations between the ‘colonial’ and the ‘postcolonial’ and the articulations of East–West and North–South in geopolitical discourses. This permits wider critique concerning the location of geopolitics within 20th-century and contemporary imperialisms.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AgnewJ, 2003Geopolitics: Re-visioning World Politics (Routledge, London)
2.
AgnewJMitchellKToalG, 2002, “Introduction”, in A Companion to Political Geography Eds AgnewJMitchellKToalG (Blackwell, Oxford) pp 1–9
3.
AtkinsonD, 1995, “Geopolitics, cartography and geographical knowledge: envisioning Africa from Fascist Italy”, in Geographical Knowledge and Imperial Power 1820–1940 Eds BellMButlerR AHeffernanM J (Manchester University Press, Manchester) pp 290–332
4.
BaerWLeiteA P N, 1992, “The peripheral economy, its performance in isolation and with integration: the case of Portugal”Luso-Brazillian Review24(2) 1–35
5.
Bahia dos SantosF, 1955Politíca Ultramarina de PortugalSociedade de Geografia de Lisboa, Rua das Portas de Santa Antão 1000, Lisboa 1100
6.
BarkawiTLaffeyM, 2002, “Retrieving the imperial: empire and international relations”Millennium: Journal of International Studies31(1) 109–127
7.
BassetT, 1994, “Cartography and empire-building in nineteenth-century West-Africa”Geographical Review84316–335
8.
BlancoJ, 1995, Bibliography: selected bibliography in English and some key works in Portuguese”, in A Centenary Pessoa Ed. LisboaETaylorL C (Carcanet Press, Manchester) pp 315–335
9.
BloomH, 1995The Western Canon (Macmillan, Basingstoke, Hants)
10.
Borges-CoelhoJ P, 2002, “African troops in the Portuguese Colonial Army, 1961–1974: Angola, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique”Portuguese Studies Review10(1) 129–150
11.
BruceN, 1975Portugal: The Last Empire (David and Charles, North Pomfret, VT)
12.
Buck-MorssS, 2000Dreamworld and Catastrophe: The Passing of Mass Utopia in East and West (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA)
13.
CabralA, 1973Return to the Source: Selected Speeches (Monthly Review Press, New York)
14.
CaetanoM, 1973Razões da Presença de Portugal no Ultramar (Secretariado de Propaganda Nacional, Lisbon)
15.
CampbellD, 1992Writing Security (Manchester University Press, Manchester)
16.
CarvalhoM M, 1997, “O ensino da historia e ‘ideologia’ imperial”História3419
17.
ChassinL M, 1961, “Geopolitica e a marinha do futoro”Revista Marinha do Futoro45527–40
18.
Clarence-SmithG, 1985The Third Portuguese Empire, 1825–1975: A Study in Economic Imperialism (Manchester University Press, Manchester)
19.
CompridoJ B, 1956, “Importância geopolítica de Portugal para a estratégia do mundo livre”Anais do Club Militar Naval86(7–9) 223–268
20.
CoombesA E, 1994Reinventing Africa. Museums, Material Culture and Popular Imagination in Late Victorian and Edwardian England (Yale University Press, New Haven, CT)
21.
Costa-PintoA, 1992O Salazarismo e o Facismo Europeu: Problemas de Interpretação nas Ciencias Socias (Editorial Stampa, Lisbon)
22.
CrespoM P, 1956, “Portugal na política e na estratégia mundias”Anais do Club Militar Naval96(4–6) 135–166, 275–298
23.
CrollenL, 1973Portugal, the US and Nato (Leuven University Press, Leuven)
24.
da Costa SantaR J G, 1944, “A geopolitica e as colónias de Angola e Moçambique”Anuário da Escola Superior Colonial23/24133–140
25.
DalbyS, 1994, “Gender and critical geopolitics: reading security discourse in the new world disorder”Environment and Planning D: Society and Space12595–612
26.
da SilvaA R, 1964Política Ultramarina Portuguesa, Seus Objectivos Históricos e Actuais, Sua Posição Perante a Conjuntura Internacional Conference held at Instituto des Altos Estudos Militares, 28 February 1964 (Agěnda Geral do Ultramar, Lisbon)
27.
de AndradeA A, 1961Many Races–One Nation: Racial Non-discrimination Always the Cornerstone of Portugal's Overseas Policy copy available from Sidaway and Power
28.
de CarvalhoJ B, 1974Rumo do Portugal: A Europa ou o Atlântico (Livros Horizonte, Lisbon)
29.
de FigueiredoA, 1975Portugal: Fifty Years of Dictatorship (Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, Middx)
30.
de MedeirosP, 2002, “War pics: photographic representations of the Colonial War”Luso-Brazilian Review39(2) 91–103
31.
de Sousa SantosB, 1993, O Estado, as relaçoes salariais e o bem-estar social na semiperiferia: o caso portuguěs”, in Portugal: Um Retrato Singular Ed. Santos deSousa (Afrontamento, Porto) pp 33–69
32.
de Sousa SantosM I R, 1992, “An imperialism of poets: the modernism of Fernando Pessoa and Hart Crane”Luso-Brazillian Review24(1) 84–95
33.
de SpínolaA, 1974Portugal e o Futuro: Análise da Conjuntura Nacional (Arcádia, Lisbon)
34.
DoddsK J, 1993, “Geopolitics, cartography and the state in Latin America”Political Geography12361–381
35.
DoddsKAtkinsonD (Eds), 2000Geopolitical Traditions: A Century of Geopolitical Thought (Routledge, London)
36.
Feldman-BiancoB, 2001, “Colonialism as a continuing project: the Portuguese experience”Identities8477–482
37.
FernandesJ M, 2003Portuguěs Suave: Arquitecturas do Estado Novo (Instituto Portuguěs do Património Arquitectónico, Lisbon)
38.
FerreiraJ J B, 1992, “Portugal 'as portas do século XXI: ensaio geopolitico e geostratégico”Revista Militar44(4) 243–268
39.
FerreiraV M, 1987, Uma nova ordem urbana para a capital do império—a ‘modernidade’ da urbanização e o ‘autoritarismo’ do Piano Director de Lisboa, 1938–1948”, in O Estado Novo das Origens ao Fim da Autarcia 1926–1959 Ed. RosasF (Editorial Presença, Lisbon) pp 359–375
40.
FreyreG, 1961Portuguese Integration in the Tropics (Agencia Geral do Ultramar, Lisbon)
41.
GalvãoH, 1936O Império (Edicões SPN, Lisbon)
42.
GalvãoH, 1976A Minha Luta Contra o Salazarismo e o Communismo em Portugal (Arcadia, Lisbon)
43.
GilroyP, 1993The Black Atlantic, Modernity and Double Consciousness (Verso, London)
44.
GilroyP, 2000Between Camps: Nations, Cultures and the Allure of Race (Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, Middx)
45.
GrahamL SWheelerD L, 1983In Search of Modem Portugal: The Revolution and its Consequences (Wisconsin University Press, Madison, WI)
GristwoodA, 1999, “Commemorating empire in twentieth-century Seville”, in Imperial Cities: Landscape, Display and Identity Eds DriverFGilbertD (Manchester University Press, Manchester) pp 155–173
48.
GuimarãesA, 1987, “O labirinto dos mitos”, in O Estado Novo das origens ao Fim da Autarcia 1926–1959volume 2, Eds PintoA C (Fragmentos, Lisbon) pp 107–121
49.
GunnG C, 1999Timor Loro Sae 500 Years (Livros do Oriente, Macau)
50.
HallS, 1996, “When was the postcolonial? Thinking at the limit”, in The Postcolonial Question: Common Skies, Divided Horizons Eds ChambersICurtiL (Routledge, London) pp 242–260
51.
HamiltonC Y, 2000Cuisines of Portuguese Encounters (Hippocrene, New York)
52.
HanlonJ, 1986Beggar your Neighbours (James Currey, London)
53.
HeppleL W, 1986, “Geopolitics, generals and the state in Brazil”Political Geography Quarterly5579–596
54.
HeppleL W, 1992, “Metaphor, geopolitical discourse and the military in Latin America”, in Writing Worlds: Discourse, Text and Metaphor in the Representation of Landscape Eds BarnesT JDuncanJ S (Routledge, London) pp 136–154
55.
IngramA, 2001, “Alexander Dugin: geopolitics and neo-fascism in post-Soviet Russia”Political Geography201029–1051
56.
JúniorA D, 1969Portugal e o Occidente (Instituto de Angola, Luanda)
57.
KearnsG, 2003, “Imperial geopolitics: geopolitical visions at the dawn of the American century”, in A Companion to Political Geography Eds AgnewJMitchellKToalG (Blackwell, Oxford) pp 173–186
58.
KellyP, 1984Checkerboards and Shatterbelts: The Geopolitics of South America (University of Texas Press, Austin, TX)
59.
KennanG (Mr X), 1947, “The sources of soviet conduct”Foreign Affairs July, 566–582
60.
LourençoE, 1978O Labrinto da Saudade, Psicanálise Mítica do Destino Portuguěs (Dom Quixote, Lisbon)
61.
MadureiraL, 1995, “The discreet seductiveness of the crumbling empire—sex, violence and colonialism in the fiction of António Lobo Antunes”Luso-Brazillian Review32(1) 17–29
62.
MaltezJ A, 2002Curso de Relaçoes Internacionais (Pricipa, Estorial)
63.
MedinaJ, 1999, “The old lie: some Portuguese contemporary novels on the Colonial Wars in Africa (1961–1974)”Portuguese Studies Review15149–161
64.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1970Portugal Replies to the United Nations (Imprensa Nacional, Lisbon)
65.
MinterW, 1972Portuguese Africa and the West (Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, Middx)
66.
MitchellT, 1988Colonizing Egypt (University of Califonia Press, Berkeley, CA)
67.
MondlaneE, 1969The Struggle for Mozambique (Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, Middx)
68.
NatterW, 2003, “Geopolitics in Germany, 1919–45”, in A Companion to Political Geography Eds AgnewJMitchellKToalG (Blackwell, Oxford) pp 187–203
69.
NetoJ P, 1963, “O significado do multirracialismo Portugués”Separata da Revista Ultramar numbers 13–14
70.
NewittM, 1981Portugal in Africa, The Last Hundred Years (Hurst, London)
71.
NowellC E, 1982The Rose-colored Map: Portugal's Attempt to Build an African Empire from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean (Junta de Investigações Científica do Ultramar, Lisbon)
72.
OliveiraP A, 2000, A política externa do Marcelismo: a questão Africana”, in Diplomacia e Guerra: Políca de Defesa em Portugal do Final da Monarquia ao Marcelismo Ed. MartinsF (Edicões Colibry, Évora) pp 233–265
73.
OrnelasJ N, 2001, The construction of identity in Portuguese contemporary narrative”, in Global Impact of the Portuguese Language Ed. de LagunaA R (Transaction, New Brunswick, NJ) pp 145–165
74.
ÓTuathailGAgnewJ, 1992, “Geopolitics and discourse: practical geopolitical reasoning and US foreign policy”Political Geography11190–204
75.
ParkerG, 1985Western Geopolitical Thought in the Twentieth Century (Croom Helm, London)
76.
PintoJ E R, 1956, “Importância geopolitica de Portugal para a estratégia do Mundo Livre”Anais do Club Militar Naval86(10–12) 401–426
77.
PowerM, 2000, “Aqui Lourenço Marques!! Radio-colonization and cultural identity in colonial Mozambique 1932–1974”Journal of Historical Geography26605–628
78.
PowerM, 2001, “Geo-politics and the representation of Portugal's African wars: examining the limits of the ‘Vietnam syndrome’”Political Geography20461–491
79.
PriorG, 1951, “A geopolitica e a estratégia mundial”Anais de Marinha11(16) 3–15
80.
QuintanilhaF E G (Ed.), 1971Fernando Pessoa, Sixty Portuguese Poems (University of Wales Press, Cardiff)
81.
RabyD L, 1988Fascism and Resistance in Portugal (Manchester University Press, Manchester)
82.
ReichmannR (Ed.), 1999Race in Contemporary Brazil: From Indifference to Inequality (Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, PA)
83.
RibeiroM C, 2002, “Empire, colonial wars and post-colonialism in the contemporary Portuguese imagination”Portuguese Studies Review18132–214
84.
RobertsonD, 1990, The vision of colony and metropolis in Portuguese Colonial War literature”, in Literature and War Ed. BevanD (Rodopi, Amsterdam) pp 119–140
85.
RobinsonR A H, 1979Contemporary Portugal: A History (Allen and Unwin, London)
86.
RosasF (Ed.), 1992Nova História de Portugal e o Estado Novo (Editorial Presença, Lisbon)
87.
RoucekJ S, 1964, “Portugal in geopolitics”Contemporary Review205476–488
88.
RozenbergG, 2003, “Windswept outpost for war summit”The Times 15 March, page 16
89.
RyanM, 1994War and Peace in Ireland: Britain and the IRA in the New World Order (Pluto Press, London)
90.
SaidE, 1994Culture and Imperialism (Vintage Books, New York)
91.
SalazarO, 1960a, “Panorama da política mundial”, Discursos e Notas Politicas, Volume 6, 1959–1966 (Coimbra Editora, Coimbra) pp 3–48
92.
SalazarO, 1960b, “Portugal e a campanha anticolonista. Discurso pronunciada na sessão da Assembleia Nacional de 30/11/60”, Discursos e Notas Politicas, Volume 6, 1959–1966 (Coimbra Editora, Coimbra)
93.
SalazarO, 1961, “O Ultramar Portuguěs e o ONU. Discurso pronunciada na sessão extraordinária da Assembleia Nacional em 30/6/1961”, Discursos e Notas Politicas, Volume 6, 1959–1966 (Coimbra Editora, Coimbra) pp 127–158
94.
SalazarO, 1962, “Defesa de Angola—defesa da Europa. Discurso proferido na Cova da Moura em 4/12/62”, in Discursos e Notas Ooliticas, Volume 6, 1959–1966 (Coimbra Editora, Coimbra) pp 59–66, 227–237
95.
SanchesM C, 1963, “Meditáções geopoliticas–geostratégicas”Anais do Clube Militar Naval931–3, 10–12; 941–3
96.
SapegaE W, 2002, “Image and counter-image: the place of Salazarist images of national identity in contemporary Portuguese visual culture”Luso-Brazilian Review39(2) 45–64
97.
SaraivaM, 1990, “O error colonialista”Boletim da Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa series108(1–6) 91–103
98.
SerrãoJ, 1976, “Repensar Portugal”Nação e Defesa April
99.
SharpJ, 1993, “Publishing American identity: popular geopolitics, myth and the Readers Digest”Political Geography12491–503
100.
SharpJ, 1998, “Reel geographies of the New World Order: patriotism, masculinity and geopolitics in post Cold War American movies”, in Rethinking Geopolitics Eds TuathailG ODalbyS (Routledge, London) pp 152–169
101.
SidawayJ D, 1992, “Mozambique: destabilization, state, society and space”Political Geography Quarterly11239–258
102.
SidawayJ D, 1999, “America and the Portuguese Empire”, in The American Century: Consensus and Coercion in the Projection of American Power Eds SlaterDTaylorP J (Blackwell, Oxford) pp 195–209
103.
SidawayJ D, 2000, “Iberian geopolitics”, in Geopolitical Traditions: A Century of Geopolitical Thought Eds DoddsKAtkinsonD (Routledge, London) pp 118–149
104.
SidawayJ D, 2001, “Rebuilding bridges: a critical geopolitics of Iberian transfrontier cooperation in a European context”Environment and Planning D: Society and Space19743–778
105.
SidawayJ DSimonD, 1993, “Geopolitical transition and state formation: the changing political geographies of Angola, Mozambique and Namibia”Journal of Southern African Studies19(1) 6–28
106.
SieberR T, 2001, “Remembering Vasco da Gama: contested histories and the cultural politics of contemporary nation-building in Lisbon, Portugal”Identities8549–581
107.
SmithN, 2000, “Is a critical geopolitics possible? Foucault, class and the vision thing”Political Geography19365–371
108.
TaylorP J, 1990Britain and the Cold War: 1945 as Geopolitical Transition (Pinter, London)
109.
TaylorP J, 1993, Geopolitical world orders”, in Political Geography of the Twentieth Century: A Global Analysis Ed. TaylorP J (Belhaven Press, London) pp 31–61
110.
TeixeiraN S, 1992, “From neutrality to alignment: Portugal in the foundation of the Atlantic Pact”Luso-Brazilian Review29(2) 113–126
111.
TsfahuenhyM, 1998, “Mobility, racism and geopolitics”Political Geography17499–515
112.
VenturaA, 1994, Resistěncias ao regime ditatorial: Henrique Galvão”, in História de Portugal: Dos Tempos Pré-históricos aos Nossos Dias, Volume XXIII, O Estado Novo Opressão e Resistěncia Ed. MedinaJ (Ediclube, Lisbon) pp 235–238
113.
WeberC, 1994, “Shoring up a sea of signs: how the Caribbean Basin Initiative framed the US invasion of Grenada”Environment and Planning D: Society and Space12547–558
114.
WheelerD, 1993–94, “Do estado novo ao estado velho”Portuguese Studies Review3(1) 106–112
115.
YoungR, 1990White Mythologies: Writing History and the West (Routledge, London)
