Geopolitics Essays - Geopolitics, Political Geography,

Geopolitics Geopolitics is the applied study of the relationships of geographical space to politics. Geopolitics, therefore, concerned with the reciprocal impact of spatial patterns, features, and structures and political ideas, institutions, and transactions. The term 'Geopolitics' has originally invented, in 1899, by a Swedish political scientist, Rudolf Kjellen and its original meaning is to signify a general concern with geography and politics. However, defining the concept of 'geopolitics' itself is a considerably difficult task because definition of geopolitics tends to changes as historical periods of time and structures of world order change. Therefore, there have been numerous ways of interpreting the term and arguments on them all through the history. In this essay, I intend to examine how geopolitics has influenced on international relations and how it has evolved using well-known geopoliticians' theories in a chronological order: Imperialist, Cold War, and New World Order. Imperialist Geopolitics In early 20th century, geopolitics was a form of power or knowledge concerned with promoting states expansionism and securing empires. It was a time characterized by colonial expansionism abroad and industrial modernization at home. This is also the time when natural supremacy of a certain race or the state has considerably prevailed. The most historically and geographically fated imperialist rivalry of the period was that of between British Empire and the rising imperial aspirations of the German state in Europe. In order to investigate the geopolitical tension between them, the geopolitical writings of the British geographer Halford Mackinder and of the German geopolitician Karl Haushofer have to be thoroughly examined. In addition, it is also needed to examine the view of the far side across the Atlantic, the United States that emerged as a significant player on world's stage later on. First of all, the starting point for almost all discussions of geopolitics is Sir Halford Mackinder, a member of the British Parliament who wrote "The Geographic Pivot of History" in 1904. He addressed the importance in the history of geopolitics for three reasons in his work; for its god's eye global view; for its division of the globe into vast swaths of history, and for its sweeping story of geography's conditioning influence on the course of history and politics. First, he argues that "Geopolitics is a new way of seeing international politics as a unified worldwide scene" and adopts a god's eye global view which looks down on what he calls "the stage of the whole world": For the first time we can perceive something of the real proportion of features and events on the stage of the whole world and may seek a formula which shall express certain aspects, at any rate, of geographical causation in history. In this sentence, 'we' implies the geopolitical experts, educated and privileged white men who can perceive the real political features. This sentence shows all the basic elements of imperialist geopolitics, such as the divine eye gaze on the world, only experts can perceive the real and the desire to reveal laws to explain all of history. However, this view has been criticized for the reason that imperialists only see within the structures of meaning provided by their socialization into certain backgrounds, intellectual contexts and political culture and beliefs. Second, he suggests the map of "The Natural Seats of Power". To illustrate his thesis geographically, Mackinder labels enormous tracts of territory with simple identities like "pivot area." He eliminates the tremendous geographical diversity and specificity of places on earth. Difference becomes sameness. Geographical heterogeneity becomes geopolitical homogeneity. Third, he argues "the geographical causation of history" in the application of the sweeping theory. At the centre of this theory shows the relationship between physical geography and transportation technology. Until the end of nineteenth century, sea power was the supreme, but by then, railroads were making it possible to move large armies quickly over vast land areas. Mackinder wanted his government, which had achieved glory as a sea power, to be prepared for the rise of a land power, obviously Germany at that time. In his famous "heartland theory", he renamed Euro-Asia, "the world island" and the "pivot area", "the heartland". Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland; Who rules the Heartland commands the world island; Who rules the world island commands the world. According to his simple strategic argument, what must be prevented is German expansionism in Eastern Europe and a German alliance with the Soviet Union for the time. In spite of his effort, his idea had a little impact on British foreign policy. The reason is said that his way of interpreting human history is too simplistic and far geographically deterministic,