Introduction
There are a number of different opinions concerning the definition of geopolitics. It must be regarded as a science bordering on geography, history, political science and international relations. Out of the classical approach grew one branch, which to some extent was used by the Nazis as a pseudo-scientific rationale for their expansionist policies. This resulted in a setback for geopolitics that lasted at least until the mid-1970s. Modern geopolitics draws much from classical geopolitics and relates power politics and geograpy. The politician, the military planner, and the diplomat can use geopolitics as a method to analyze how geographical factors can be of importance when planning. In the latest 15-20 years many writers have come to let geopolitics mean just political geography or the relationship between politics in general and geography. Geopolitics in South America differs somewhat in context from Western geopolitics in general. Some basic facts and selected bibliographies on this branch of geopolitics has been presented seperately by CRG.
A concept closely related to geopolitics is geostrategy. It can be defined as the application of geopolitics to military planning on high level, how to best use national defense and war-making resources.
Some of the basic concepts of geopolitics were presented by the German geographer, Professor Friedrich Ratzel (1844-1904), who coined the phrase anthrogeographical meaning a combination of anthropology, geography and politics. According to Ratzel states had many of the characteristics of living organisms. He also introduced the idea that a state had to grow, to expand or die and of *living frontiers*, that borders were dynamic and subject to change.
The Swedish Professor Rudolf Kjellen (1864-1922) was first to use the term geopolitics (in Swedish *geopolitik*) and he can be regarded as the founder of the science of geopolitics. The basics were presented in 1900 in the book Introduction to Swedish Geography based on lectures at the Gothenburg University. The State as a Living Form (1916) is generally regarded as his most important book in relation to geopolitics.
Meanwhile a geopolitical school was developing in the United Kingdom and the United States. Sir Halford Mackinder (1861-1947), a British geographer, stressed the importance of land transport as a key to control and power. The core of Mackinder's land-based power was the Eurasian *Heartland* of Russia. Eurasia and Africa constituted the *World Island*. The power that could control the Heartland would have a dominant position, what we today would call a superpower status. Admiral Alfred T. Mahan (1840-1914) of the United States on the other hand stressed the significance of sea power and that control of sea lanes of communication was the most effective way of exercising control and power in the world.
After World War I a German geopolitical school was developing under General and Professor Karl Haushofer (1869-1946). He used the basic concepts of Ratzel and Kjellen. Between 1925 and 1945 he and his colleagues produced a mass of geopolitical writing and he founded Journal of Geopolitics (Zeitschrift fuer Geopolitik). Haushofers geopolitical ideas were used to give legitimacy to the conquests of Nazi Germany before and during World War II. It must, however, be noted that Haushofers influence was exaggerated by the allies and that he had no access to the inner circles of the Nazi Party. Also, he spent some time in concentration camp at the end of the war and his son Albrecht was executed for his participtaion in the 20 July coup against Hitler.
At about the same time the American Professor Nicholas Spykman (1893-1943) felt that Mackinder had put too much emphasis on the Heartland. Instead he offered the concept of the *Rimland*, a large buffer zone between sea and land power. After World War II the Rimland concept became part of the United States policy of containment of the Soviet Union and communism, a concept describing the policy to prevent the USSR (and originally the Peoples Republic of China) from spreading influence to the Rimland.
After World War II the term geopolitics was rarely used. During the 1970s, to some extent because Henry Kissinger used the term, geopolitics experienced a renaissance, which has bee strengthened during the 1990s. Modern classical geopolitics is mainly based on Mackinder and Spykman.
To some extent geopolitics has changed its theoretical dynamics during the 1990s. S.c. critical geopolitics is playing a wider role.
Much of modern geopolitics has been included in subjects such as national defense planning, strategic studies and elements of national power. An important contributor in this respect has been the British born strategic expert Colin S. Gray and his book Geopolitics of the Nuclear Era (1977). On the other hand some strategists have declared geopolitics to be outdated and replaced by geoeconomics.
A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Friedrich Ratzel and Rudolf Kjellen
Ratzel, Friedrich, _Politische Geographie_. Muenchen, 1897. Ratzel, Friedrich, _Erdenmacht und Voelkerschicksal_. Stuttgart, 1940.
Kjellen, Rudolf, _Die Grossmaechte der Gegenwart_. Leipzig, Berlin, 1914.
Kjellen, Rudolf, _Die politische Probleme des Weltkrieges_. Leipzig, 1916.
Kjellen, Rudolf, _Der Staat als Lebensform_. Leipzig, 1917.
Kjellen, Rudolf, _Die Grossmaechte vor und nach dem Weltkriege_. Leipzig, Berlin, 1930.
2. Sir Halford Mackinder and the Heartland
English, J.S., _Halford Mackinder, 1861-1947_. London, 1974.
Gilbert, Edmund W., _Sir Halford Mackinder, 1861-1947 - An Appreciation of His Life and Work_. London, 1961.
Kirk, William, _Geographical Pivots of History_. Leizester, U.K., 1965.
Mackinder, Halford, _Britain and the British Seas_. New York, 1902.
Mackinder, Halford, *The Geographical Pivot of History*, Geographical Journal, London, 23, 2 (April 1904), p. 421-444. Mackinder, Halford, _Democratic Ideals and Reality: A Study in the Politics of Reconstruction_. New York, 1919.
Mackinder, Halford, *The Round World and the Winning of the Peace*, Foreign Affairs, 21, 4(July 1943), p. 595-605.
Parker, W.H., _Geography as An Aid to Statecraft_. London, 1982.
3. Alfred T. Mahan and Seapower
Gorsjkov, Sergei, _The Sea Power of the State_. New York, 1979.
Livezey, William E., _Mahan on Sea Power_. Norman, OK, USA, 1947. Revised ed. 1980.
Mahan, Alfred T., _The Influence of Sea Power upon History 1660-1783_. Boston, 1890.
Mahan, Alfred T., _The Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and Empire 1793-1812_. Boston, 1892.
Mahan, Alfred T., _The Interest of America in Sea Power: Present and Future_. Boston, 1897.
Mahan, Alfred T., _The Problem of Asia and Its Effect upon International Politics_. Boston, 1900.
Mahan, Alfred T., _Letters and Papers_. Ed. Robert Seager II - Doris D.
Maguire. Three Vol. Annapolis, 1975.
Martin, L.W., _The Sea in Modern Strategy_. New York, 1967.
Moodie, Michael - Cottrell, A.J., _Geopolitics and Maritime Power_. Beverly Hills, USA, 1981.
Quester, George H. (ed.), _Sea Power in the 1970s_. New York, London, 1975.
4. Nicholas Spykman and the Rimland Theory
Spykman, Nicholas, *Geography and Foreign Policy*, American Political Science Review, 32, No.1 (February 1938),p. 28-50, No.2 (April 1938), p. 213-236.
Spykman, Nicholas - Rollins, Abbie A., *Geographic Objectives on Foreign Policy*, American Political Science Review, 33, No. 3 (June 1939), p. 391-410, No.4 (August 1939), p. 591-614.
Spykman, Nicholas, _America´s Strategy in World Politics. The United States and the Balance of Power_. New York, 1942.
Spykman, Nicholas, *Frontiers, Security and International Relations*, Geographical Review, 32, No.3 (July 1942), p. 436-447.
Spykman, Nicholas, _The Geography of the Peace_. Ed. Helen R. Nicholl. New York, 1944.
5. Karl Haushofer and German Geopolitik 1924 - 1945
Dorpalen, Andreas (ed.), _The World of General Haushofer - Geopolitics in action_. New York, 1942.
Gyorgy, Andrew, _Geopolitics - The new German Science_. Berkeley, 1944.
Haushofer, Karl, _Dai Nihon - Betrachtungen ueber Gross-Japans Wehrkraft, Weltstellung und Zukunft_. Berlin, 1913.
Haushofer, Karl, _Zur Geopolitik der Selbstbestimmung_. Muenchen, Leipzig, 1923.
Haushofer, Karl, _Grenzen in ihrer geographischen und politischen Bedeutung_. Berlin-Gruenewald, 1927, 1929.
Haushofer, Karl, _Macht und Erde_. Three vol. Leipzig, 1930-34.
Haushofer, Karl, _Geopolitik der Pan-Ideen_. Berlin, 1931.
Haushofer,Karl, _Wehr-Geopolitik - Geographische Grundlagen einerWehrkunde. Berlin, 1932.
Jacobsen, H.-A., _Karl Haushofer. Leben und Werk. Two vol. Boppard am Rhein, 1979.
Schnitzer, Ewald W., _German Geopolitics Revived_. Santa Monica, USA, 1954.
Strausz-Hupe, Robert, _Geopolitics - The Struggle for Space and Power. New York, 1942.
Weigert, Hans W., _Generals and Geographers - The Twilight of Geopolitics_. New York, 1942.
Whittlesey, Derwent S. - Colby, Charles C. - Hartsthorne, Richard, _German Strategy of World Conquest_. New York, 1942.
6. Modern Geopolitics
Bonasdera, F., _Geopolitica_. Palermo, 1982.
Brill, Heinz, _Geopolitik heute: Deutschlands Chance ?_. Berlin, 1994.
Brill, Heinz, *Deutschland im geostrategischen Kraftfeld der Super- und Grossmaechte (1945-1990)* in _Westbindung: Chancen und Risiken fuer Deutschland_ (ed. Zitelmann, Rainer, Weissmann, Karlheiz, and Grossheim, Michael), pp. 259 - 276. Frankfurt/Main, 1993.
Brzezinski, Zbigniew, _Game Plan - How to Conduct the U.S. - Soviet Contest_. Boston/New York, 1986.
Celerier, P., _Geopolitique et Geostrategie_. Paris, 1955.
Cohen, S.B., _Geography and Politics in a World Divided_. New York, 1963. 2nd ed. 1973.
Gallois, Pierre M., _Geopolitique - les voies de la puissance_. Paris, 1990.
Gray, Colin S., _The Geopolitics of the Nuclear Area - Heartlands, Rimlands and the Technological Revolution_. New York, 1977.
Gray, Colin S., _Maritime Strategy, Geopolitics and the Defence of the West_. New York, 1986.
Gray, Colin S., _The Wartime Influence of Sea Power_. Fairfax, Va, USA, 1987.
Gray, Colin S., _The Geopolitics of Superpower_. Lexington, 1988.
Hahn, Karl-Eckehard, *Westbindung un Interessenlage: ueber die Renaissance der Geopolitik* in _Die selbstbewusste Nation_ (ed. Schwilk, Heimo and Schacht, Ulrich), pp. 327-344. Berlin, 1995. Kandziora. Ewald, *Geopolitik. Oder: Von der historischen Ueber- holtheit, sich gegen die Entgrenzung der Politik zu stemmen* in WeltTrends 5, November 1994, pp. 89-106.
Kintner, William R., _Soviet Global Power_. Fairfax, Va, 1988. Lacoste, Y., _La Geographie, ca ser, d abord, a faire le guerre_. Paris, 1985.
Lowe, James T., _Geopolitics and War - Mackinders Philosophy of War_. Washington D.C., 1981.
Morris, Robert, _Our Globe Under Siege III_. Mantoloking, N.J., 1988.
O Sullivan, P., _Geopolitics_. Beckenham, UK, 1985. Parker, Geoffrey, _Western Geopolitical Thought in the Twentieth Century_. Beckenham, UK, 1985.
Sen, D., _Basic Principles of Geopolitics and History_. Delhi, 1975.
Sloan, Geoffrey R., _Geopolitics in United States Strategic Policy 1890-1987_. New York, 1988.
Sprengel, Rainer, *Geopolitik in Frankreich und Deutschland*, in Dokumente: Zeitschrift fuer den deutsch-franzoesischen Dialog 51, September 1995, pp. 417-4213.
Weiser, Dieter, *Geopolitik: Renaissance eines umstrittenen Begriffs*, in Aussenpolitik 45´, December 1994, pp. 402-411. Zoppo, C.E. - Zorgbibe, C. (ed.), _ On Geopolitics - Classical and Nuclear_. Dordrecht, 1985.Girot, P. - Kofman. E. (ed.), _International Geopolitical Analysis_. Beckenham, UK, 1987.
7. Critical Geopolitics
Agnew, J. & Corbridge, S., _Mastering Space: Hegemony, territory, and international political economy_. New York, 1995.
Agnew, J. - Corbridge, S., *The New Geopolitics: the dynamics of geopolitical order* in Johnston, R. and Taylor, P., (eds), _A World in crisis_. Oxford, UK, 1989.
Dalby, S., _Creating the second Cold War_. London, 1990. George, J., _Discourse of Global Politics: A Critical (Re)Introduction to International Relations_. Boulder, Colorado, 1994.
Lacoste, Y., *Geography and foreign policy*, SAIS Review 4, p. 213-227, 1984.
Livingstone, D., _The Geographical Tradition: Episodes in the History of a Contested Enterprise_. Oxford, 1992.
O Tuathail G. and Agnew, J., *Geopolitics and discourse: practical geopolitical reasoning in American foreign policy*, Political Geography 11, p. 190-204, 1992.
O Tuathail, G., _Critical Geopolitics: The Politics of Writing Global Space. Minneapolis, 1996.
8. Geopolitical Atlases
Anderson, E., _An Atlas of World Political Flashpoints - A Sourcebook of Geopolitical Crisis_. London, 1993.
Chaliand, Gerard - Rageau, Jean-Pierre, _Strategic Atlas: World Geopolitics_. Harmondsworth, UK, 1986 (original French ed. 1983).
Chaliand - Rageau, _Atlas strategique - Geopolitique des nouveaux rapports des forces dans le monde - L apres guerre froide_. Paris, 1993.
Freedman, Lawrence, _Atlas of Global Strategy - War and Peace in the Nuclear Age_. London 1985, new ed. 1987.
Kidron, M. - Smith, D., _The War Atlas - Armed Conflict, Armed Peace_. London, 1983.
de Marenches, Alexandre, _Atlas Geopolitique_. Paris, 1988. Prevot, V. - Boichard, J., _Geopolitique transparante - Atlas- Panorama de geopolitique mondiale_. Paris, 1987.
Touscoz, J., _Atlas geostrategique - crises, tensions et convergences_.Paris, 1988.
Wheatcroft, A. - Keegan, J., _Zones of Conflict: an atlas of future wars_. London, 1986.
9. Geopolitical encyclopedias
Soppelsa, J. - Battesti, M. - Romer, J.-C., _Lexique de geopolitique_. Paris, 1988.
_Dictionary of Geopolitics_. London, 1993.