Diplomacy of ideas, regional academic policy and Geography. The French science in the service of narrating and intervening the Argentinian territory from the Cuyo Region to the Pampa Gringa, 1947-1973

Abstract

During the 20th century, the French School of Geography used to spread its ideas and principles in Latin America with considerable success. This diplomacy of ideas was formally realized from high positions in embassies in which outstanding geographers fulfilled scientific, political, and social functions. After World War II, though, Latin America became the target of the new foreign policy launched by France, which was witnessing the fall of its colonial empire confronted by the decolonization movement in Africa and Asia. Particularly in Argentina, the arrival of the French geographers took place at the precise moment in which the Argentinian Geography was going through a process of institutionalization at university, and contributed to give the discipline scientific status. In this context, the French diplomatic missions transcended the academic field which was affected by three fundamental factors: the French foreign policies, the model of national development actively supported by State bureaucracies, and the interests of overseas enterprises that mediated plans for major infrastructure works.