A Gaiola das Américas: a Doutrina de Segurança Nacional na Pan-Amazônia entre o imperialismo e a dependência

Abstract

This article analyzes the diffusion and operationalization of the National Security Doctrine (NSD) in the Pan-Amazon between 1959 and 1989, linking it to the dynamics of imperialism and dependency in the context of the Cold War. It is based on the premise that development, promoted as a political-ideological project by the United States, was deeply associated with hemispheric security strategies aimed at containing communism and maintaining the peripheral capitalist order. Grounded in Marxist Dependency Theory, the study understands the NSD as a historical-institutional device that connects military training, the circulation of doctrines, and state policies of security and development. Methodologically, the research adopts a qualitative historical-interpretative approach, combining theoretical review, documentary analysis, and process tracing. The article highlights the role of the School of the Americas in training Latin American military cadres and disseminating counterinsurgency doctrines, as well as Brazil’s role as a subimperialist pole responsible for adapting and diffusing the NSD in the Pan-Amazon through institutions such as the Higher War College and the Jungle Warfare Training Center. It argues that this institutional apparatus produced a pattern of subordinate development marked by territorial militarization, intensive resource exploitation, and repression of political movements, configuring what we term the “Cage of the Americas.”