Geopolitics
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Geopolitics (from
At the level of international relations, geopolitics is a method of studying
Geopolitics focuses on
According to Christopher Gogwilt and other researchers, the term is currently being used to describe a broad spectrum of concepts, in a general sense used as "a synonym for international political relations", but more specifically "to imply the global structure of such relations"; this usage builds on an "early-twentieth-century term for a
United States
Alfred Thayer Mahan and sea power
- Advantageous geographical position;
- Serviceable coastlines, abundant natural resources, and favorable climate;
- Extent of territory
- Population large enough to defend its territory;
- Society with an aptitude for the sea and commercial enterprise; and
- Government with the influence and inclination to dominate the sea.[11]
Mahan distinguished a key region of the world in the Eurasian context, namely, the Central Zone of Asia lying between 30° and 40° north and stretching from Asia Minor to Japan.[12] In this zone independent countries still survived – Turkey, Persia, Afghanistan, China, and Japan. Mahan regarded those countries, located between Britain and Russia, as if between "Scylla and Charybdis". Of the two monsters – Britain and Russia – it was the latter that Mahan considered more threatening to the fate of Central Asia. Mahan was impressed by Russia's transcontinental size and strategically favorable position for southward expansion. Therefore, he found it necessary for the Anglo-Saxon "sea power" to resist Russia.[13]
Homer Lea
Kissinger, Brzezinski, and the Grand Chessboard
Two famous
Kissinger argued against the belief that with the dissolution of the USSR, hostile intentions had come to an end and traditional foreign policy considerations no longer applied. "They would argue … that Russia, regardless of who governs it, sits astride the territory which Halford Mackinder called the geopolitical heartland, and it is the heir to one of the most potent imperial traditions." Therefore, the United States must "maintain the global balance of power vis-à-vis the country with a long history of expansionism."[16]
After Russia, the second geopolitical threat which remained was Germany and, as Mackinder had feared ninety years ago, its partnership with Russia. During the Cold War, Kissinger argues, both sides of the Atlantic recognized that, "unless America is organically involved in Europe, it would later be obliged to involve itself under circumstances which would be far less favorable to both sides of the Atlantic. That is even more true today. Germany has become so strong that existing European institutions cannot strike a balance between Germany and its European partners all by themselves. Nor can Europe, even with the assistance of Germany, manage […] Russia" all by itself. Thus Kissinger believed that no country's interests would ever be served if Germany and Russia were to ever form a partnership in which each country would consider itself the principal partner. They would raise fears of condominium.[clarification needed] Without America, Britain and France cannot cope with Germany and Russia; and "without Europe, America could turn … into an island off the shores of Eurasia."[17]
Nicholas J. Spykman's vision of Eurasia was strongly confirmed: "Geopolitically, America is an island off the shores of the large landmass of Eurasia, whose resources and population far exceed those of the United States. The domination by a single power of either of Eurasia's two principal spheres—Europe and Asia—remains a good definition of strategic danger for America. Cold War or no Cold War. For such a grouping would have the capacity to outstrip America economically and, in the end, militarily. That danger would have to be resisted even if the dominant power was apparently benevolent, for if its intentions ever changed, America would find itself with a grossly diminished capacity for effective resistance and a growing inability to shape events."[18] The main interest of the American leaders is maintaining the balance of power in Eurasia.[19]
Having converted from an ideologist into a geopolitician, Kissinger retrospectively interpreted the Cold War in geopolitical terms—an approach which was not characteristic of his works during the Cold War. Now, however, he focused on the beginning of the Cold War: "The objective of moral opposition to Communism had merged with the geopolitical task of containing Soviet expansion."[20] Nixon, he added, was a geopolitical rather than an ideological cold warrior.[21]
Three years after Kissinger's Diplomacy, Zbigniew Brzezinski followed suit, launching The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives and, after three more years, The Geostrategic Triad: Living with China, Europe, and Russia. The Grand Chessboard described the American triumph in the Cold War in terms of control over Eurasia: for the first time ever, a "non-Eurasian" power had emerged as a key arbiter of "Eurasian" power relations.[15] The book states its purpose: "The formulation of a comprehensive and integrated Eurasian geostrategy is therefore the purpose of this book."[15] Although the power configuration underwent a revolutionary change, Brzezinski confirmed three years later, Eurasia was still a mega-continent.[22] Like Spykman, Brzezinski acknowledges that: "Cumulatively, Eurasia's power vastly overshadows America's."[15]
In classical Spykman terms, Brzezinski formulated his geostrategic "chessboard" doctrine of Eurasia, which aims to prevent the unification of this mega-continent.
"Europe and Asia are politically and economically powerful…. It follows that… American foreign policy must…employ its influence in Eurasia in a manner that creates a stable continental equilibrium, with the United States as the political arbiter.… Eurasia is thus the chessboard on which the struggle for global primacy continues to be played, and that struggle involves geo- strategy – the strategic management of geopolitical interests…. But in the meantime it is imperative that no Eurasian challenger emerges, capable of dominating Eurasia and thus also of challenging America… For America the chief geopolitical prize is Eurasia…and America's global primacy is directly dependent on how long and how effectively its preponderance on the Eurasian continent is sustained."[15]
United Kingdom
Emil Reich
The Austro-Hungarian historian Emil Reich (1854–1910) is considered to be the first having coined the term in English[23][8] as early as 1902 and later published in England in 1904 in his book Foundations of Modern Europe.[24]
Mackinder and the Heartland Theory
Mackinder posited that 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, and could locate its own industries in a region further inland than the Periphery (so they would have a longer struggle reaching them, and would face a well-stocked industrial bastion). Mackinder called this region the Heartland. It essentially comprised Central and Eastern Europe: Ukraine, Western Russia, and Mitteleuropa.[26] The Heartland contained the grain reserves of Ukraine, and many other natural resources. Mackinder's notion of geopolitics was summed up when he said:
Who rules Central and Eastern Europe commands the Heartland. Who rules the Heartland commands the World-Island. Who rules the World-Island commands the World.
Nicholas J. Spykman was both a follower and critic of geostrategists Alfred Mahan, and Halford Mackinder. His work was based on assumptions similar to Mackinder's,[5] including the unity of world politics and the world sea. He extends this to include the unity of the air. Spykman adopts Mackinder's divisions of the world, renaming some:
- The Heartland;
- The Rimland (analogous to Mackinder's "inner or marginal crescent" also an intermediate region, lying between the Heartland and the marginal sea powers); and
- The Offshore Islands & Continents (Mackinder's "outer or insular crescent").[27]
Under Spykman's theory, a Rimland separates the Heartland from ports that are usable throughout the year (that is, not frozen up during winter). Spykman suggested this required that attempts by Heartland nations (particularly Russia) to conquer ports in the Rimland must be prevented. Spykman modified Mackinder's formula on the relationship between the Heartland and the Rimland (or the inner crescent), claiming that "Who controls the rimland rules Eurasia. Who rules Eurasia controls the destinies of the world." This theory can be traced in the origins of containment, a U.S. policy on preventing the spread of Soviet influence after World War II (see also Truman Doctrine).[citation needed]
Another famous follower of Mackinder was
In 2004, at the centenary of The Geographical Pivot of History, famous Historian Paul Kennedy wrote: "Right now with hundreds of thousands of US troops in the Eurasian rimlands and with administration constantly explaining why it has to stay the course, it looks as if Washington is taking seriously Mackinder's injunction to ensure control of the geographical pivot of history."[31]
Germany
Friedrich Ratzel
The geopolitical theory of Ratzel has been criticized as being too sweeping, and his interpretation of human history and geography being too simple and mechanistic. Critically, he also underestimated the importance of social organization in the development of power.[32]
The association of German Geopolitik with Nazism
After World War I, the thoughts of Rudolf Kjellén and Ratzel were picked up and extended by a number of German authors such as Karl Haushofer (1869–1946), Erich Obst, Hermann Lautensach, and Otto Maull. In 1923, Karl Haushofer founded the Zeitschrift für Geopolitik (Journal for Geopolitics), which was later used in the propaganda of Nazi Germany. The key concepts of Haushofer's Geopolitik were Lebensraum, autarky, pan-regions, and organic borders. States have, Haushofer argued, an undeniable right to seek natural borders which would guarantee autarky.
Haushofer's influence within the Nazi Party has been challenged, given that Haushofer failed to incorporate the Nazis' racial ideology into his work.[32] Popular views of the role of geopolitics in the Nazi Third Reich suggest a fundamental significance on the part of the geo-politicians in the ideological orientation of the Nazi state. Bassin (1987) reveals that these popular views are in important ways misleading and incorrect.
Despite the numerous similarities and affinities between the two doctrines, geopolitics was always held suspect by the National Socialist ideologists. This was understandable, for the underlying philosophical orientation of geopolitics did not comply with that of National Socialism. Geopolitics shared Ratzel's
The resultant negative association, particularly in U.S. academic circles, between classical geopolitics and Nazi or
Disciplinary differences in perspectives
Negative associations with the term "geopolitics" and its practical application stemming from its association with World War II and pre-World War II German scholars and students of geopolitics are largely specific to the field of academic geography, and especially sub-disciplines of human geography such as political geography. However, this negative association is not as strong in disciplines such as history or political science, which make use of geopolitical concepts. Classical geopolitics forms an important element of analysis for military history as well as for sub-disciplines of political science such as international relations and security studies. This difference in disciplinary perspectives is addressed by Bert Chapman in Geopolitics: A Guide To the Issues, in which Chapman makes note that academic and professional International Relations journals are more amenable to the study and analysis of Geopolitics, and in particular Classical geopolitics, than contemporary academic journals in the field of political geography.[35]
In disciplines outside geography, geopolitics is not negatively viewed (as it often is among academic geographers such as Carolyn Gallaher or Klaus Dodds) as a tool of imperialism or associated with Nazism, but rather viewed as a valid and consistent manner of assessing major international geopolitical circumstances and events, not necessarily related to armed conflict or military operations.
France
This section needs additional citations for verification. (May 2013) |
Montesquieu and climate theory
French geopolitical doctrines broadly opposed to German Geopolitik and reject the idea of a fixed geography. French geography is focused on the evolution of polymorphic territories being the result of mankind's actions. It also relies on the consideration of long time periods through a refusal to take specific events into account. This method has been theorized by Professor Lacoste according to three principles: Representation; Diachronie; and Diatopie.
In
Ancel, Braudel, and the rejection of determinism
French geographer and geopolitician Jacques Ancel (1879–1936) is considered to be the first theoretician of geopolitics in France, and gave a notable series of lectures at the European Center of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Paris and published Géopolitique in 1936. Like Reclus, Ancel rejects German determinist views on geopolitics (including Haushofer's doctrines).
Lacoste and the renaissance of French geopolitics
Due to the influence of German Geopolitik on French geopolitics, the latter were for a long time banished from academic works. In the mid-1970s, Yves Lacoste—a French geographer who was directly inspired by Ancel, Braudel and Vidal de la Blache—wrote La géographie, ça sert d'abord à faire la guerre (Geography first use is war) in 1976. This book—which is very famous in France—symbolizes the birth of this new school of geopolitics (if not so far the first French school of geopolitics as Ancel was very isolated in the 1930s–40s). Initially linked with communist party evolved to a less liberal approach. At the end of the 1980s he founded the Institut Français de Géopolitique (French Institute for Geopolitics) that publishes the Hérodote revue. While rejecting the generalizations and broad abstractions employed by the German and Anglo-American traditions (and the new geographers), this school does focus on spatial dimension of geopolitics affairs on different levels of analysis. This approach emphasizes the importance of multi-level (or multi-scales) analysis and maps at the opposite of critical geopolitics which avoid such tools. Lacoste proposed that every conflict (both local or global) can be considered from a perspective grounded in three assumptions:
- Representation: Each group or individuals is the product of an education and is characterized by specific representations of the world or others groups or individuals. Thus, basic societal beliefs are grounded in their ethnicity or specific location. The study of representation is a common point with the more contemporary critical geopolitics. Both are connected with the work of Henri Lefebvre (La production de l'espace, first published in 1974)
- Diachronie. Conducting an historical analysis confronting "long periods" and short periods as the prominent French historian Fernand Braudel suggested.
- Diatopie: Conducting a cartographic survey through a multi-scale mapping.
Connected with this stream, and former member of Hérodote editorial board, the French geographer Michel Foucher developed a long term analysis of international borders. He coined various neologism among them: Horogenesis: Neologism that describes the concept of studying the birth of borders, Dyade: border shared by two neighbouring states (for instance US territory has two terrestrial dyades : one with Canada and one with Mexico). The main book of this searcher "Fronts et frontières" (Fronts and borders) first published in 1991, without equivalent remains untranslated in English. Michel Foucher is an expert of the African Union for borders affairs.
More or less connected with this school, Stéphane Rosière can be quoted as the editor in Chief of the online journal L'Espace politique, this journal created in 2007 became the most prominent French journal of political geography and Geopolitics with Hérodote.[37]
French philosopher Michel Foucault's dispositif introduced for the purpose of biopolitical research was also adopted in the field of geopolitical thought where it now plays a role.[38]
Russia
The geopolitical stance adopted by Russia has traditionally been informed by a Eurasian perspective, and Russia's location provides a degree of continuity between the Tsarist and Soviet geostrategic stance and the position of Russia in the international order.[39] In the 1990s, a senior researcher at the Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vadim Tsymbursky (1957–2009), coined the term "island-Russia" and developed the "Great Limitrophe" concept.
Colonel-General
Vladimir Karyakin, leading researcher at the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, has proposed the term "geopolitics of the third wave".[40][clarification needed]
China
According to Li Lingqun, a major feature of the People's Republic of China's geopolitics is attempting to change the laws of the sea to advance claims in the South China Sea.[44] Another geopolitical issue is China's claims over Taiwan, amounting to a geopolitical rivalry between the two independent states.[45]
Various analysts state that China created the
One view of the
Study of geopolitics
Notable Institutions
- Harvard Kennedy School of Government
- King's College London
- London School of Economics
- Munk School of Global Affairs
- Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies
- Princeton School of Public and International Affairs
- School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University
- Sciences Po Paris
- SOAS, University of London
- University of Cambridge
- University of Oxford
- National Resilience Institute
See also
- Balkanization
- Choke point
- Eurasianism
- Geoeconomics
- Geopolitik
- Geopolitics (journal)
- Geojurisprudence
- Geopolitical ontology
- Geostrategy
- First island chain
- Guns, Germs, and Steel
- Intermediate Region
- Lebensraum
- Natural gas and list of natural gas fields and Category:Natural gas pipelines
- Petroleum politics
- Political geography
- Realpolitik
- Shatter belt
- Space geostrategy
- Sphere of influence
- Strategic depth
- The Great Game
- Think tank
- Water politics
- The Cold War
Notes
- )
- ^ ISBN 9781118991978– via Researchgate.
- OCLC 41113670.
- ^ Vladimir Toncea, 2006, "Geopolitical evolution of borders in Danube Basin"
- ^ ISSN 1301-2045.)
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of February 2024 (link - ISSN 2214-6296.
- SSRN 2998305.
- ^ OCLC 44932458.
- OCLC 895013513.
- S2CID 146194629.
- OCLC 986982257.
- ^ Alfred Thayer Mahan, The Problem of Asia and the Effects upon International Politics, (Washington and London: Kennikat Press, 1920, p 26–27).
- ^ Alfred Thayer Mahan, The Problem of Asia and the Effects upon International Politics, (Washington and London: Kennikat Press, 1920, p 25–27, 167–8, 172).
- OCLC 944371816.
- ^ )
- ^ Kissinger, Henry, (1994). Diplomacy, New York: Simon & Schuster, p. 814
- ^ Kissinger, Henry, (1994). Diplomacy, New York: Simon & Schuster, p. 821-2
- ^ Kissinger, Henry, (1994). Diplomacy, New York: Simon & Schuster, p. 813
- ^ Kissinger, Henry, (1994). Diplomacy, New York: Simon & Schuster, p. 810
- ^ Kissinger, Henry, (1994). Diplomacy, New York: Simon & Schuster, p. 804
- ^ Kissinger, Henry, (1994). Diplomacy, New York: Simon & Schuster, p. 703-732
- OCLC 780907306.
- S2CID 144340839.
- OCLC 944201019.
- ISSN 0140-2390.
- ^ See map in Polelle, Raising Cartographic Consciousness, p. 57.
- ^ See map in Polelle, Raising Cartographic Consciousness, p. 118.
- ^ a b Karl Haushofer, Pan-Ideas in Geopolitics, 1931, (tr. Usachev I. G., Mysl', Moscow, 2004, p 312).
- OCLC 925343797.
- ^ Karl Haushofer, "The Continental Bloc: Mittel Europa – Eurasia – Japan," 1941, (tr. Usachev I. G., Mysl', Moscow, 2004).
- S2CID 140660906.
- ^ OCLC 750496870.
- .
- S2CID 144597416.
- OCLC 913615116.
- OCLC 935298954.
- OCLC 958694001.
- S2CID 151769284.
- ISBN 9781783087990.
- OCLC 878676552.
- ^ a b "The Unlikely Origins of Russia's Manifest Destiny". Foreign Policy. 27 July 2016. Retrieved 2017-10-23.
- ^ Dunlop, John B. (July 30, 2004). "Russia's New—and Frightening—"Ism"". Hoover Institution. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
- ISSN 0793-6664. Retrieved 2015-04-06.
- ISBN 978-1-351-65736-5.
- ^ Robertson, James; Lin, Andy (2021-12-26). "China-Taiwan geopolitical rivalry fuels tensions in Pacific Islands". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 2022-12-10. Retrieved 2022-04-22.
- ^ "China's one belt, one road initiative set to transform economy by connecting with trading partners along ancient Silk Road". South China Morning Post. 21 June 2016. Archived from the original on 7 January 2017. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
- ^ "One Belt, One Road". Caixin Online. 2014-12-10. Archived from the original on 2016-09-12. Retrieved 2016-04-13.
- ^ "What Does China's Belt and Road Initiative Mean for US Grand Strategy?". thediplomat.com. Retrieved 2021-07-24.
- ^ "AIIB Vs. NDB: Can New Players Change the Rules of Development Financing?". Caixin. Archived from the original on 2016-12-26. Retrieved 26 December 2016.
- ISBN 9781317334811.
- ISBN 978-0-8157-0146-0.
- ISBN 978-1-000-44879-5.
- S2CID 49311952.
- ^ Stronski, Paul; Ng, Nicole (2018-02-28). "Cooperation and Competition: Russia and China in Central Asia, the Russian Far East, and the Arctic". Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Retrieved 2021-07-26.
References
- Amineh, Parvizi M.; Houweling, Henk. Central Eurasia in Global Politics. London: Brill Academic Publishing. Introduction; Chapter 11.
- Ankerl, Guy (2000). Global communication without universal civilization. INU societal research. Vol. 1. Geneva: INU Press. ISBN 2-88155-004-5.
- Devetak, Richard; Burke, Anthony; George, Jim, eds. (2011). An Introduction to International Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-60000-3.
- ISBN 9780224038096.
- ISBN 978-86-85591-43-3.
- Munoz, J. Mark (2013). Handbook on the Geopolitics of Business. Edward Elgar Publishing : UK. ISBN 9780857939746
- O'Loughlin, John; Heske, Henning (1991). Kliot, N; Waterman, S (eds.). From War to a Discipline for Peace. The Political Geography of Conflict and Peace. London: Belhaven Press.
- Spang, Christian W. (2006). Spang, C. W.; Wippich, R.H. (eds.). Karl Hausofer Re-examined: Geopolitics As a Factor within Japanese-German Rapprochement in the Inter-War Years?. Japanese-German Relations, 1895–1945: War, Diplomacy and Public Opinion. London. pp. 139–157.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Spang, Christian W. (2013). Karl Haushofer und Japan. Die Rezeption seiner geopolitischen Theorien in der deutschen und japanischen Politik. Munich: Iudicium. ISBN 978-3-86205-040-6.
- Venier, Pascal (2010), "Main Theoretical Currents in Geopolitical Thought in the Twentieth Century" Archived 2017-02-08 at the Wayback Machine, L'Espace Politique, vol. 12, no 3, 2010.
- Cerreti, Claudio; Marconi, Matteo; Sellari, Paolo (2019). Spazi e poteri. Geografia politica, geografia economica, geopolitica Archived 2022-04-08 at the Wayback Machine. Roma-Bari: Laterza.