Geopolitics

politics, history and social science with reference to geography. The term was coined by Rudolph Kjellen, a Swedish political geographer, at the end of the 19th century. Kjellen was inspired by the German geographer Friedrich Ratzel, who published his book "Politische Geographie" (political geography) in 1897.

The discipline gained attention largely through the work of Sir Halford Mackinder in England and his formulation of the Heartland Theory in 1904

After WWI Kjellen's thoughts and the term were picked up and extended by a number of scientists. In Germany by Karls Haushofer, Erich Obst, Hermann Lautensach and Otto Maull. In England Mackinder and Fairgrieve, in France Vidal de la Blache and Vallaux. In 1923 Karl Haushofer founded the "Zeitschrift für Geopolitik" (magazine for geopolitics), which developed as a propaganda organ for Nazi-Germany.

In the abstract, geopolitics traditionally indicates the links and causal relationships between political power and geographic space; in concrete terms it is often seen as a body of thought assaying specific strategic prescriptions based on the relative importance of land power and sea power in world history. . . . The geopolitical tradition had some consistent concerns, like the geopolitical correlates of power in world politics, the identification of international core areas, and the relationships between naval and terrestrial capabilities.—Oyvind Osterud, The Uses and Abuses of Geopolitics, Journal of Peace Research, no. 2, 1988, p. 191

See Also: Strategic depth