Each sovereign state on the world stage has its own interests, in accordance with which it builds the tasks and goals of a political, economic sense. The country's foreign policy is influenced by many factors, including geographical location.
The idea that the location of the state on the map significantly affects its domestic and foreign policy, economy, socio-cultural sphere and historical development as such, was expressed by philosophers in ancient Greece. However, only at the end of the 19th century did this idea finally stand out as a fundamental principle of a new science - world geopolitics.
Definitions of the term
In itself, geopolitics is a multifaceted, complex direction, therefore, it has several interpretations, definitions.
In modern articles, notes, books on political subjects, the term “geopolitics” is sometimes interpreted as a direction of political thought, and not as a separate science. Rather, it belongs to the geographical sciences, and more precisely to political geography. It is based on the following idea: the states of the globe strive 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 singled out into a full-fledged hybrid science, formed on the basis of the merger of such directions 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 pseudoscience. The reason for this lies in the struggle of two ideologies: communism and liberalism, as well as two models of government: socialism and capitalism. The USSR believed that geopolitics, which included the definition 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 assumed that the geographical location of the state plays an important role in building its foreign and domestic policies. He laid thereby 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 a fundamentally new science - political geography. After some time, Rudolf Chöllen (Swedish political scientist), based on Ratzel’s work, formed the concept of geopolitics and, having become famous in 1916 after publishing 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 began to study primarily two world wars, the Cold War between the USSR and the USA, as well as the ideological struggle associated with it. Later, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the field of studying geopolitics was replenished with such phenomena as the policy of multiculturalism and globalization, a phenomenon of a multipolar world. It is thanks to geopolitical science that the classification and characterization of states based on their leading sphere has appeared. For example, a space power, a nuclear power, etc.
What does geopolitics study?
The object of studying geopolitics as a science is the structure of the world, presented in a geopolitical manner in the form of territorial models. She explores the mechanisms by which states provide control over territory. The scope of this control determines the balance of power on the world stage, as well as relations between countries, which are manifested either in cooperation or in rivalry. The alignment of forces and relations building courses are also in the field of studying geopolitics.
Analyzing issues related to politics, geopolitics is based not only on geographical realities, but also on the historical 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 in 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 Great Chessboard, ” he puts forward his vision of the world as part of the foreign policy pursued by the states of the globe. Brzezinski presents the world in the form of a chessboard on which a tough and consistent geopolitical struggle has been going on for centuries.
In his opinion, two players were sitting at the chess table in the second half of the 20th century: the civilization of the sea represented by the USA and Great Britain, and the land civilization (Russia). The task # 1 of the civilization of the sea is to spread influence on the eastern part of the Eurasian continent, especially on Heartland - Russia as the “axis of history”. The task of land civilization is to “cast aside” its adversary and prevent it from reaching its borders.
The main provisions of geopolitics
In 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 up three key sciences: politics, history and geography. The priority sequence series suggests that it is politics that is the fundamental aspect, the basis of the new science.
Some of the main tenets of geopolitics are as follows:
- Each state in the world arena has its own interests. And only to their implementation does it strive.
- The resources used to achieve the goals are limited. Moreover, it should be borne in mind that no one's resources exist. There is always a struggle for them. Drawing an analogy with chess, we can say that they belong to either white or black pieces.
- The main task of each geopolitical player is to capture the resources of his opponent, while not losing his own. This can be done provided that control is obtained over important geographical points of strategic importance.
German School of Geopolitics
In Germany, geopolitics as a leading line 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 the territories, including the colonies, and lost its army and navy. German geopolitics opposed this situation in the interwar period, insisting on the concept of a “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 was supposed to replace Britain as the European center of power. At that time, the Germans' most important geopolitical task was to remove the British, creating a powerful economic and military bloc against them.
During the Second World War, the German government did not adhere to the specified geopolitical doctrine, which can be seen in the decision to start a war with the Soviet Union. After the defeat in the war, Germany, as well as after the First World War, was deprived of geopolitical influence and abandoned the idea of militarism. After the war, Germany 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, only beginning to take shape due to the previous long-term separation from developed countries. However, even then, Japanese geopolitics shared the view of German colleagues, which was the need for expansion in the USSR. The defeat of Japan in the war changed the country's external and internal political course: it began to follow the doctrine of economic and technological development, the tasks of which it is coping quite successfully.
American School of Geopolitics
The historian and military theorist Alfred Mahan became one of the people thanks to whom such a science as world geopolitics was formed in the USA. As an admiral, he insisted on the realization of the idea of establishing his country of sea power. In it, he saw geopolitical domination, due to a combination of military and merchant fleets, as well as naval bases.
Mahan's ideas were later adopted by the American geopolitician Nicholas Speakman. He developed the doctrine of sea power of the United States and placed it in the framework of the struggle between land and sea civilizations, accompanied by the principle of integrated control, which consisted of the US domination on the world stage and the prevention of geopolitical competition. This idea was especially clearly traced in the American political course 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. Since that time, a multipolar world begins to form with centers in different parts of the globe. Russia for some time dropped out of the geopolitical race, which is associated with economic and domestic political events of the early 1990s.
Currently, China has entered the world stage. The United States now has a choice: either adhere to defense policy and lose its 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, geopolitical goals in Russia existed even before the emergence of the USSR, although they were not formulated as part 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 Baltic and Black Sea, gaining access to maritime borders and world trade. Later, already during the reign of Catherine II, this was the strengthening of Russia's influence in the Black Sea, the annexation of Crimea to the composition of the Russian Empire.
Already in the Soviet period of Russian history, the geopolitical goals of the USSR were clearly formulated and outlined. Even before World War II, the main goal of the Soviet Union, in the 20s of the last century, was the spread of socialism and subsequent communism throughout the globe. Later, the geopolitical strategy became a bit 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 advent of the 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 for a long time tried to cope with a severe economic crisis and political problems. After the annexation of Crimea in 2014, sanctions against Russia imposed by the European Union and the United States forced Russia to seek trade partners in Asia. The efforts of the Russian Federation to approve world geopolitics at the moment are to build 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 on it. In this region, radical sentiments associated with the desire to organize an “Islamic State” in Syria, Iraq and some other countries of the Middle East were gaining popularity - in fact, an extensive terrorist organization banned in many countries of the world, including Russia.
In 2014, the United States and European Union countries made military intervention in the conflict that took place in Syria. The stated goal is the fight against terrorism: with the al-Qaida group, with the Islamic State, which pose a threat to the security of the whole world. In 2015, the Russian side joined the military operation in Syria.
Since 2014, world news of politics and geopolitics often highlights the Middle East problem. For the most part, these are the so-called reports from the front: to whom and when they launched air strikes, how many terrorists were killed, what proportion of territories was freed from their influence. The media also highlights the disagreements of the countries participating in the hostilities regarding the principles of conducting an anti-terrorist operation.
