Each sovereign state on the world stage has its own interests, in accordance with which it builds tasks and goals of a political, economic nature. The course of a country's foreign policy is influenced by many factors, including geographical location.
The idea that the location of the state on the map to a large extent affects its domestic and foreign policy, economy, socio-cultural sphere and historical development as such, was expressed by philosophers in ancient Greece. However, only by the end of the 19th century did this idea finally stand out as the fundamental principle of a new science - world geopolitics.
Term definitions
Geopolitics itself is a multifaceted and complex direction, therefore it has several interpretations and definitions.
In modern articles, notes, books on political topics, the term "geopolitics" is sometimes interpreted as a direction of political thought, and not as a separate science. It rather belongs to the geographical sciences, and more precisely to political geography. Based on the following idea: states of the globestrive for control over territories in order to determine and redistribute centers of power. That is, the more territories the state controls, the more influential it is.
Another point of view on world geopolitics is that it is distinguished as a full-fledged hybrid science, formed on the basis of the confluence of such areas as politics, economics and geography. She studies mainly the foreign policy of countries and international conflicts, including the phenomenon of war.
In the Soviet Union and a number of other socialist countries, geopolitics was considered a pseudoscience. The reason for this lies in the struggle between two ideologies: communism and liberalism, as well as two models of government: socialism and capitalism. In the USSR, it was believed that geopolitics, which included definitions of "natural borders", "national security" and some others, justified the imperialist expansion of Western states.
History of the development of science
Even Plato in the 5th century BC suggested that the geographical location of the state plays an important role in building its foreign and domestic policy. He thus laid down the principle of geographical determinism, which found its development in subsequent centuries, including in ancient Rome in the works of Cicero.
Interest in the idea of geographical determinism flared up again in modern times, in the writings of the French philosopher and jurist Charles Montesquieu. Later, by the end of the 19th century, the German geographer Friedrich Ratzel became the founder of the fundamentallynew science - political geography. After some time, Rudolf Kjellen (Swedish political scientist), based on the works of Ratzel, formed the concept of geopolitics and, having become famous in 1916 after the publication of the book "The State as an Organism", was able to put it into circulation.
The 20th century was rich in events, the analysis of which was taken up by geopolitics, which took the form of the geopolitics of world wars. She took up the study primarily of two world wars, the Cold War between the USSR and the USA, as well as the struggle of ideologies associated with it. Later, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the field of study of geopolitics was replenished with such phenomena as the policy of multiculturalism and globalization, the phenomenon of a multipolar world. It is thanks to geopolitical science that a classification and characterization of states based on their leading sphere has appeared. For example, space power, nuclear power, etc.
What does geopolitics study?
The object of study of geopolitics as a science is the structure of the world, represented in a geopolitical key in the form of territorial models. It explores the mechanisms by which states maintain control over territory. The scale of this control determines the balance of power on the world stage, as well as relations between countries, which manifest themselves either in cooperation or in rivalry. The balance of power and the course of building relationships is something that is also in the field of study of geopolitics.
In analyzing issues related to politics, geopolitics relies not only on geographical realities, but also onhistorical development of states, their culture. There is a connection between the world economy and geopolitics - the economy is also important for studying problematic issues. However, the economic sphere is considered more often within the framework of geoeconomics, a science that developed after the Second World War.
Chess metaphor
Zbigniew Brzezinski, one of the most famous American political scientists of the second half of the 20th century, has been studying geopolitics for a long time. In the book "The Grand Chessboard" he puts forward his vision of the world within the framework of the foreign policy pursued by the states of the globe. Brzezinski presents the world as a chessboard, on which a tough and consistent geopolitical struggle has been going on for centuries.
In his opinion, two players sat at the chess table in the second half of the 20th century: the sea civilization represented by the USA and Great Britain, and the land civilization (Russia). Task No. 1 of the civilization of the sea is the spread of influence on the eastern part of the Eurasian continent, in particular on the Heartland - Russia as the "axis of history". The task of a land civilization is to “throw back” its enemy, to prevent him from reaching his borders.
Geopolitics Basics
In the new science, there are many provisions according to which states build their geopolitical strategy.
First of all, geopolitics in world politics can be expressed in a formula that consists of adding three key sciences: politics, history and geography. The priority sequence sequence indicates that it is the policyis a fundamental aspect, the basis of a new science.
Some of the main postulates of geopolitics are as follows:
- Each state on the world stage has its own interests. And it strives only for their implementation.
- Resources used to achieve goals are limited. Moreover, it should be borne in mind that there are no resources for anyone. There is always a fight for them. Drawing an analogy with chess, we can say that they belong to either white or black pieces.
- The main task of every geopolitical player is to capture the resources of his opponent without losing his own. It is possible to carry out this under the condition of gaining control over important geographical points of strategic importance.
German School of Geopolitics
In Germany, geopolitics as the leading direction of thought in politics began to play an important role after the First World War. The country, being utterly defeated in the conflict, was declared its culprit, as a result of which it lost a significant share of territories, including colonies, and lost its army and navy. German geopolitics in the interwar period opposed this state of affairs, insisting on the concept of "living space", which was clearly lacking in such a highly developed country as Germany.
Then the German school of geopolitics identified three world spaces: Great America, Great Asia and Great Europe, with centers in the USA, Japan and Germany,respectively. Putting Germany at the head of the table, German geopoliticians expressed one simple idea - their country should have replaced Great Britain as the European center of power. At that time, the most important geopolitical task of the Germans was to remove the British, creating a powerful economic and military bloc against them.
During the Second World War, the German government did not fully adhere to the specified geopolitical doctrine, which can be seen in the decision to go to war with the Soviet Union. After the defeat in the war, Germany, as after the First World War, was deprived of geopolitical influence and abandoned the idea of militarism. Germany after the war began to build a course of European integration, which continues to this day.
Japanese geopolitical trends
At the time of World War II, Germany had an important Asian ally - Japan, with which the Germans planned to divide the USSR into two spheres of influence: western and eastern. The school of geopolitics in Japan at that time was still weak, it was just beginning to take shape due to the previous many years of separation from developed countries. However, even then, Japanese geopoliticians shared the view of their German colleagues, which consisted in the need for expansion into the USSR. Japan's defeat in the war changed the country's foreign and domestic political course: it began to follow the doctrine of economic and technological development, which it copes with quite successfully.
American School of Geopolitics
Historian and military theorist Alfred Mahan was one of the people thanks to whom such a science asworld geopolitics. As an admiral, he insisted on embodying the idea of establishing maritime power for his country. In it, he saw geopolitical dominance, due to a combination of military and merchant fleets, as well as naval bases.
Mahan's ideas were later adopted by American geopolitician Nicholas Speakman. He developed the doctrine of US maritime power and placed it within the framework of the struggle between land and sea civilizations, accompanied by the principle of integrated control, which consisted in US dominance on the world stage and the prevention of geopolitical competition. This idea was especially clear in American politics during the Cold War.
The collapse of the USSR in 1991 led to the collapse of the bipolar world, the end of the struggle of ideologies. From that time on, a multipolar world began to form with centers in different parts of the globe. Russia dropped out of the geopolitical race for some time due to the economic and domestic political events of the early 1990s.
Currently, China has entered the world stage. The United States is now faced with a choice: either stick to a defense policy and lose geopolitical dominance, or develop the idea of a unipolar world.
Russian geopolitical trends
Despite the fact that in many developed countries geopolitics became a separate science at the beginning of the 20th century, in Russia it happened a little later - only in the 1920s, with the advent of the Soviet Union. However, Russia's geopolitical goals existed even before the emergence ofUSSR, although they were not formulated within the framework of a separate science. An important stage in the world geopolitics of Russia was the time of Peter the Great, namely the tasks set by Peter I. This is, first of all, access to the B altic and Black Seas, access to maritime borders and world trade. Later, already during the reign of Catherine II, this was the strengthening of Russia's influence on the Black Sea, the annexation of Crimea to the Russian Empire.
Already in the Soviet period of Russian history, the geopolitical goals of the USSR were clearly formulated and outlined. Even before the Second World War, the main goal of the Soviet Union, in the 20s of the last century, was the spread of socialism and subsequent communism around the globe. Later, the geopolitical strategy became a little softer and more restrained and soon took a course towards building socialism within the framework of a single state. After the Second World War, with the emergence of a bipolar world, the main goal of the USSR was to achieve victory in the Cold War with the United States, which, however, the Soviets did not achieve.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the newly formed Russian Federation struggled for a long time to cope with a severe economic crisis and political problems. After the annexation of Crimea in 2014, sanctions imposed by the European Union and the United States on Russia forced it to look for trading partners in Asia. The efforts of the Russian Federation to establish world geopolitics at the moment consist in building cooperation with Asian countries, mainly with China, the Middle East (Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran) and Latin America.
What's new in geopolitical space
As of October 2018, the main geopolitical clash of world powers is observed in the Middle East, in particular, in Syria. Since 2011, the Middle East in world geopolitics, with the outbreak of the civil war in Syria, begins to play a significant role: the views of the entire world community are turned to it. Radical sentiments were gaining popularity in this region, connected with the desire to organize the Islamic State in Syria, Iraq and some other countries of the Middle East - in fact, a vast terrorist organization banned in many countries of the world, including Russia.
In 2014, the United States and the countries of the European Union carried out military intervention in the conflict that took place on the territory of Syria. The stated goal is the fight against terrorism: with the Al-Qaeda group, with the Islamic State, which pose a threat to the security of the whole world. In 2015, the Russian side also joined the military operation in Syria.
Since 2014, the world news of politics and geopolitics often covers the Middle East problem. For the most part, these are so-called reports from the front: on whom and when air strikes were carried out, how many terrorists were killed, and what share of the territories was freed from their influence. The media also highlights the differences between the countries participating in the hostilities regarding the principles of conducting an anti-terrorist operation.
Conclusion
Geopolitics is a science, a fundamental ideawhich has been developing for more than 2 thousand years, in order to eventually turn into a separate direction. Based on the idea of geographical determinism, geopolitics acquired new theories, terms, principles. It is, in fact, a combination of three sciences: politics, history and geography. The latter is important in the context of studying the influence of geographical location on the development of a particular country.
The most complete development of geopolitical thought was observed in the US and some European countries, where there were their own schools. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the principles created by them have been actively used by many powers to build their foreign policy. Their use continued during the Cold War. With its completion, since 1991, new phenomena and realities have arisen, the study of which is engaged in modern geopolitics.
