ideological commitment to geopolitics, has pursued Amazonian policies shaped by geopolitics to keep the military harmlessly occupied in a remote region of the country. The case of Brazil suggests that although geopolitics overtly stresses broad national interests, partisan politics can figure strongly in its employ. The role of geopolitics in recent Amazonian development provides important insights on how geopolitics interacts with a nation s political life. Geopolitical doctrine was a key part of the Brazilian military's ideology, and the military government that ruled from 1964 to 1985 placed that doctrine at the center of the national political arena. Much Brazilian geopolitical writing focused on Amazonia and viewed the region as the key to the Brazilian future. Yet many other elements of Brazilian public life, including developmentalism, regional equalization, authoritarianism, and democratic resistance, also had an Amazonian dimension (Foresta 1991) and competed with geopolitics in informing Amazonian policy. How the competition played out reveals much about geopolitics as an element in the political