Geopolitics in History

In: Geopolitics, Band 5, Heft 2, S. 35-51

Abstract

(First published in French as "La Geopolitique dans l'histoire," in Espaces temps 68-69-70, pp 187-201.) Geopolitical representations are not only located but also dated. As a geohistoric rationale for a political plan, geopolitics is as old as the political "discourse" on territory & power. But while geopolitics has been discernible since ancient times, this mode of action only became incontestable with the Westphalian state that, on its creation, bore the mark of three principles: the primacy of politics, unity of identity, & territory. During the following centuries, three different stances can be noted: the imperial model, the state model, & the universal model. In each case a historical situation (imperial competition, war, redistribution) leads to the setting up of an explanatory model of itself, & this dynamic is the basis for a representation that becomes the starting point for assessments of competition that will themselves be translated in a new way. A fourth family of models, "neo-geopolitics" has recently emerged. Supplemented with ethnopolitics, neo-geopolitics is making way for dubious entrepreneurs who have reinvested anti-imperialist & anticapitalist phraseology in a process of justifying "rebirths" & other fundamentalisms. Adapted from the source document.