This document provides an overview of geopolitics, including definitions and perspectives from influential geopolitical theorists. It defines geopolitics as the study of how geographical factors influence politics and international relations. It discusses the work of Friedrich Ratzel, who viewed states as organic organisms that seek to expand, Halford Mackinder, who emphasized the strategic importance of Eurasia, and Nicholas Spykman, who argued that control of the rimland surrounding Eurasia was key to global power rather than the heartland alone.

1. Geopolitics
“Geopolitics may be defined, crudely, as the influence of
geography upon politics: how distance and terrain and
climate affect the affairs of states and men. Because of
geography, for example, Athens was a thalassocracy - a
sea empire - whereas Sparta was a land power.”
Sir Halford Mackinder

2. What is Geopolitics?
 Geopolitics
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The study of power relationships past, present, and future
The study of the relationship among politics and geography,
demography, and economics, especially with respect to the
foreign policy of a nation.
A branch of political geography that considers the strategic
value of land and sea area in the context of national
economic and military power and ambitions
The state’s power to control space or territory and shape the
foreign policy of individual states and international political
relations
Geopolitics is concerned with how geographical factors,
including territory, population, strategic location, and natural
resource endowments, as modified by economics and
technology, affect the relations between states and the
struggle for world domination.
Geopolitics is defined as a branch of geography that
promises to explain the relationships between geographical
realities and international affairs.

3. Friedrich Ratzel 1844-1904
 Friedrich Ratzel 1844-1904, Germany
 Studied the behavior of states
 the state ‘resembles’ a biological organism whose life
cycle extends from birth through maturity, decline and
death, possibly even rebirth
 state requires nourishment
 nourishment is provided through acquisition of less
powerful competitors’ territories and their cultural
components
 one could determine the general well-being of the state
by regarding its size as measured according to its
geographic expansion or contraction over time

4. Friedrich Ratzel 1844-1904
The organic theory holds that a nation would
behave and function as an organism.
 contributed to expansionist Nazi philosophies
of the 1930’s
 For a time after association with Nazi powers,
geopolitics was a negative term; over time has
emerged as a positive term
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5. Sir Halford Mackinder 1861-1947
 Sir Halford Mackinder 1861-1947, Britain
 Created to justify the strategic value of colonialism and
explain the dynamic processes and possibilities behind
the new world map created by imperialism
 Theory highlighted the importance of geography to
world political and economic stability and conflict
 Eurasia was the most likely base from which a
successful campaign for world conquest could be
launched
 Considered Eurasia’s closed heartland the
‘geographical pivot’, the location central to establishing
world control
 Maritime exploration was coming to a close, and land
based transportation technology would reinstate land
based powers as essential to political dominance

6. Sir Halford Mackinder 1861-1947
 Envisioned the world as dominated by a global
superpower
 At this time, Russia controlled a large portion of the
Eurasian continent protected from British sea power
 Suggested that the empire of the world would be in sight if
one power or a combination of powers (Russia/Germany
or China/Japan) came to control the heartland
He who rules East Europe commands the Heartland
Who rules the Heartland commands the World Island
Who rules the World Island rules the world
 Originally when this was proposed it was not applicable
because Russia was weak and Eastern Europe fractured.
However, after the emergence of the Soviet Union and
WWII, the theory was taken seriously.

7. Nicholas Spykman
 Argued the Eurasian rim held the key to global power
 The rimland is a fragmented zone and unlikely to fall
under one superpower as the heartland might
 These continental margins contained dense
populations, abundant resources, and had controlling
access both to the seas and to the continental interior
 The rimland had tended throughout history to be
politically fragmented and Spykman concluded that it
would be to the advantage of both the US and USSR
if it was kept that way
 A divided rimland was the key to the world’s balance
of power

8. Nicholas Spykman
Who controls the Rimland rules Eurasia
Who rules Eurasia controls the destinies of the world
 2004:
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Four Potential Superpowers
Russia
China
Europe
United States
Post WWII: Communism and Capitalist
What superpower has emerged post 9/11?
What does the power arrangement look like today?