1. V. Geopolitics
Considers the strategic value of land and sea area in the context of national economic and military power and ambitions
power relationships: past, present, and future
Ambitious Historical Movements in Geopolitics
Manifest Destiny-U.S. 1800s-policy of imperialism in the United States. The U.S. would spread from coast to coast. This attitude fueled westward expansion, Native American removal and a war with Mexico.
Monroe Doctrine-1820’s-no more colonies for European states in the Western Hemisphere
“Greater East-Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere”-cultural and economic unity of Asians and Oceanians (Free of Western Powers and Influence)

2. Geopolitics – German School
Ratzel’s Organic Theory (late 1800s)
Ratzel was trained in biology and chemistry and greatly influenced by the theories of Charles Darwin.
Held that a state which is an aggregate of organisms would itself function and behave as an organism
Nourishment of organism provided by acquisition of territories and people; especially if those people are of the same culture
Territory is essential to life.
Nazi expansion policies based on some of Ratzel’s ideas.

3. Geopolitics – British/American School
Sir Halford Mackinder Heartland Theory (1904)
a) Believed a land-based power, not a sea power, would ultimately rule the world
b) Pivot area extended from Eastern Europe to eastern Siberia

5. Mackinder – Heartland Theory
The Heartland is impenetrable
The Heartland is the “geographical pivot”-provided a base for world conquest
Resource rich
Believed that a Russian, Chinese, German alliance was to be feared

6. Mackinder – Heartland Theory
“Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland”
“Who rules the Heartland commands the World Island”
“Who rules the World Island commands the World”

7. Geopolitics Nicholas Spykman - Rimland Theory Critic of Mackinder
Argued that the Eurasian rim, not its heart, held the key to global power

9. Spykman-Rimland Fragmented zone
Divided rimland key to balance of world power
Dense population, abundant resources, controlling access to both the sea and the interior

10. Spykman-Rimland “Who controls the Rimland controls Eurasia”
“Who rules Eurasia controls the destiny of the world”

11. Heartland/Rimland Theories Combined

12. Geopolitical Developments in a Bipolar World
U.S.S.R
Post WWII – Heartland =
U.S. practiced Containment
Confining the U.S.S.R by means of alliances with Rimland
Military intervention
Domino Theory
NATO

13. Saul Cohen, The Cold War and Shatterbelt Theory
Mackinder died in However, his legacy would live on throughout the Cold War era.
Saul Cohen proposed the Shatterbelt Theory-modified Mackinder’s Heartland Theory and called it the “Pivot area” and Spykman’s Rimland Theory and called it the “Inner Crescent”. He identified the rest of the world as the “Outer Crescent.”
Cohen proposed that most of the conflict in the world would be found in the Inner Crescent. These areas of potential conflict, political instability or geopolitical weakness would then become known as shatterbelts (Middle East and Africa). Cohen accurately identified many areas of the world that would experience conflict from (during the Cold War era)
Some conflict areas that powerful states would attempt to capture would be used as “buffer states”-lands that would create a buffer of sympathetic countries.

14. Shatterbelt Theory

15. Geopolitics Today
Thoughts were that world events have rendered older geopolitical ideas obsolete. Or, are they? What about Vladimir Putin and his invasion of Georgia and Ukraine (claiming Crimean Peninsula)?
End of the Cold War (at least in the eyes of the U.S.), Nuclear Technology limited (Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons)
Japan, China, Western Europe becoming world powers through economic means
No more Unilateralism – Is U.S. dominance over? “Have we gone soft?”, trying to seek involvement of other states in world affairs?

16. Russian application of Heartland, Rimland Theories
Is Putin an imperialist? Is he trying to re-establish the former glory of the Soviet Union?

17. U.S. Foreign Policy Strategies/Principles
Isolationism-state tends to domestic affairs only
Realism-take active role in international affairs; high profile procurement/proliferation
Neo-isolationism-keep foreign involvement to a minimum (only when necessary)
Idealism-foreign involvement for good of all countries
***What is your current foreign policy for STATE?