This document provides an introduction to the fields of political geography and geopolitics. It defines political geography as the study of how power relations are shaped by and shape the places in which they occur. Geopolitics is described as the geographical dimensions of power and the struggle over control of geographical entities for political advantage. A brief overview of the history of geopolitics discusses early theorists like Ratzel who argued states must expand territory to increase power, as well as more modern conceptions that geopolitics includes non-state actors operating at various scales from global to local.

1. Intro to Geopolitics and
Political Geography
WEEK 1: LECTURE 1
GEOG/JSIS 375: AUTUMN 2020

2. Overview
 What is geography?
 What is political geography?
 What is geopolitics?
 Introduction to geopolitics

3. Key Concepts
 Geopolitics
 Political Geography

4. What is Geography?
 Includes physical and human geography as well as GIS
 Human geography focuses on understanding spatial relationships: why the
‘where’ matters
 Geographers study the spatiality of different things and processes
 Everything has a spatial dimension

5. What is Political Geography?
 Political geography focuses on how politics and power are spatial
 “Political geography is the study of how power is spatial: how power struggles
both subtle and spectacular are shaped by and shape the places in which they
occur” (Smith, 2020: p. 2)
 Political geography includes territory, the state and governments, the nation,
identity and citizenship, elections ,the environment, and geopolitics
 Political geography gives us the tools to understand geopolitics as more than
something that ‘just happens’

6. What is Geopolitics?

7. Geopolitics is…
 “The geographical dimensions of power” (Storey, 2009)
 “The struggle over the control of geographical entities with an international
and global dimension, and the use of such geographical entities for political
advantage” (Flint, 2006)

8. Overview of the History of Geopolitics
 Friederich Ratzel (1897): The state is a living organism
 States must expand their territory in order to expand their population and power
 Halford Mackinder (Britain) and Alfred Mahon (U.S.) also making arguments for
ways to increase their respective country’s power
 1990s: Theorists begin asking “How do geographic categories and constructs
write the world?”
 Geopolitics is not only about relationships between states, but also includes other
actors and takes place at global, national, local, and other scales
 The global is not outside the local