Geopolitics Reader

342 Pages·1.997 MB·English

by  Simon Dalby, Paul Routledge, Gearóid Ó Tuathail, Edward Luttwak

THE GEOPOLITICS READER
The twentieth century is the century of geopolitics. From the coining of the term at the beginning of
the century to its now common use as a sign for global conflict and change, the problematic of
geopolitics offers a revealing window into the great struggles over power and space that have
dominated this century. Implicated in the Great Power imperialism of the early twentieth century
and in the rise of Nazi Germany, geopolitics provides an insight into historical struggles over the
organization of global political space. During the later years of the Cold War, geopolitics was used
to describe a permanent global struggle between the capitalist Western bloc and the Soviet Eastern
bloc that finally ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In today’s new world, the problematic of geopolitics is more relevant than ever as new global
struggles over power and space shape the emergent form of the post-Cold War world. Everyday life
in the late twentieth century is pervaded by a geopolitical imagination that has expanded to include
issues and questions previously ignored during the Cold War: civilizational clashes, global warming,
social movement struggles, global finance and transnational communication networks. In this post-
Cold War world, the domain of geopolitics now touches upon some of the most hotly debated issues
of our time, including global environmental degradation, ethno-nationalism and post-modernism.
The Geopolitics Reader brings together the most comprehensive selection of readings on geopolitics,
from classic accounts to emerging trends. It introduces fresh perspectives on the key issues of debate
in the late twentieth century concerning discourse, power, gender and political economy.
Gearóid Ó Tuathail is Associate Professor of Geography at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
University, Simon Dalby is Associate Professor in Geography at Carleton University and Paul
Routledge is a Lecturer in Geography at Glasgow University.

THE GEOPOLITICS READER
edited by
Gearóid Ó Tuathail, Simon Dalby
and
Paul Routledge

London and New York
First published 1998
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003.

© 1998 Gearóid Ó Tuathail, Simon Dalby and Paul Routledge, collection and
editorial matter; the contributors, individual chapters
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
The Geopolitics Reader/[edited by] Gearóid Ó Tuathail, Simon Dalby,
and Paul Routledge.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
(pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Geopolitics. I. Ó Tuathail, Gearóid. II. Dalby, Simon.
III. Routledge, Paul.
JC319.G49 1997
302.1´2–dc21 97–13460

ISBN 0-203-44493-0 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-75317-8 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-16270-X (hbk)
0-415-16271-8 (pbk)
To the alternative geopoliticians,
E.P.Thompson, Petra Kelly and Ken Sara Wiwa

CONTENTS
Figures and tables xi
Cartoons and maps xii
Acknowledgements xiii
INTRODUCTION
GEARÓID Ó TUATHAIL Thinking Critically About Geopolitics 1
1 IMPERIALIST GEOPOLITICS
GEARÓID Ó TUATHAIL Introduction 15
1 HALFORD J.MACKINDER 1904 “The Geographical Pivot of History” 27
from Geographical Journal
2 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 1905 “The Roosevelt Corollary” 32
from A Compilation of Messages and Papers of the
Presidents
3 KARL HAUSHOFER 1942 “Why Geopolitik?” 33
from The World of General Haushofer
4 ADOLF HITLER 1942 “Eastern Orientation or Eastern Policy?” 36
from Mein Kampf
5 KARL HAUSHOFER 1948 “Defense of German Geopolitics” 40
from Total Power: A Footnote to History
2 COLD WAR GEOPOLITICS
GEARÓID Ó TUATHAIL Introduction 47
6 PRESIDENT HARRY 1947 “The Truman Doctrine” 58
TRUMAN from Public Papers of the Presidents of the United
States
7 GEORGE F.KENNAN 1947 “The Sources of Soviet Conduct” 61
from Foreign Affairs
8 ANDREI ZHDANOV 1947 “Soviet Policy and World Politics” 66
from The International Situation
vii
viii CONTENTS
9 PATRICK O’SULLIVAN 1982 “Antidomino” 69
from Political Geography Quarterly
10 LEONID BREZHNEV 1968 “The Brezhnev Doctrine” 74
from Pravda
11 GEARÓID Ó TUATHAIL 1992 “Geopolitics and Discourse: Practical 78
AND JOHN AGNEW Geopolitical Reasoning in American Foreign
Policy”
from Political Geography Quarterly
12 POLICY STATEMENT OF 1984 “Common Sense and the Common Danger” 92
THE COMMITTEE ON THE from Alerting America: The Papers of the Committee on
PRESENT DANGER the Present Danger
13 END COMMITTEE 1980 “Appeal for European Nuclear 95
Disarmament (END)”
from Protest and Survive
14 MIKHAIL GORBACHEV 1988 “New Political Thinking” 97
from Perestroika: New Thinking for Our Country and
the World
3 NEW WORLD ORDER GEOPOLITICS
GEARÓID Ó TUATHAIL Introduction 103
15 FRANCIS FUKUYAMA 1989 “The End of History?” 114
from The National Interest
16 EDWARD N.LUTTWAK 1990 “From Geopolitics to Geo-Economics: Logic 125
of Conflict, Grammar of Commerce”
from The National Interest
17 PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH 1991 “Toward a New World Order” 131
from Public Papers of the Presidents of the United
States
18 PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH 1992 “The Hard Work of Freedom” 136
from Public Papers of the Presidents of the United
States
19 TIMOTHY W.LUKE 1991 “The Discipline of Security Studies and the 139
Codes of Containment: Learning from
Kuwait”
from Alternatives: Social Transformation and Humane
Governance
20 MICHAEL T.KLARE 1995 “The New ‘Rogue-State’ Doctrine” 155
from The Nation
21 SAMUEL P.HUNTINGTON 1993 “The Clash of Civilizations?” 159
from Foreign Affairs
CONTENTS ix
22 GEARÓID Ó TUATHAIL 1996 “Samuel Huntington and the ‘Civilizing’ of 170
Global Space”
from Critical Geopolitics
4 ENVIRONMENTAL GEOPOLITICS
SIMON DALBY Introduction 179
23 ROBERT D.KAPLAN 1994 “The Coming Anarchy” 188
from The Atlantic Monthly
24 SIMON DALBY 1996 “Reading Robert Kaplan’s ‘Coming 197
Anarchy’”
from Ecumene
25 THOMAS F. HOMER-DIXON 1996 “Environmental Scarcity and Mass 204
Violence”
from Current History
26 VACLAV SMIL 1994 “Some Contrarian Notes on Environmental 212
Threats to National Security”
from Canadian Foreign Policy
27 GARETH PORTER 1995 “Environmental Security as a National 215
Security Issue”
from Current History
28 MATTHIAS FINGER 1991 “The Military, the Nation State and the 223
Environment”
from The Ecologist
29 VANDANA SHIVA 1993 “The Greening of Global Reach” 231
from Global Ecology: A New Arena of Political Conflict
30 SHIV VISVANATHAN 1991 “Mrs Brundtland’s Disenchanted Cosmos” 237
from Alternatives
5 ANTI-GEOPOLITICS
PAUL ROUTLEDGE Introduction 245
31 EDWARD SAID 1984 “Orientalism Reconsidered” 256
from Europe and Its Others, Volume 1
32 FRANTZ FANON 1963 “Concerning Violence” 262
from The Wretched of the Earth
33 MARTIN LUTHER KING 1986 “A Time to Break Silence” 266
from A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings of
Martin Luther King, Jr.
34 VÁCLAV HAVEL 1985 “The Power of the Powerless” 272
from The Power of the Powerless
35 E.P.THOMPSON 1985 “America and the War Movement” 277
from The Heavy Dancers