Geopolitics, geography, and strategy

298 Pages·1999·5.137 MB·English

by  Gray, Colin S.;Sloan, Geoffrey R

GEOPOLITICS, GEOGRAPHY
AND STRATEGY
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Contents
1. Why Geopolitics? Geoffrey Sloan and Colin S. Gray
I. GEOPOLITICAL THEORY AND STRATEGY: THE WORDS AND
THE HISTORY OF IDEAS
2. Sir Halford Mackinder: The Heartland Theory
Then and Now Geoffrey Sloan 15
3. Alfred Thayer Mahan, Geopolitician Jon Sumida 39
4. Air Power, Space Power, and
Geography Benjamin S. Lambeth 63
5. Geography in the Space Age:
An Astropolitical Analysis Everett C. Dolman 83
6. Understanding Critical Geopolitics:
Geopolitics and Risk Security Gearoid 6 Tuathail 107
7. Geopolitics: International Boundaries as
Fighting Places Ewan W. Anderson 125
8. Information Power: Strategy, Geopolitics
and the Fifth Dimension David J. Lonsdale 137
II. GEOGRAPHY AND STRATEGY: GEOPOLITICS IN ACTION
9. Inescapable Geography Colin S. Gray 161
10. Weather, Geography and Naval Power in
the Age of Sail N. A. M. Rodger 178
11. Some Thoughts on War and Geography Williamson Murray 201
12. Geopolitik: Haushofer, Hitler and
Lebensraum Holger H. Herwig 218
13. 'Russia Will Not Be Trifled With':
Geopolitical Facts and Fantasies John Erickson 242
Abstracts 269
About the Contributors 274
Index 277
Page Intentionally Left Blank
Sir Halford Mackinder aged 72 in a 1933 portrait by
Sir William Rothenstein.
Frontispiece from Mackinder hy W.H. Parker (Clarendon Press 1982) by
permission of Oxford University Press and London School of Economics
(where the original portrait hangs)
1
Why Geopolitics?
GEOFFREY SLOAN and COLIN S. GRAY
The popularity of geopolitical theory from 1945 to the present has been
rather like the length of hemline on a woman's skirt; it has fallen and risen
with the vagaries of fashion. The current vogue can be traced to 1979 when
Henry Kissinger published the first volume of his memoirs titled The White
House Years. It was significant that this book made continual use of the term
'geopolitics'. This was important for two reasons: first, Kissinger used it as
a method of analysis to combat the American liberal policies of idealism;
second, it was utilised as a means of presenting an alternative to the
conservative policies of an ideological anti-Communism. Kissinger claimed
for geopolitics a synonymity with global equilibrium and permanent
national interests in the world balance of power. He defined geopolitics as
follows: 'by geopolitical I mean an approach that pays attention to the
requirements of equilibrium'. The revival of the word 'geopolitics' by
I
Kissinger resulted in two discernible paths of development. 'It led, by
example and reaction, to further reflection on global strategy in the
geopolitical tradition. Secondly, and perhaps in the end more significantly,
it popularized the word geopolitics, which entered the language in a way
which it never had before, though at the substantial price of ambiguity and
confusion of meanings.'2
This special issue of the Journal of Strategic Studies has two related
aims. First to make a contribution to dispelling the ambiguity and confusion
that still surrounds the term geopolitics. Second, to illuminate the
relationships between geopolitics, geography and strategy, and to show how
the practice and study of strategy requires a continuing exchange between
history and theory. In essence, geopolitics is an attempt to draw attention to
the importance of certain geographical patterns in political history. It is a