Geopolitics

• What is geopolitics?
• Politics and Geography
• Describes the geographical base of the
state, its natural endowment and
resources, which determined its power.
• Geographical dimensions of power and
state competition over territory and the
means of justifying such actions
• Compelling discussions on world politics
and simple explanation on global affairs
Key Geopolitical Thinkers:

• Freidrich Ratzel (Politische

Geographie,1897): Lebensraum (living
space) - the superior cultures deserved more
territory as they would use the land in a better
way
• Rudolf Kjellen (The State as a Living
Form,1916): states were dynamic entities that
“naturally” grew with greater strength. The
engine of growth was culture. The more
advanced the culture, the more right it has to
expand its territory.
• Ratzel and Kjellen’s geopolitics influenced
Karl Haushofer which had direct impact on
Hitler and Nazi Germany’s lebensraum policy
during WW2

• Three other important geo-politicians: Alfred

Thayer Mahan, Halford Mackinder and
Nicholas Spykman
Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840-1914)

• Influence of Seapower upon History (1890) and The

Interest of America in Seapower (1897)
• Important influences on Presidents McKinley,
Theodore Roosevelt, and German Kaiser Wilhem II
• Mahan’s ideas about seapower dealt with the inter-
linkages of forces, economics and geography
• Mahan propounded that great powers have easily
defensible coastlines, a secure base from which
sea-power could be developed to enhance national
and global power
• Political control and the impact of a powerful navy
• This also entailed massive investments in other
components of naval infrastructure such as
qualified manpower, ports, depots, dry docks,
shipyards, plants for manufacturing arms and
armour and communications like the Suez Canal,
Panama Canal and Kiel Canal.
• Warns about the danger of Russia, landlocked, able
to extend its coastlines via expansion via Germany
or China.
• A coalition of peripheral maritime powers to contain
Russia
• “I am an imperialist simply because I am not
isolationist”

• The US finally became an imperial power after the

Spanish–America War in 1898. Gained the
Philippines, Cuba, Puerto Rico and Guam
Halford Mackinder (1861-1947)

• 1904 – ‘Geographical pivot of history’

• “Columbian Epoch” – 1500-1904
• Importance of land route – invasion of Europe
from Asia
• 1919 – ‘Heartland’
• 1943 – ‘Midland Ocean’
Halford Mackinder and the Heartland theory
(1919)

“Who controls eastern Europe rules

the Heartland; Who controls the
Heartland rules the World Island; and
Who rules the World Island rules the
World”

(Democratic Ideals and Reality: A Study in the Politics of

Reconstruction, 1919)
• Saw the importance of land communication
(railway lines) as an innovation that will change
geographical dominance/influence in the future
• Abundance of resources and central location
• Warnings from history – The Mongols, Russia
(pre-1904); Germany (1914 and 1938-1942)

• Russia during Cold War?

• Today – Russia; China; Russia + China; China +

EU; Russia + China + EU?
• Warns the British Empire on the need to suppress
the growth of Russian, French and German
powers

• Need to ensure maritime states in the Rimland

remains within its sphere of influence to counter
the expansion of ‘Heartland’ powers into the
maritime coastline
• Mackinder modified his theory to include the
‘Midland Ocean’ in 1943 in response to WW2 and
the threat of Germany (and the importance of
seapower and development of amphibious
capabilities)
• The rise of US and continued importance of naval
power/maritime commerce

• “… a bridgehead in France, a moated aerodrome

in Britain, and a reserve of trained manpower,
agriculture and industries in the eastern United
States and Canada.”
• Predicted the formation of NATO (1949)
• Recommendations for the US to expand its naval power;
due to its natural coastlines and two ocean frontage

• The tensions/conflicts between the US and Eurasian

dominance

• Development of air power

Nicholas Spykman (1893-1943) and the Rimland
theory (1942)

“Who controls the Rimland rules Eurasia; Who rules

Eurasia controls the destinies of the world.”

• Spykman’s main contribution between 1938-

1943.
• His ideas based on an American point of view
• The US’s security relied on having an
influence over events in Europe – WW I &
WW II
• He was concerned that the US can be
encircled by a concerted and united Europe
• Main instruments for Spykman’s Rimland
thesis are land and sea powers

• Spykman’s Rimland influenced future US

strategy of containment against Russia

• George Kennan and the Long Telegram

The dangers of geopolitics

• Too American focused

• Geopolitics tainted by Nazi adoption and
justification for its Lebensraum (Karl
Haushofer)
• Imperialistic/ Colonialists
• Simplistic
• But an important tool to understand global
strategic affairs
Strategic Culture
• Strategy done by humans
• Clausewitz’s strategic ‘genius’
• National ‘cultures’
• ‘Ways of War’
• Culture and morale
• Misperception
• Stereotypes
• Emotions
Strategic Culture consists of the socially
constructed and transmitted assumptions,
habits of mind, traditions, and preferred
methods of operation – that is, behaviour – that
are more or less specific to a particular
geographically based security community.

(Colin S. Gray (1986), Nuclear Strategy and

National Style)
• Origins – Thucydides, Sun Tzu, Emperor
Maurice’s Strategikon, and even Clausewitz
• Early studies focused on “national character”
through the “behavioral revolution” in the
social sciences
• Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba’s study of
political culture (1965)
• Studies of the link between culture and
politics always have been controversial
 Strategic culture and nuclear deterrence

• Unsatisfactory rational actor models

• Jack Snyder used strategic culture to interpret

Soviet nuclear doctrine (The Soviet Strategic
Culture: Implications for Limited Nuclear
Operations, 1977)

• Ken Booth’s ‘ethnocentrism’ (Strategy and

Ethnocentrism, 1979)
Prisoners’ Dilemmas
• Alastair Iain Johnston, Cultural Realism:
Strategic Culture and Grand Strategy in
Chinese History, 1995)

• Colin S. Gray argued that there are distinctive

national styles based in history. He warns that
culture is one of the factors that influences
strategy but not the most important one.
 Sources of strategic culture
• Geography and climate
• History and experience
• Political structure and defence organizations
– Military doctrine, civil-military relations, etc.
may all influence strategic culture
• Nation building
• Old and new states and nationalism
• A particular community may contain a few
different strategic cultures

• Strategic culture can change; new

experience, coded and translated

• Strategic culture is intangible

• Cultural stereotypes
 Ways of War

• Western way of war – Victor Davis Hanson

• Eastern way of war? (deception and ruse)

• Other examples:
i) British way of war (Liddell Hart, 1932) –
economy of force & naval power
ii) American way of war (Russell Weigley,
1973) – strategy of annihilation (firepower,
mass, technology)
 Thank you

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