Geopolitics

Geopolitics (from Greek γη ge "earth/land" and πολιτική politikē "politics") is the study of the effects of geography (human and physical) on international politics and international relations.[1] Geopolitics is a method of studying foreign policy to understand, explain and predict international political behaviour through geographical variables. These include area studies, climate, topography, demography, natural resources, and applied science of the region being evaluated.[2]

Geopolitics focuses on political power in relation to geographic space. In particular, territorial waters and land territory in correlation with diplomatic history. Academically, geopolitics analyses history and social science with reference to geography in relation to politics. Outside of academia, geopolitical prognosis is offered by a variety of groups including non-profit groups (such as government departments and think-tanks[3]) as well as by for-profit private institutions (such as brokerage houses[4] and consulting companies[5]).Topics of geopolitics include relations between the interests of international political actors, interests focused to an area, space, geographical element or ways, relations which create a geopolitical system.[6]

American geopolitical doctrine

Alfred Thayer Mahan and sea power

Alfred Thayer Mahan, a frequent commentator on world naval strategic and diplomatic affairs, believed that national greatness was inextricably associated with the sea—and particularly with its commercial use in peace and its control in war. Mahan's theoretical framework came from Antoine-Henri Jomini, and emphasized that strategic locations (such as chokepoints, canals, and coaling stations), as well as quantifiable levels of fighting power in a fleet, were conducive to control over the sea. He proposed six conditions required for a nation to have sea power:

  1. Advantageous geographical position;
  2. Serviceable coastlines, abundant natural resources, and favorable climate;
  3. Extent of territory
  4. Population large enough to defend its territory;
  5. Society with an aptitude for the sea and commercial enterprise; and
  6. Government with the influence and inclination to dominate the sea.[7]

Emil Reich

The Austro-Hungarian historian Emil Reich (1854–1910) is considered to be the first having coined the acceptance in English[8] as early as 1902 and later in 1904 in his book Foundations of Modern Europe.[9]

Mackinder and the Heartland theory

Sir Halford Mackinder's Heartland concept showing the situation of the "pivot area" established in the Theory of the Heartland. He later revised it to mark Northern Eurasia as a pivot while keeping area marked above as Heartland.

Sir Halford Mackinder's Heartland Theory initially received little attention outside geography, but some thinkers would claim that it subsequently influenced the foreign policies of world powers.[10] His formulation of the Heartland Theory was set out in his article entitled "The Geographical Pivot of History", published in England in 1904. Mackinder's doctrine of geopolitics involved concepts diametrically opposed to the notion of Alfred Thayer Mahan about the significance of navies (he coined the term sea power) in world conflict. He saw navy as a basis of Colombian era empire (roughly from 1492 to the nineteenth century), and predicted the twentieth century to be domain of land power. The Heartland theory hypothesized a huge empire being brought into existence in the Heartland—which wouldn't need to use coastal or transoceanic transport to remain coherent. The basic notions of Mackinder's doctrine involve considering the geography of the Earth as being divided into two sections: the World Island or Core, comprising Eurasia and Africa; and the Peripheral "islands", including the Americas, Australia, Japan, the British Isles, and Oceania. Not only was the Periphery noticeably smaller than the World Island, it necessarily required much sea transport to function at the technological level of the World Island—which contained sufficient natural resources for a developed economy.

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.[11] 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.

His doctrine was influential during the World Wars and the Cold War, as Germany and later Russia each made territorial strides toward the "Heartland".

Nicholas J. Spykman is both a follower and critic of geostrategists Alfred Mahan, and Halford Mackinder. His work is based on assumptions similar to Mackinder's, 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:

  1. The Heartland;
  2. The Rimland (analogous to Mackinder's "inner or marginal crescent" also an intermediate region, lying between the Heartland and the marginal sea powers); and
  3. The Offshore Islands & Continents (Mackinder's "outer or insular crescent").[12]

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 Heartand 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).

Kissinger, Brzezinski and the Grand Chessboard

Two famous Security Advisers from the Cold War period, Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski, cared lest the United States lose its geopolitical focus on Eurasia and, first and foremost, on Russia despite the fall of Communism and the end of the ideological struggle. Ideological Cold warriors, both turned into convinced geopoliticians after the end of the Cold War, and each wrote an influential book on the subject in the 1990s—Diplomacy (Kissinger 1994) and The Eurasian Chessboard (Brzezinski 1997). The Anglo-American classical geopolitical theories were revived.

Students of geopolitics and history, Kissinger wrote in Diplomacy, are uneasy about the approach that hostile intentions have disappeared and traditional foreign policy considerations no longer apply. “They would argue … that Russia, regardless of who govern it, sits astride the territory Halford Mackinder called the geopolitical heartland, and is the heir to one of the most potent imperial traditions.” The United States must “maintain the global balance of power vis-à-vis the country with a long history of expansionism.”[13]

After Russia, the second geopolitical threat traditionally remained Germany and, as Mackinder had feared ninety years ago, its partnership with Russia. During the Cold War, Kiisinger argues, both sides of the Atlantic recognized that, “unless America is organically involved in Europe, it would be obliged to involve itself later under circumstances 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 by themselves strike a balance between Germany and its European partners. Nor can Europe, even with Germany, manage by itself … Russia…” It is in no country’s interest that Germany and Russia should fixate on each other as principal partner. They would raise fears of condominium. 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."[14]

Spykman’s vision of Eurasia was strongly confirmed: “Geopolitically, America is an island off the shores of the large landmass of Euraisa, 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 were the dominant power apparently benevolent, for if the intentions ever changed, America would find itself with a grossly diminished capacity for effective resistance and a growing inability to shape events.”[15] The main interest of the American leaders is maintaining the balance of power in Eurasia[16]

Having converted from ideologist into geopoliticians, Kissinger in retrospect interpreted the Cold War in geopolitical terms—an approach not characteristic for his works during the Cold War. Now, however, he stressed on the beginning of the Cold War: “The objective of moral opposition to Communism had merged with the geopolitical task of containing the Soviet expansion.”[17] Nixon, he added, was geopolitical rather than ideological cold warrior [18]

Three years after Kissinger’s Dilpomacy, Brzezinski followed suit, launching The Grand Chessboard. American Primary 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.[19] The book states its purpose: “The formulation of a comprehensive and integrated Eurasian geostrategy is therefore the purpose of this book.”[20] Although the power configuration underwent a revolutionary change, Brzezinski confirmed three years later, Eurasia was still a megacontinent.[21] Like Spykman, Brzezinski acknowledges that: “Cumulatively, Eurasia’s power vastly overshadows America’s.”[19]

In classical Spykman terms, Brzezinski formulized his geostrategic “chessboard” doctrine of Eurasia, which aims to prevent the unification of this megacontinent.

"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."[22]

German geopolitics

German Geopolitik is characterized by the belief that life of States—being similar to those of human beings and animals—is shaped by scientific determinism and social Darwinism. German geopolitics develops the concept of Lebensraum (vital space) that is thought to be necessary to the development of a nation like a favorable natural environment would be for animals.

Friedrich Ratzel

Friedrich Ratzel (1844–1904), influenced by thinkers such as Darwin and zoologist Ernst Heinrich Haeckel, contributed to 'Geopolitik' by the expansion on the biological conception of geography, without a static conception of borders. Positing that states are organic and growing, with borders representing only a temporary stop in their movement, he held that the expanse of a state's borders is a reflection of the health of the nation—meaning that static countries are in decline. Ratzel published several papers, among which was the essay "Lebensraum" (1901) concerning biogeography. Ratzel created a foundation for the German variant of geopolitics, geopolitik. Influenced by the American geostrategist Alfred Thayer Mahan, Ratzel wrote of aspirations for German naval reach, agreeing that sea power was self-sustaining, as the profit from trade would pay for the merchant marine, unlike land power.

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. In his analysis of the importance of mobility, and the move from sea to rail transport, he failed to predict the revolutionary impact of air power. Critically, he also underestimated the importance of social organization in the development of power.[23]

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 recently been challenged,[24] given that Haushofer failed to incorporate the Nazis' racial ideology into his work. 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 suspicion was understandable, for the underlying philosophical orientation of geopolitics did not comply with that of National Socialism. Geopolitics shared Ratzel's scientific materialism and determinism, and held that human society was determined by external influences—in the face of which qualities held innately by individuals or groups were of reduced or no significance. National Socialism rejected in principle both materialism and determinism and also elevated innate human qualities, in the form of a hypothesized 'racial character,' to the factor of greatest significance in the constitution of human society. These differences led after 1933 to friction and ultimately to open denunciation of geopolitics by Nazi ideologues.[25] Nevertheless, German Geopolitik was discredited by its (mis)use in Nazi expansionist policy of World War II and has never achieved standing comparable to the pre-war period.

French approach on geopolitics

French geopolitical doctrines lie broadly in opposition 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 The Spirit of the Laws, Montesquieu outlined the view that man and societies are influenced by climate. He believed that hotter climates create hot-tempered people and colder climates aloof people, whereas the mild climate of France is ideal for political systems. Considered as one of the founders of French geopolitics, Élisée Reclus, is the author of a book considered as a reference in modern geography (Nouvelle Géographie universelle). Alike Ratzel, he considers geography through a global vision. However, in complete opposition to Ratzel's vision, Reclus considers geography not to be unchanging; it is supposed to evolve commensurately to the development of human society. His marginal political views resulted in his rejection by academia.

French geographer and geopolitician Jacques Ancel is considered to be the first theoretician of geopolitics in France, and gave a notable series of lectures at the Carnegie foundation and published "Géopolitique" in 1936. Like Reclus, Ancel rejects German determinist views on geopolitics (including Haushofer's doctrines).

Braudel's broad view used insights from other social sciences, employed the concept of the longue durée, and downplayed the importance of specific events. This method was inspired by the French geographer Paul Vidal de la Blache (who in turn was influenced by German thought, particularly that of Friedrich Ratzel whom he had met in Germany). Braudel's method was to analyse the interdependence between individuals and their environment.[26] Vidalian geopolitics is based on varied forms of cartography and on possibilism (founded on a societal approach of geography—i.e. on the principle of spaces polymorphic faces depending from many factors among them mankind, culture, and ideas) as opposed to determinism.

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 emphazises 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:

  1. 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)
  2. Diachronie. Conducting an historical analysis confronting "long periods" and short periods as the prominent French historian Fernand Braudel suggested.
  3. Diatopie: Conducting a cartographic survey through a multiscale 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 as of yet 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.

A much more conservative stream is personified by François Thual was a French expert in geopolitics, and a former official of the Ministry of Civil Defence. Thual taught geopolitics of the religions at the French War College, and has written thirty books devoted mainly to geopolitical method and its application to various parts of the world. He is particularly interested in the Orthodox, Shiite, and Buddhist religions, and in troubled regions like the Caucasus. Connected with F. Thual, Aymeric Chauprade, former professor of geopolitics at the French War College and now member of the extreme-right party "Front national", subscribes to a supposed "new" French school of geopolitics which advocates above all a return to realpolitik and "clash of civilization" (Huntington). The thought of this school is expressed through the French Review of Geopolitics (headed by Chauprade) and the International Academy of Geopolitics. Chauprade is a supporter of a Europe of nations, he advocates a European Union excluding Turkey, and a policy of compromise with Russia (in the frame of a Eurasian alliance which is en vogue among European extreme-right politists) and supports the idea of a multipolar world—including a balanced relationship between China and the U.S.

Russian geopolitics

Domestic geopolitical school was formed over the centuries. In 988 Prince Vladimir of Kiev from Byzantium brought on the pagan Rus Orthodoxy, and many of the Gentiles in the waters of the Dnieper were baptized. In 1240, the Orthodox Russia in order to stick a catholic faith it attacked the Swedish knights, but the Grand Duke of Novgorod Alexander Nevsky defeated them on the Neva (Neva battle, for which he got his nickname), and then, in 1242 defeated the army of German knights on thin ice Lake Peipsi; with the Horde, he collaborated. In 1380, Prince Dmitry Donskoy with the blessing of St. Sergius of Radonezh, the elder of Kulikovo defeated the Golden Horde, and after 100 years, in 1480 put an end to the yoke of the Horde (Great stand on the Ugra river). In the XV century, a simple monk of the Pskov Monastery of the Holy Eliazarovskogo Filofei became the first man who sounded Russian geopolitical thought (Moscow - the Third Rome). Among the Russian authors, the term "geopolitics" began to be used for the first time in 1920 representatives of the movement Eurasianism. In the late 1920s, he appeared in the Soviet Union. In this regard, some modern historians believe the time of appearance of Russian geopolitical school these years. Earlier thinkers to consider the geopolitical issues in this context are either predecessors or to researchers outside the general national geopolitical school.

In different periods of the existence of the Soviet Union had different, sometimes ambivalent geopolitical policies and practices. With a view to the spread of socialism in the world in general and in the possibility of increasing their territory in particular, the pre-war Soviet Union, on the one hand, contrary to the real possibilities, did not attach adjacent People's Revolutionary Mongolia, Tannu Tuva,, Gilan, but on the other hand, supported the unsuccessful attempt of the founding of the Soviet Republic, as well as shared with Nazi Germany, Eastern Europe according to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. At the same time the number of these agreed to its sphere of influence of the USSR territories annexed to his former part of Poland western Ukraine and Belarus, as well as the Baltic states, Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, but when faced with tough resistance to the implementation of Finland in the Baltic script her accession, was able to annex Only a small part of it.

During the Second World War and immediately afterwards the USSR dramatically strengthen its influence in the world, got a few socialist satellite states ("people's democracies"), as well as directly attached to him some new territory - East Prussia, a small part of northern Finland, Transcarpathia southern Sakhalin and the Kuriles, Tannu Tuva,. However, the Soviet Union did not realize some of the other features, such as the accession of Bulgaria according to its informal proposal (deviation in relation to a formal occasion exclave of its territory) and the involvement of its sphere of influence (scripted the establishment of socialism in Eastern Europe and the establishment of the GDR in the division of Germany) Chinese East Turkestan and Manchuria, and occupied at the time of northern Iran and eastern Austria and plan to occupy the Japanese Hokkaido. The Soviet Union had failed to create in southern Europe "little USSR" from Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Albania and possibly Romania and Greece.

In the second half of the XX century, the USSR was one of the two superpowers, along with the United States. He also led the second most powerful military-political blocs ATS and reached a balance of forces with the US and NATO military-strategic parity. Without declaring openly about detailed geopolitical concepts besides parity and "containment American hegemony and neo-colonialism", in fact the USSR shared geopolitical control of the planet, acting in the political, military (including naval), economic, scientific and sports fields. The USSR had the largest military-industrial complex and the armed forces, which indirectly involved in including in conflict with the United States in local wars. Like the American School, the Soviet geopolitics widely employ the concept of opposing the "world capitalism" and "socialism of the world." Although the military-political Soviet bloc ("world socialist system") moved socialist Yugoslavia, Albania and China gaining power, the Soviet Union as a whole has continued to strengthen its influence in the world, actively and, in most cases successfully supporting not only allies in the ATS, but several tens of socialist orientation, as well as national liberation movement.

Soviet specialist on Russian geopolitics was Professor Alexei L. Narochnitsky, he studied Russian geopolitics of the 19th century, on the subject of his pen out scientific and documentary historical works. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, his political successor to the Russian, having previous loss (relative to the USSR) positions in the international arena, the small size of GDP (in the second half of the world's top ten), backwardness in science, a significant reduction of strategic nuclear forces, high population poverty and corruption, outdated infrastructure, system of internal economic crisis and difficult demographic situation, still recovering recognized potential superpower. Russia has achieved full membership in the Group of Eight (G8), and formed with other emerging powers BRIC community. Russian leaders and politicians are actively advocate the idea of rejection of a unipolar world and the United States as the sole superpower, and expressed the need to establish a multipolar world with ever-increasing roles of potential superpowers and regional powers and organizations. This agrees with Russia and China, which is actually closer to superpower status.

In the 90-ies. Geopolitical Studies held senior researcher at the Institute of Philosophy, RAS Russian Vadim Tsymbursky, who coined the term "island-Russia", also known as the Great concept Limitrophe.

Outstanding prominent Russian geopolitics beginning of the XXI century is Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov retired, he headed the Academy of Geopolitical Problems, which deals with the analysis of the international situation and the situation in the country, experts develop its geopolitical doctrine. Earlier, Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov headed the Main Directorate for International Military Cooperation, in this capacity, he firmly and fundamentally defend the national interests of Russia, opposing NATO's eastward expansion, against the aggressive foreign policy of the United States and the West in general and against the construction of a unipolar world, to time for his shoulders were already studying at the Military Academy in the Military Academy and impeccable service in a motorized infantry troops in various command positions. Construction of a unipolar world, which is dominated by the West, contrary to the national interests of the Russian Federation, and the further expansion of NATO threatens Russia's national security.

In recent years, Russia is actively developing new schools and directions geopolitics. Fellow at the Center for Defense Studies RISS Vladimir Karjakin based on innovative approaches and new challenges proposed the term "geopolitics of the third wave." [5] This interdisciplinary approach is based on the principles of synergy, postnonclassical science in the context of socio-political dynamics and strategies of indirect actions.

Meta-geopolitics

The framework of Meta-geopolitics, proposed by Nayef Al-Rodhan combines traditional and new dimensions of geopolitics to offer a multidimensional view of power and power relationships.[27] In this framework, the importance of geography is superseded by the combination of hard- and soft- power tools that states can employ to preserve and obtain power. Meta-geopolitics defines seven key dimensions of state power that include social and health issues, domestic politics, economics, environment, science and human potential, military and security issues, and international diplomacy.[28] The Meta-geopolitics framework allows for the assessment of relative strengths and weaknesses as well as predictions about future trends. Furthermore, while this analytical grid is relevant for states, it also applies to private and transnational entities, which are playing an increasingly important role in contemporary geopolitics.[29]

Non-interventionism

Non-interventionism, the geopolitical policy whereby a nation seeks to avoid alliances with other nations in order to avoid being drawn into wars not related to direct territorial self-defense. An original more formal definition is that Non-intervention is a policy characterized by the absence of interference by a state or states in the external affairs of another state without its consent, or in its internal affairs with or without its consent. This is based on the grounds that a state should not interfere in the internal politics of another state, based upon the principles of state sovereignty and self-determination. A similar phrase is "strategic independence".[30] Historical examples of supporters of non-interventionism are US Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who both favored nonintervention in European Wars while maintaining free trade. Other proponents include United States Senator Robert A. Taft and United States Congressman Ron Paul.

Democracy and geopolitics

State geopolitical interests can be also seen as anti-democratic in nature, as they lie very away from the interests of the general public.[31] Vietnam War is a very prominent example of this: in by 1970 only a third of Americans believed that the U.S. had not made a mistake by sending troops to fight in Vietnam,[32] however USA continued to defend its geopolitical interests[33][34] by military intervention in Vietnam for another 5 years, till 1975. Another example is the presence of US troops in Afghanistan, which in 2013 was supported by only 20% of US population, but US military presence still continues till 2014.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Devetak et al (eds), An Introduction to International Relations, 2012, p. 492.
  2. ↑ Evans, G & Newnham, J., (1998), "The Penguin Dictionary of International relations", Penguin Books, London, Uk. ISBN 0-14-051397-3
  3. ↑ Tembarai Krishnamachari, Rajesh. "Economic and geo-political prognosis for 2015", a sample forecasting report published by the non-profit think-tank South Asia Analysis Group, Paper 5856, Jan 2015.
  4. ↑ Fidelity. "2015 Stock Market Outlook", a sample outlook report by a brokerage house.
  5. ↑ McKinsey Insights & Publications. "Insights & Publications".
  6. ↑ Vladimir Toncea, 2006, "Geopolitical evolution of borders in Danube Basin"
  7. ↑ Sea Power
  8. ↑ Christopher Lloyd GoGwilt, "The Geopolitical Image: Imperialism, Anarchism, and the Hypothesis of Culture in the Formation of Geopolitics", Modernism/modernity, Volume 5, Number 3, September 1998, pp. 49–70 et The Fiction of Geopolitics: Afterimages of Culture, from Wilkie Collins to Alfred Hitchcock. Stanford. Stanford University Press, 2000, pp. 35–36.
  9. ↑ Foundations of Modern Europe, London, George Bell, 1904, 284 pages
  10. ↑ Sloan, G.R. "Sir Halford Mackinder: the heartland theory then and now", in Gray C S and Sloan G.R., Geopolitics, geography and strategy. London: Frank Cass, pp. 15–38.
  11. ↑ See map in Polelle, Raising Cartographic Consciousness, p. 57.
  12. ↑ See map in Polelle, Raising Cartographic Consciousness, p. 118.
  13. ↑ Kissinger, Henry, (1994). Diplomacy, New York: Simon & Schuster, p. 814
  14. ↑ Kissinger, Henry, (1994). Diplomacy, New York: Simon & Schuster, p. 821-2
  15. ↑ Kissinger, Henry, (1994). Diplomacy, New York: Simon & Schuster, p. 813
  16. ↑ Kissinger, Henry, (1994). Diplomacy, New York: Simon & Schuster, p. 810
  17. ↑ Kissinger, Henry, (1994). Diplomacy, New York: Simon & Schuster, p. 804
  18. ↑ Kissinger, Henry, (1994). Diplomacy, New York: Simon & Schuster, p. 703-732
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Zbignew Brzezinski, (1997). The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives, Perseus Books, New York, p. 31
  20. ↑ Zbignew Brzezinski, (1997). The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives, Perseus Books, New York, p. XIV
  21. ↑ Zbignew Brzezinski, (2000). The Geostrategic Triad: Living with China, Europe, and Russia, The CSIS Books, Washington, p. 55
  22. ↑ Zbignew Brzezinski, (1997). The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives, Perseus Books, New York, pp. XIII-XIV, 30-31
  23. ↑ O Tuathail (2006) page 20
  24. ↑ O'Tuathail, 1996
  25. ↑ Mark Bassin, "Race Contra Space: The Conflict Between German 'Geopolitik' and National Socialism," Political Geography Quarterly 1987 6(2): 115-134,
  26. ↑ Braudel, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II La part du milieu (vol. 1) ISBN 2-253-06168-9
  27. ↑ LIT
  28. ↑ GCSP
  29. ↑ The Northern Times
  30. ↑ Galen, Ted (1997). Carpenter,The libertarian reader : classic and contemporary readings from Lao-tzu to Milton Friedman. New York: Free Press. pp. 336–344. ISBN 0684832003.
  31. ↑ Finn, Adreen. "The Problematic Nature of Geopolitics". http://commentandoutlook.blogspot.fr''. Commentary and Outlook.
  32. ↑ Lunch, William L., Sperlich, Peter W. (1979). [0=American+National+Election+Study%2C+1966&collection=DATA&journal[0]=Western+Political+Quarterly&paging.startRow=1 "American public opinion and the war in Vietnam"]. Western Political Quarterly 32 (1): 21–44. doi:10.2307/447561. Retrieved 6 June 2014.
  33. ↑ Lind, Michael (2002). Vietnam, the Necessary War: A Reinterpretation of America's Most Disastrous Military Conflict (1st Touchstone ed. ed.). New York: Touchstone. ISBN 0684870274.
  34. ↑ Lind, Michael. "The Necessary War: A Reinterpretation of America's Most Disastrous Military Conflict". New York Times. Retrieved 6 June 2014.

References

External links