BOOK | General Ramón Cañas Montalva: Pioneer of Geopolitics in Chile

Book edited by John Griffiths and Marcelo Masalleras based on a compilation of the most relevant texts published by the Geographical Journal of Chile “Terra Australis,” writings focused on geopolitical themes and publications by other authors regarding the work and significance of General Cañas.

We are in an era of transition in the international order, with a rules-based international system that is being challenged and degraded by competition and confrontation among great powers. In this scenario, the center of gravity of the world has shifted from the Atlantic Ocean—where Europe and North America were the main core—toward the Pacific, with the rise of significant economies and power bastions. This explains the resurgence and current relevance of geopolitics as a discipline that studies the interaction and impact of geography and its components on human activities; particularly, politics and power, which are inherent to international relations. This global landscape affects all states today, but particularly those whose dependence on globalization and trade is stronger. This is the case of Chile, a country with a market economy highly connected to the outside world, which was a factor of success at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century.

Questions such as those seeking to explain the onset of wars, the obsession of some states with the dominance of strategically located islands, the control of interoceanic passages, the importance of certain areas due to their potential wealth in minerals, as well as spaces where different cultures converge, have been and will continue to be questions of special geopolitical interest, particularly for those countries that possess geographical and strategic culture, as well as long-term thinking.

It is true that the current context presents risks, threats, and challenges, but also opportunities for Chile. What is surprising is that to understand what is happening today, one can look back 80 years to an exceptional Chilean: General Ramón Cañas Montalva, a visionary patriot ahead of his time. General Cañas was not just any military figure, and not only because he reached the highest authority of the Chilean Army in 1947, but because his main characteristic relates to a blend of delicate sensitivity and sharpness for geopolitical analysis, developed through the intellectual preparation he gained from his contact with the most prominent exponents of the discipline in the 20th century and a steadfast determination to defend national interests and sovereignty. Cañas Montalva identified in the mid-20th century the shift of the global geopolitical axis toward the Pacific; the tricontinentality of Chile based on a privileged continental American position, and a projection toward the Pacific enhanced by its possessions in Oceania and a natural Antarctic sovereignty. “Chile in the Antarctic South Pacific,” in his own words.

Thus, at AthenaLab, as a research center dedicated to the study and analysis of international relations, national security, and defense, and particularly interested in the geopolitical issues of our country, where the condition and projection of Chile stand out clearly, both toward Antarctica and its particular and advantageous position toward the Pacific, we have been interested since 2020 in researching, gathering, and understanding his work, with the aim of disseminating it. If we were to summarize who General Ramón Cañas Montalva was, nothing would be more appropriate than to quote the diplomat Óscar Pinochet de la Barra, who defines him as:

«A privileged Chilean who knew how to foresee the direction of time (…). Determined, brave, and with unlimited enthusiasm for the great causes of the Fatherland; for those that did not always impress his short-sighted compatriots, but which deeply moved him to dedicate his entire life to them (…). His dream of Chile in the Pacific, Chile in Antarctica, took half a century to realize, but today it is part of our national life».

Consequently, we have organized this book based on a compilation of the most relevant texts published by the Geographical Journal of Chile “Terra Australis”, various writings focused on geopolitical themes; publications by other authors regarding the work and significance of General Cañas, and an epilogue by Ramón Cañas Cambiaso, grandson of General Cañas, who presents more human, personal, and familial aspects of the figure.

Finally, we express that any errors in this publication are the sole responsibility of the book’s editors, whose main purpose has been to ensure that this work helps to publicize the brilliant military figure and his magnificent intellectual trajectory, as well as to highlight his postulates made over 80 years ago that, in the 21st century, astonish us with their clarity, vision, solid structure, and foresight. Above all, he is a visionary and, if we may say so, the pioneer or initiator of the study of geopolitics in Chile.

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