Introduction to Geopolitics

critical geopolitics
(Ó Tuathail, 1996), which
is the practice of identifying the power relationships within geopolitical statements; what
assumptions underlie phrases such as “the spread of free markets” or the “diffusion of
democracy”, for example. What are the consequences of such practices and representa-
tions? Who gains what, and who suffers? In other words, the phrases commonly used
to justify state practices are put under critical scrutiny to see how they try to restrict 
our view of the world and promote a limited number of policies. By promoting inter-
pretations of world events that are counter to dominant government and media
representations, critical geopolitics aims to encourage anti-geopolitics; practices by
individuals, groups of citizens, indigenous peoples, etc. to resist the control and classi-
fications imposed by states and other powerful institutions such as the World Bank.
Contemporary geopolitics identifies the sources, practices, and representations that
allow for the control of territory and the extraction of resources. States still practice
statesmanship. In that sense we are still offered “all seeing” interpretations of the world
by political leaders and opinion makers. But their “situated knowledge” has been increas-
ingly challenged by others in “situations” different from the clubs and meeting rooms
of politicians and business leaders. As a result, geopolitical knowledge is seen as part
of the struggle as marginalized people in different situations aim to resist the domina-
tion of the views of the powerful. Feminist geopolitics has invoked the need for a
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“populated” geopolitics, one that identifies the complexity of the world, and the particu-
lar situations of people across the world, as opposed to the simplistic models of classic
geopolitics and their simple explanations (Gilmartin and Kofman, 2004, p. 115).
Geopolitics is “up for grabs” as the type and goals of territorial conflicts have become
increasingly broader. But before we move on, back to our roots, who were the classical
geopoliticians and what did they do?
A brief history of geopolitics
As we have noted, geopolitical knowledge is “situated knowledge.” Though this obser-
vation has been used to claim the relevance of the perspectives and actions of
marginalized groups, it may still be used to consider the thoughts of the theoreticians
whose concern was geopolitical states
man
ship. In other words, geopolitical theoreticians
constructed their frameworks within particular political contexts and within particular
academic debates that were influential at the time, the latter sometimes called paradigms.
Geopolitics, as thought and practice, is linked to the establishment of states and
nation-states as the dominant political institutions. Especially, geopolitics is connected
to the end of the nineteenth century—a period of increasing competition between the
most powerful states—and it is the theories generated at this time that we will label “clas-
sic geopolitics” (Table 1.2). Geopolitics was initially understood as the realm of inter-
state conflict, with the quiet assumption that the only states being discussed were the
powerful Western countries. In other words, there was a theoretical attempt to separate
geopolitics from imperialism, the dominance of powerful countries over weaker states.
Sir Halford Mackinder (1861–1947) is, perhaps, the most well-known and influen-
tial of the geopoliticians who emerged at the end of the nineteenth century. The kernel
of his idea was used in justifying the nuclear policy of President Reagan, and academics
and policymakers continue to discuss the merits of his “Heartland” theory. The polit-
ical context from which Mackinder wrote was multi-layered. Internationally, he was
concerned about the relative decline in Great Britain’s power as it faced the challenge
of Germany. Within Britain, his conservatism was appalled by the destruction of tradi-
tional agricultural and aristocratic lifestyles in the wake of industrialization, especially
the rise of an organized working class that made claims for social change. His goal was
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