Geopolitics

Geopolitics is the study that analyses geography, history and social science with reference to international politics. In other words, it examines the political and strategic significance of geography; in this context, geography is defined in terms of the location, size, and resources of places.

The term was coined by Rudolf Kjellén, a Swedish political scientist, at the beginning of the 20th century. Kjellén was inspired by the German geographer Friedrich Ratzel, who published his book Politische Geographie (political geography) in 1897. The term was popularized in English by American diplomat Robert Strausz-Hupé, a faculty member of the University of Pennsylvania.

Halford Mackinder

The doctrine of Geopolitics gained attention largely through the work of Sir Halford Mackinder in England and his formulation of the Heartland Theory in 1904. The doctrine involved concepts diametrically opposed to the notion of Alfred Thayer Mahan about the significance of navies (he coined the term sea power) in world conflict. The Heartland theory hypothesized the possibility for a huge empire to be brought into existence in the Heartland, which would not need to use coastal or transoceanic transport to supply its military industrial complex, and that this empire could not be defeated by all the rest of the world coalitioned against it.

The basic notions of Mackinder's doctrine involve considering the geography of the Earth as being divided into two sections, the 'World Island' which comprised Eurasia and Africa, and the 'Periphery', which included the Americas, British Isles, and Oceania. Not only was the Periphery noticeably smaller than the World Island, it necessarily required much sea transport to function at the technological level of the World Island, which contained sufficient natural resources for a developed economy. Also, the industrial centers of the Periphery were necessarily located in widely-separated locations. The World Island could send its navy to destroy each one of them in turn. It could locate its own industries in a region further inland than the Periphery could, so they would have a longer struggle reaching them, and would be facing a well-stocked industrial bastion. This region Mackinder termed the Heartland. It was essentially comprised of Ukraine, Western Russia, and Mitteleuropa. The Heartland contained the grain reserves of Ukraine, and many other natural resources. Mackinder's notion of geopolitics can be summed up in his saying "Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland. Who rules the Heartland commands the World-Island. Who rules the World-Island commands the world." His doctrine was influential during the World Wars and the Cold War, for Germany and later Russia each made territorial strides toward the Heartland.

Other Theories

After World War I, Kjellen's thoughts and the term were picked up and extended by a number of scientists: in Germany by Karl Haushofer, Erich Obst, Hermann Lautensach and Otto Maull; in England, Mackinder and Fairgrieve; in France Vidal de la Blache and Vallaux. In 1923 Karl Haushofer founded the "Zeitschrift für Geopolitik" (magazine for geopolitics), which developed as a propaganda organ for Nazi-Germany.

Anton Zischka published Afrika, Europas Gemischftaufgabe Tummer (Africa, Complement of Europe) in 1952, where he proposed a kind of North-South Empire, from Stockholm to Johannesburg.

Since then, the word geopolitics has been applied to other theories, most notably the notion of the Clash of Civilizations by Samuel Huntington. In a peaceable world, neither sea lanes nor surface transport are threatened; hence all countries are effectively close enough from one another physically. It is in the realm of the political ideas, workings, and cultures that there are differences, and the term has shifted more towards this arena, especially in its popular usage. Traditionally, it strictly applies to geography's effect on politics.

Definitions

In the abstract, geopolitics traditionally indicates the links and causal relationships between political power and geographic space; in concrete terms it is often seen as a body of thought assaying specific strategic prescriptions based on the relative importance of land power and sea power in world history... The geopolitical tradition had some consistent concerns, like the geopolitical correlates of power in world politics, the identification of international core areas, and the relationships between naval and terrestrial capabilities.—Oyvind Osterud, The Uses and Abuses of Geopolitics, Journal of Peace Research, no. 2, 1988, p. 191

by geopolitical, I mean an approach that pays attention to the requirements of equilibrium. Henry Kissinger in Colin S Gray, G R Sloan. Geopolitics, Geography, and Strategy. Portland: Frank Cass Publishers, 1999.

Geopolitics is studying geopolitical systems. The geopolitical system is, in my opinion, the ensemble of interests of international political actors, interests focused to an area, space, geographical element or ways. - Vladimir Toncea, Geopolitical evolution of borders in Danube Basin, PhD 2006.

Further reading

• O'Loughlin, John / Heske, Henning: From 'Geopolitik' to 'Geopolitique': Converting a Discipline for War to a Discipline for Peace. In: Kliot, N. and Waterman, S. (ed.): The Political Geography of Conflict and Peace. London: Belhaven Press, 1991
• O'Tuathail, Gearoid, etal. (1998). The Geopolitics Reader. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0415162718. 
• Spang, Christian W.: “Karl Haushofer Re-examined – Geopolitics as a Factor within Japanese-German Rapprochement in the Inter-War Years?”, in: C. W. Spang, R.-H. Wippich (eds.), Japanese-German Relations, 1895-1945. War, Diplomacy and Public Opinion, London, 2006, pp. 139-157.
• Diamond, Jared, Guns, Germs, and Steel (1997)
• Oskar Krejčí: Geopolitics of the Central European Region. The view from Prague and Bratislava Bratislava: Veda, 2005. 494 p. (Free download)

See also

• Political geography
• Critical Geopolitics
• Geopolitik
• Geostrategy
• Geostrategy in Central Asia
• Balkanization
• Lebensraum
• Natural gas and list of natural gas fields and Category:Natural Gas Pipelines
• Petroleum politics
• Strategic depth
• Theopolitics
• Geopolitical system
• Water politics

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