THE Swedish political analyst Rudolf Kjellén coined the term “geopolitics” in 1899, but British geographer Halford Mackinder popularized it in the 20th century. However, the idea of geopolitics as a theoretical approach to international politics quickly gained popularity, first in Germany and then the USA. The idea itself has emphasized a number of restrictions of various kinds, but it primarily focuses on foreign policy by geographic location and geographical environment in general.
However, in a broader sense, geopolitics can be understood as a method of studying foreign policy that takes into account geographical factors like location, climate, natural resources and physical terrain in order to understand the actions, relationships and significance of states. Alfred Mahan was most likely the founder of the discipline of geopolitics. He made the claim that the nation with naval might and maritime dominance at the time, the UK would dominate world politics. Halford John Mackinder, however, held a different perspective: the key to managing world politics is the control of the geographical mass between Germany and Siberia. Control over the Eurasian landmass, or the Heartland as it is commonly known, is a requirement for global hegemony by any entity claiming to be a superpower or hyper power in politics. In actuality, the USSR and, more recently, the Russian Federation controlled the vital region of the Heartland.
The US Administration became preoccupied with the geopolitics of Heartland during the Cold War understanding that the destruction of both the USSR and Russia is the only way to establish American control and dominance over the Heartland and, therefore, over the rest of the world. During the Cold War, Washington and its western satellites (collective West today) have been mainly preoccupied with fighting against Communist expansion into the Rim lands of South-East Asia, East and South-East Europe and the Middle East (land masses surrounding the Heartland).
All geopolitical theorists will contend that a country’s geographical traits, including size, location, climate and physical components, are among its most significant territorial advantages. If we use a basic glance over the globe that is plainly demonstrating how geography does, in fact he US is separated from both Europe and Asia by oceans. This fact is providing convenient trade routes but at the same time is making any military invasion to be very difficult. Russia’s vast land mass is straddling Europe and Asia and gives it a strong strategic position in both. Historically, the territorial expansion of both the US and Russia gives them control over huge natural resources an advantage shared by other large nations like Canada, Brazil, China, India and Australia.
In essence, the theoretical idea of geopolitics was an attempt to encourage the study of human geography as a kind of aid to statecraft with the hope that geographers could use geopolitics to inform their work in international relations. The academic field of geopolitics is now concentrating on the manner in which various geographical elements, particularly a balance of power between states, can impact the nature of international politics. The significance of the security issue for the study of geopolitics and the application of the politics of geography must be emphasized. To put it another way, this is the issue of maintaining the state in the face of threats, which are typically posed by other states or other external entities. Geopolitics as a discipline can help national security by explaining the effects of a state’s geographical characteristics and, therefore, of potential aggressors, on future power-political relations. Geopoliticians have to be able to predict which territory could strengthen a state, helping it to rise to prominence and which areas might leave the state to be vulnerable to a certain degree.
The world is one compact, interdependent system in the eyes of geopoliticians. In reality, the creation of geopolitics as a discipline took place at the same time as western colonialists and imperialists had completely explored the world, making it all accessible for state territorial and economic growth. In actuality, that was the pinnacle of West European colonial expansionism. Practically speaking, geopolitics provided a theoretical means by which West European imperialist governments might safeguard their global territorial conquests. For instance, British geopolitical expert Halford Mackinder thought that dominating the Heartland would give one a nearly invincible position in world politics and lead to totalitarianism. In order to prevent additional power-building that could threaten the hegemony of the worldwide British Empire, he suggested that British policy should be suspicious of forces occupying the Eurasian Heartland and should establish a “buffer zone” surrounding it. Since the end of the Cold War, the West as a whole, led by the USA, has had the same policy of establishing a “buffer zone” around Russia on the agenda.
—The writer is PhD (International Relations from UoK), Researcher/ Political Analyst, DHA Suffa University.
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