Rimland

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is orphaned as few or no other articles link to it. Please help introduce links in articles on related topics. (November 2006)

Rimland is the maritime fringe of a country or continent; in particular, the densely populated western, southern, and eastern edges of the Eurasian continent.

According to Nicholas John Spykman, who revisited Halford Mackinder's concepts of geopolitics, the Rimland is that strip of coastal land that it encircles Eurasia. Unlike Mackinder, Spykman thought that the Rimland is much more important than the central Asian zone (the so-called Heartland) for the control of the Eurasian continent. Spykman's vision is at the base of the "containment politics" put into effect by the United States in its relation/position to the Soviet Union during according to post-war period.

See also heartland.