Geopolitics: what it is, fields of study, and main referents

Let's see what geopolitics is and what historical, economic and political dynamics it studies.

Politics is subject to many factors, and one of those that is often overlooked is geography.

Geopolitics is concerned with the study of this peculiar relationship.. We will see what is its definition, its characteristics and what has been its importance throughout history, studying some concrete examples of different governments.

What is geopolitics?

Geopolitics consists of the study of the relationship between the geographical conditions of a particular place and its weight in the political decisions that are taken and that affect these territories.. Geography refers to both the physical conditions of the terrain and the human distribution over it, i.e. the configuration of different states and other administrations. In other words, geopolitics tries to explain why certain political events occur in specific territories.

The geographical aspects that are fundamentally taken into account when talking about geopolitical aspects are the lands that belong to each country and also the waters of each nation, or international waters. It is essential to know the history of each country as well as the diplomatic relations it has had with other territories in order to understand the repercussions of a given political decision from a geopolitical perspective.

In addition to history, other disciplines that should nourish this study are economics, which is practically inseparable from politics and its decisions, sociology, sociology, and the history of the world economy.The concept of geopolitics is currently used to encompass the whole range of political behavior of a given society, political science, which underlies the decisions made by those in power, and the aforementioned geography, to know the exact area of our planet over which we wish to study political behavior.

The concept of geopolitics is currently used to encompass the whole range of political relations between countries. of political relations between different countries, although the origins of the term wereAlthough the origins of the term were much more complex. We will now take a brief look at its history, from the time the word itself was coined to the present day.

History of geopolitics

Although the origin of geopolitics is somewhat debated, the truth is that most opinions agree that it emerged in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. In the first case, it is claimed that it was a geographer from Sweden who first referred to the term, while other researchers attribute this merit to a group of German political scientists. This divergence is not particularly relevant to the history of geopolitics, so it is not a major problem.

What is certain is that the term began to gain importance with the arrival of the 1930s, and it did so hand in hand with Nazism.Geopolitics was not free of controversy at first. It was Karl Haushofer, German military, geographer and politician, who developed this discipline and used it to outline the strategies to be followed by Hitler and the Nazi army during the Second World War.

This association between geopolitics and National Socialism resulted in the abandonment of the term once the war was over. It was not until the 1970s that it was recovered. It did so, first, through a current known as critical geopolitics. One of the promoters of this movement was Yves Lacoste, a French geopolitician, who realized how important geography was in the development of conflicts.One of the promoters of this movement was Yves Lacoste, a French geopolitician, who realized the great importance of geography in the development of war conflicts, giving as examples the Vietnam War and the Cold War.

The other great exponent of critical geopolitics was Peter Taylor, a British botanist, who, likewise, was an expert in the field of geography.a British botanist who, likewise, addressed the subject throughout these years and highlighted the figure of the political geographer as the expert who should be in charge of geopolitical studies. Since this new birth of the concept of geopolitics, its importance has only grown, especially as a means of analysis for the major conflicts that constantly arise between different countries around the world.

Main authors in this field of study

Geopolitics has developed in very different ways in the various countries where it has been studied and promoted, so today we have several authors on which to rely when trying to better understand the complexity of this phenomenon. Let's take a look at some of the main ones.

Alfred Thayer Mahan

The first author was Alfred Thayer Mahan, an American. Mahan pointed out the importance of the sea in the political relations between countriesMahan pointed out the importance of the sea in political relations between countries, and how strategic places should be used to dominate this type of environment. In this sense, he established six conditions that a country should fulfill to control the maritime environment. The first would be to have a geographical position that was already advantageous from the outset. The second would be to have accessible coasts, with climates that facilitate navigation and useful resources.

The third point would be to have a sufficient extension of land. The next would refer to having a population level that would allow the defense of such land. The fifth point would put as a condition that the society had favorable aptitudes to develop in the sea, and finally it would be needed that the own government of the nation in question had interest for the maritime domain and directed its policies towards this line.

2. Homer Lea

Another US author is Homer Lea. At the beginning of the 20th century, Lea warned of the danger to the Anglo-Saxon nations from the expansion being made by neighboring states of Slavic (Russia), Teutonic (Germany) or Japanese origin.

In a way, he anticipated the movements that were to come throughout the First World War.He was able to read political intentions taking into account geographical factors. In other words, he carried out one of the first geopolitical studies on record.

Kissinger and Brzezinski

Kissinger and Brzezinski, US security advisors during the Cold War, developed the grand chessboard theory, whereby the whole world would resemble this scenario, in which there would be a number of major players.In this scenario, there would be some main players constantly vying to control more and more squares, and therefore international policies would have to be adopted to ensure a balance between the most powerful centers in order to avoid possible future conflicts between them.

They mainly put that weight on Russia, Germany and the US, stating that the US should establish alliances in Europe that would prevent a hypothetical convergence between Germany and Russia, which would generate a core of power, baptized Eurasia, that would be uncontrollable for the rest of the world.

4. Mackinder

Sir Halford Mackinder, British geographer and politician of the late 19th century, was another of the pioneers of geopolitics. His great contribution to this study was the theory of Heartlandin an article called "The Geographical Pivot of History". According to his analysis, the conditions for the formation of a gigantic empire were taking place in the central zone of the Eurasian continent.

This conglomeration of nations, thanks to being an enormous extension of land, would have an advantage over the rest of the nations that had to make use of maritime transport, much slower and dangerous, for the supply of resources and troops to defend each space. The central zone of this supposed empire was what Mackinder called Heartland, which would correspond to the Ukraine and the westernmost part of Russia..

Indeed, these territories meant great disputes between the great powers that confronted each other during the two great wars of the last century, knowing that whoever controlled the area would have a great advantage to continue advancing through the rest of the continent and therefore definitively unbalance the balance.

5. Friedrich Ratzel

This German ethnographer and geographer of the second half of the 19th century contributed the concept of biology as a factor of geographical expansion, beyond rigid borders. According to Ratzel, nations are like living organisms, and therefore they must continue to grow.. If, on the other hand, the borders remain static or even decrease, it means that the nation is in decline and is in danger of dying.

This theory was criticized as too simplistic, ignoring important factors that explain the power of nations, such as the organization of their own society, for example. Moreover, these postulates were some of those that would later be used by the National Socialist movement to design its strategies, as we saw in the previous points, which meant the fall from grace of the concept of geopolitics for several decades.

Jacques Ancel

Jacques Ancel was the first French geopolitician. He was a reference in the field, and published important studies on the subject before the Second World War ravaged Europe.

7. Vadim Tsymbursky

As a representative of the Russian school, Vadim Tsymbursky would be the greatest exponent of the Russian school of geopolitics.. this researcher made different contributions to geopolitics, coining terms such as the Island-Russia or the Great Boundary.

Bibliographical references:

• Agnew, J.A. (2005). Geopolitics: a re-vision of world politics. Trama Editorial.
• Flint, C. (2016). Introduction to geopolitics. Routledge.
• Hyndman, J. (2001). Towards a feminist geopolitics. Canadian Geographer/Le Géographe Canadien.