Maps are powerful tools that can be used for political and military domination and control by representing spaces. They facilitate the advancement of military operations by showing lines of supply, topography, and possible retreats. Geopolitical theorists like Mackinder believed that control over Eurasia was key due to its resources and strategic position. Maps have been used throughout history to influence geopolitics and shape boundaries, as seen through Nazi Germany's use of maps to justify territorial claims. More recently, polar maps have been used to assess strategic advantages during the Cold War by changing perspectives on global distances.

1. Maps and Geopolitics
 How far is the Indonesian border from
India?
 Which countries border India?
 Which is India's farthest western point?

2. Maps and Geopolitics
 Maps (as defined by French geographer
Yves Lacoste)
– Central referent of geography
– An instrument of power
– Designed and motivated by practical
(political and military)
– Way of representing space
– Facilitates domination and control

3. Maps and Geopolitics
 War, maps and geography form a
powerful variables related to one another
 Leading cartographic publisher:
– Rand and McNally
 Magazine: National Geographic (Now TV
also)

4. Maps and Geopolitics
 Advantages of maps for military:
– Lines of supply
– Topographic advantages
– Modes of advancement
– Possible retreat
 Mackinder's maps had geopolitical
significance, particularly for central Asian
countries like Uzbekistan

5. Maps and Geopolitics
 Others interest in Central and Middle-
east Asia is because of th resources and
strategic territorial advantage
 Territory is believed to be an instrument
of peace and good boundaries were
therefore essential in the promotion of
order and stability
– But, right to choose the state (principle
of self determination) proved to be
complicated

6. Maps and Geopolitics
 New maps popularized by movies,
newspapers and magazines
 New polar centered maps reduced the
geographical distance between US and
Russia
– Russia was moving closer to US
through Cuba
– An almost Third World war prevented
by Kennedy, after Russia agreed to
move the missiles out of Cuba

7. Maps and Geopolitics
 Mackinder Role:
– Global time/space compression
• Imposition of standard time
• Invention of radio
• Consolidation of railways
– Expressed that countries such as
Britain has to achieve efficiency in the
existing colonies rather than acquiring
new territories
– Insisted on expanding land based

8. Maps and Geopolitics
 Mackinder's Pivot Area (next slide) and
Heartland theory
 Bowman's maps after 1st
World War to
create new geopolitical boundaries of
Europe:
– Supported by regional specialists:
Franco-German border, Austria-
Hungary, Poland, Russia,Balkan states
and Far East

9. MackinderMackinder

10. Maps and Geopolitics
 Maps and Nazi Germany:
– After the 1919 Peace Conference, a
'Greater Germany' map was produced
to retain German Empire, Austria and
parts of Czechoslovakia
– Widely reproduced in newspapers,
magazines, posters, postcards and
school atlases

13. Polar Centered Map
 Richard Harrison of CIA advised US to
look at polar centered map to assess the
cold war situation
 Better able to represent relative distance
and proximity
 Emphasized new way of thinking about
distances in terms of flying hours
 Sense of time-space compression began

14. Polar Centered Map

15. Polar Centered Map
 US deployed Distance Early Warning
(DEW) radar systems from Alska through
Canada to Greenland and Iceland to
detect incoming USSR bombers and
missiles
– 63 stations stretched over 10000 km
 US launched CORONA satellite in 1958
for geographical intelligence

16. The New Pentagon Map
 Thomas Barnett (Consultant to Pentagon
and faculty member of US Naval War
College) published a post 9/11 map in
2003
 This map identifies, world is divided as:
– Funtioning Core (who share American
values)
– Non-integrating gap (Who do not share
American values)