Geopolitics

The study of the complex relationships between geography and international affairs, that is, between spatial realities and the quest for political power by states and transnational organizations. The term “geopolitics” traditionally has been used to label various 19th- and 20th-century theories of politicomilitary strategy, but lately it has come to describe the nature of most kinds of international relations. Crudely understood, geopolitics postulates the necessity of including geographical considerations (such as distances, climate, and type of relief) into any theoretical approach to war and global dominance.

Some of the most famous historical geopolitical theories have provided academic support to explicitly imperialist political visions, such as the Nazi theory of Lebensraum (living space) during World War II. Consequently, geopolitics has become a loaded word, always in need of ideological clarifications.

Geopolitics and Social Darwinism

The term “geopolitics” was coined in 1899 by Swedish political scientist Rudolf Kjellén, who sought to bring geography to the forefront of the study of interstate relations. This was a time of rapid global change, spurred by the rise of the United States as an important economic power and by the intense competition between European states for imperial domination. Most of the world had been charted out by the Europeans, who were becoming increasingly aware of the urgent need to secure control over as much land and as many resources as possible.

These economic and political factors, as well as an arguably unprecedented development of technology (in the fields of transportation, cartography, and the military, to name a few), created the proper environment for the emerging academic preoccupation with the intersection of geography and international politics.

The idea of the strategic value of space, however, was not new. Indeed, Kjellén's treatment of geopolitics was indebted to a 1897 book, Political Geography, by German scholar Friedrich Ratzel. Ratzel likened nation-states to animal organisms, which are perpetually faced with a Darwinian choice of development or extinction. Strong states, Ratzel argued, constantly seek to expand their geographic borders to acquire more living space—a term that was later adopted by German leaders and used to legitimize their territorial conquests.

The Crucial Heartland

Building on the body of geopolitical literature developed by Kjellén and Ratzel, in 1904 British geographer Halford Mackinder produced what is arguably the most important work in the geopolitical tradition, an essay called “The Geographical Pivot of History.” In his text, Mackinder predicted an end to the period of unremitting European expansion and military preeminence. The European powers, Mackinder contended, had been able to dominate the rest of the world by virtue of their naval might. Maritime power, however, was losing the battle against land power, and countries (notably Russia) that controlled a lot of territory (and, with it, considerable resources) were increasingly asserting their influence internationally.

Mackinder developed what is said to be the first cohesive geopolitical worldview. He argued that, in the struggle for international ascendancy, the state that manages to acquire control over the region comprising all of Eastern Europe (including the Ukraine and Russia) is in a position to dominate the rest of the world militarily. Mackinder called this critical region the “Heartland,” and he warned his fellow Britons against the possibility of their country coming under the control of either Germany or Russia, or an alliance of the two. The incipient science of geopolitics was quickly asserting its relevance to world affairs.

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