Political Geography

Origins

As one of the three traditional pillars of human geography, social or cultural and economic geography being the other two, political geography can trace its historical roots to the German geographer, Friedrich Ratzel. In 1887, Ratzel published Politische Geographie, in which he introduced the idea that the size of a state is a [Page 2222]measure of its cultural prowess. Moreover, for societies to survive and prosper, territorial expansion at the expense of weaker states was considered to be a natural and necessary process. Ratzel used the term Lebensraum, or living space, to describe such areas of expansion. Making such direct and causal linkages between environment, society, and culture was not uncommon in the field of geography, which at the time was primarily found in European universities, and such approaches were in fact considered to be scientific in nature.

Paralleling Ratzel's writings and ideas concerning the organic nature of states were those of the English geographer Sir Halford Mackinder. In his 1904 work, The Geographical Pivot of History, Mackinder established the underpinnings for his heartland theory, which states, “Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland/Who rules the Heartland commands the World-Island [i.e., Eurasia]/Who rules the World-Island commands the World” (p. 186). Mackinder's heartland theory was used to illustrate the geostrategic threats that the British Empire faced, namely, from Germany and Russia. Subsequently, in the aftermath of World War I, Mackinder would apply his ideas as he and other geographers were consulted about the redrawing of national borders in Europe at Versailles.

Geopolitics and its Critics

Though Ratzel and Mackinder are often considered to be the founding fathers of political geography, it was their use and application of geography to serve the national interest that led to the development of what the Swedish geographer Rudolf Kjellén called “geopolitics.” Primarily concerned with territorial disputes and claims between Norway and Sweden, Kjellén was the first to use the term to describe the practice of creating geographical justifications in the pursuit of national goals. Considered to be an integral component of political geography today, geopolitics emerged in the early 20th century as a tool to justify and shape foreign policy.

During the interwar period of the 20th century, several Germans were drawn to the ideas developed by Ratzel and Mackinder, and they developed a particular type of geopolitics that aimed to serve the German state. The most prominent German geopolitician was Karl Haushofer, who is credited with developing and promoting the idea of the “pan-region.” According to the German school of geopolitics established by Haushofer, the world could be divided into four autarkic, or self-sufficient, pan-regions (i.e., Pan-America, Eur-Africa, Pan-Russia, and the East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere), with Germany acting as the ruling state of the Eur-African pan-region. Though Haushofer had connections with the Nazi leadership, the influence of his geopolitical ideas and visions on Nazi expansionism remains debatable.

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