Geopolitics Among Nations Essay Research Paper Geopolitics

Geopolitics Among Nations Essay, Research Paper

Geopolitics is the relationship between the geography among nation states, and the state is an a territory with a sovereign body exercising predominantly within its geographic borders, and occasionally outside of them. Geopolitics can explain volatile relationships between a powerful core state and the states located at the periphery. The people occupying a region identify with the turf as being their land and these individuals or groups will go through great lightens to protect and defend their territory. These global rivalries will often lead to war. The politics of the leaders of these regions can also shape and mold the geography of a territory, especially after a war. The shape, location and the position of the land determines the influence that a government occupying that turf will have. The things that happen within the borders of a state will also be directly related to the things that happen outside that dominion. This is a simple example of how domestic and foreign policy are inter-related. These are several ideas that can explain geopolitics. The following concepts that will be explained will determine if a nations policy will be heard, will they be influential, will they grow geopoliticaly, and will they be powerful. These ideas will positively explain geography molds and is molded by politics.

A part of what happens geopoliticaly can be explained by scale on three different levels: the individual, the state or the community, and the national or international system. On the microlevel an individual can be the critical factor in a geopolitical situation, such as Iraqs Saddamm Hussein during the 1991 Gulf War. On the microlevel an individuals act is in direct response to the larger system in which that individual operates. Whats important on the microlevel is the personality of the individual and the human nature of that person, because those factors can be the underlying reason why a conflict occurred.

The nature of the state or community is also a cause to political conflict. Is the state democratic, communist, or a capitalistic one. The nature of society or state can be a good indicator of the occurrence of a war, and these wars can lead to major geopolitical changes. On the macrolevel, the actions that are going on domestically and internationally is a significant part in understanding the concept of scale. On any of these levels there usually arises a conflict with turf, which in turn becomes contested territory. Different religious and/or ethnic groups begin to battle over their differences and proximitys towards each other because a power vacuum is present. One group trys to achieve supremacy over all other groups. Outside forces from other countries may intervene along with the UN to remedy the situation, but that can become a complicated task. What are the consequences of intervening in terms of cost and benefits. Intervention can temporarily end a situation, but who is to say that these groups wont reconvene in war. Since the proximitys of these groups was the initial cause of the rivalry, then perhaps a reasonable solution to the problem would be to separate the groups and grant them their own geopolitical space.

The creation of a state is a long and tedious process that can take several years and maybe decades. Ratzels seven laws is a clear description of how a state is created and how it grows. First and foremost the energy required to fuse together political ideas and expand spatially is developed only through a common culture. With culture there also needs to be similarities and common aspirations that would help prepare the basis for political advancement. If there is going to be any spatial or political growth, then there has to be a strong commonality that will unify and support their quest for expansion. Next regional districts must amalgamate to build a stronger relationship between the people and the land. Through the passage of time, the state, which is an organic entity, will grow a stronger relationship to the land because the state is never at rest. Once the state plants its foundation it will begin to grow outwardly along its periphery.The Heartland theory describes and views the world geopoliticaly and shows what region is most dominant. Makinder was the original Heartland theorist and he placed the geopolitical power in Central Asia at the turn of the century. He didnt believe that England, as a sea power nation would continue its dominance like it did during the 17th and 18th centuries. Therefore Makinder placed England at the inner crescent and all other regions that were beyond Eurasia were at the outer crescent. Houshoffer drew his map by identifying strong economic regions that he called pan-regions. The core states of each pan-region were Germany, Japan and the US, and they each had there own peripheral states. Spykman depicted a bi-polar world with an area known as the Rimland located between the 2 superpowers; USSR and the USA, and Cohen identified many overlapping regions with areas of instability that he labeled as shatterbelts.

Economic power is sometimes a good indicator of who will have geopolitical power in a region or even around the world. Kondratief has an interesting way of explaining this power in cycles. He has documented these political-economic cycles going back 200 yrs., occurring every 50 yrs. A sign that a new Kondratief cycle has start