How has geopolitics changed the end of WWII - Essay Example

HOW HAS GEOPOLITICS CHANGED SINCE THE END OF WORLD WAR TWO This paper examines the changes have been occurred in the field of geopolitics since the end of World War II, in both term’s theoretical postulates and its application. Origin The term was formulated by Kjellen at the beginning of the twentieth century, inspired by German geographer Ratzel. F. Ratzel first recognized the danger that geopolitics “or, more exactly, politics based on geopolitics” to be lead to “the acceptance of geographical determinism”, which he wrote in Politische Geographie: “ The only material element of a state’s unity is its territory.

Consequently there is a strong temptation to base the political organization primarily on the territory of the state as if it could force into unity always discrete men.”(/Ratzel, F., Politische Geographie, p.15, 1903/ Kristoff, The origins and evolution of geopolitics, p. 24, 1960). Geopolitics and geographical determinismIn 1904 H.J.Mackinder developed his ‘Heartland theory’ presenting the world divided in ‘World Island’ comprising Europe, Asia and Africa, peripheral island groups of Americas, Australia, Japan and the British isles, and the ‘Heartland’ laying at the center of ‘World Island’ from the Volga to the Yangtze and from the Himalayas to the Arctic.

Regardless the large scale character of this theory, its belonging to the postulates of geographic determinism is undutiful. Since then, despite many differences mainly in the relative percentage of the geographical factor, a great number of authors from German, British and American schools, more or less, could be associated with geographical determinism. Even Kjellen, besides his political-philosophical concept of nation and state, favored the most restricted meaning of the term of ‘geopolitics’ – “Geopolitics is the study of the state as a geographic organism or phenomenon in space; that is land, territory, or, most pregnantly, as country [Reich].

”(/Kjellen, Der Staat als Lebensform, p.46, 1917/ Kristoff, The origins and evolution of geopolitics, p. 25, 1960). Kjellen’s formulations have been used to a certain degree in Germany, by K. Househofer, who claimed: “.geopolitics shall and must become the geographic conscience of the state.”(/ Houshofer, K., et al. Bausteine zur Geopolitic, p.27, 1928/ Kristoff, The origins and evolution of geopolitics, p. 21, 1960). Drawn along by Kjellen’s comprehension of autarky as good and necessary (Kristoff, L.K.D.

, The origins and evolution of geopolitics, p. 26, 1960) and developed by the apologists of geographical determinism, the concept of ‘natural boundary’ and the akin in spirit one - of ‘harmonic state’, were largely used in Nazi Germany as well as in the rest of the world, as a milestone in determination of the trends of foreign policy. American Geopolitical WritingsIn the United States, one of the most conspicuous apologists of the cult of power has been considered professor Spykman, who published his ‘America’s Strategy in World Politics: The United States and the Balance of Power” in the early 1942, and because of it became known as the American Houshofer.

(Kristoff, L.K.D., The origins and evolution of geopolitics, p. 31, 1960). Generally, according to Kristoff, there are roughly distinguishable three types of writings contributing to the fund and/or influencing the development of the American geopolitics – strategical, environmental – historical, and political – geographical. Among the three, the strategical ones are most easily identified as politics – the so-called power politics. Starting with the ideology of the ‘New Manifest Destiny’ in the works of admiral Alfred Mahan, Homer Lea, General William Mitchell along with Spykman and G.T.Renner, “all plead for specific policies and strategies, which they consider imperative given the geographical factors and certain developments in international politics and military technology.

” (Kristoff, L.K.D., The origins and evolution of geopolitics, p. 37, 1960). The first environmental – historical interpretation of the politics in America was brought with the writings of Jackson Turner, Ellen Churchill Semple and perhaps the best known among scholars of the America’s environmental – historical school - Huntington, “whose influence extends over almost half a century…Then, much of Huntington’s hypothesis runs counter to the values and philosophies cherished today in both the West and the East…” (Kristoff, L.K.D.

, The origins and evolution of geopolitics, p. 39, 1960). Trends of geopolitics evolution As first important trend could be recognized the gradually tearing off the geographic determinism, i.e. the prevalence of geographical factor or even subordination of all the other factors to the former. The second trend is intimately connected with the diminishing of the influence of the environmental determinism – stepping out of realm of so-called power politics. Third trend is the process of convergence between geography and politics toward appearance of political geography as a ‘Homo politicus centered discipline’, explained by Kristoff as a Janus-like phenomena – “one face is political, one geographical, and, since the second can be studied and understood only in the terms of the first, the logical procedure is first to examine the features of the political face and then only to turn to its geography.

” (Kristoff, L.K.D., The origins and evolution of geopolitics, p. 41, 1960). Industrialization, ‘man’s mastery over nature’, and the advent of the ‘air age’ have quite naturally stimulated new geographical and geopolitical thinking. (Kristoff, L.K.D., The origins and evolution of geopolitics, p. 35, 1960). As far as application of the term is concerned, the new balance of power after the Second World War, the imperial decay and independence movements all over the world, the Cold War, as well as the differentiation of the Middle East (and largely the Arab World) with its complicate postcolonial relations and conflicts, have determined selection and execution of policies, centered on the civilization’s choice and securing access to natural resources (especially oil).

References[1] Kristoff, The origins and evolution of geopolitics, p. 24, 1960[2] Kjellen, Der Staat als Lebensform, p.46, 1917/ Kristoff, The origins and evolution of geopolitics, p. 25, 1960 [3] Houshofer, K., et al. Bausteine zur Geopolitic, p.27, 1928/ Kristoff, The origins and evolution of geopolitics, p. 21, 1960[4] Kristoff, L.K.D., The origins and evolution of geopolitics, p. 26, 1960 [5] Kristoff, L.K.D., The origins and evolution of geopolitics, p. 31, 1960 [6] Kristoff, L.K.D., The origins and evolution of geopolitics, p.

37, 1960 [7] Kristoff, L.K.D., The origins and evolution of geopolitics, p. 39, 1960[8] Kristoff, L.K.D., The origins and evolution of geopolitics, p. 41, 1960 [9] Kristoff, L.K.D., The origins and evolution of geopolitics, p. 35, 1960