Suchergebnisse

1. Introduction: Ideas and Geopolitics 1. - 2. Sir Halford Mackinder and the World Island 10. - 3. George Kennan and Containment 36. - 4. Josef Pilsudski and Prometheism-Intermarum 60. - 5. The World Island in the Twenty-First-Century 81. - 6. A Twenty-First-Century Geopolitical Strategy for Eurasia 112. - 7. Conclusion: New, Old, or Enduring Geopolitics 146

The erstwhile position of the Western powers as the unmatched exemplars of progressive political organization, prosperity, and power projection is rapidly threatening to become an historical memory. While for a time the rise of the major Eastern powers had proceeded in parallel with continued betterment in the West, the dominant trend of global power politics since the end of the 1990s seems to point to a developing East-West divergence along zero-sum lines. A preoccupied introversion in Europe and something of an identity crisis in the United States means that vacuum conditions are being created in many regions around the world, but particularly in the fissiparous climate of Eurasia. A process of long-term Western decline, perhaps leading to eventual dominance by some form of Chinese informal hegemony, is a distinct possibility. As the manifestations of this reality become increasingly abundant the dynamics of the West's important power relations and their focus need to be reassessed. The Eurasian landmass ought to be the focal point of the West's strategic exertions. The Twenty-First-Century Geopolitical Strategy for Eurasia reestablishes fundamental Western strategic objectives, the clarity of which has all too often become muddied by anxiety over short-term considerations. It sets out and communicates what is at stake for the West in the Eurasian theater and urges a robust forward strategy to further and protect essential Western values. With its focus on the "West", the strategy provides a joint framework for trans-Atlantic cooperation. Its most important policy implication is the restoration of geopolitical purpose to Western institutions such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the European Union (EU), and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), among others, by arguing forcefully that their activities and expansion be refocused on Eurasia. A central facet the strategy promotes is the diffusion of good governance to ensure that the struggle for the fundamental theater in world politics is resolved in favor of Western democratic governance and market-based systems, without the domination of Eurasia by autocratic powers. However, although this idea-driven initiative is employed to rationalize the strategy, it is couched firmly in terms of its functionality in furthering an intrinsically realist project

Based on more than a decade's writing, research, and travel, this book offers a rare glimpse into China's expanding economic, cultural, and political power in the Eurasian heartland. China's rise is changing the world. Much attention has been given to how China's geo-economic vision is playing out in the global economy, or how its technology is reshaping the planet, yet it is over its western borders, in Central Asia, that China's influence has been quietly expanding in a more pervasive way. It is here that you can find the first strand of Xi Jinping's grand Belt and Road Initiative, China's new Silk Road to the West. It is to the Eurasian heartland that we can look for an understanding of China's new foreign policy vision and its consequences. In Sinostan, two acclaimed foreign policy experts recount their travels across Central Asia to keep their finger on the pulse and tell the story of China's growing influence. They interview Chinese traders in latter day Silk Road bazaars; climb remote mountain passes threatened by construction; commiserate with Afghan archaeologists charged with saving centuries-old Buddhist ruins before they are swept away by mining projects; meet with eager young Central Asians learning Mandarin; and sit with officials in all five Central Asian capitals, bearing witness to a region increasingly transformed by Beijing's presence. Their stories and experiences illustrate how China's foreign policy initiative has expressed itself on the ground, and what it means for those living both within and beyond the boundaries of its 'inadvertent empire'.

The South Caucasus region has established itself as a corridor for transporting energy from Azerbaijan to Georgia, Turkey, and on to Europe. This book examines the capacity of this new east-west "Eurasian Bridge" to change the relations among these countries and analyzes the role of transnational extra-regional actors

This collection features articles, short studies, and interviews by Alexandros Petersen (1984-2014) and constitutes a broad and prescient examination of Eurasian geopolitics. The author analyzes Western relations with the Caucasus and Central Asia, the expansion of Chinese influence, and Russia strategic interests.