Geopolitics is a means and method to discuss how individuals, organizations or groups manage politics due to geographical factors such as spatial distribution. At present, it is widely used in military, diplomatic and other strategic analysis. Often based on geographical factors, it is analyzed from economic, social, military, diplomatic, historical and political aspects.
It is the theoretical basis for western countries to formulate national political and military strategies and foreign policies. Geopolitics came into being at the end of 19. 1897, German geographer F. Laczer put forward the theory of national organism in his book Political Geography. He published the paper "On Living Space", arguing that a country, like an organism, has a process of ups and downs, and its prosperity needs a broad space. 19 17 Xie Lun, a classical political geographer, accepted Ratze's thought and put forward the term geopolitics for the first time. After the First World War, Germany's K Hauser Hoff put forward the wrong geopolitical argument that Germany lacked the necessary living space and sufficient natural resources, and advocated the redistribution of world territory. War was the only way to solve the living space, which served the expansion of German fascism and was rejected by geographers, thus making geopolitics once notorious. The main theories of geopolitics from its birth to the present are: 1890. A·T· Mahan, an American naval theorist, put forward the theory of "sea power" in his book, 1660- 1783. He believes that whoever can control the ocean will become a world power; The key to controlling the ocean lies in controlling the important sea lanes and straits in the world. 19 14 years, British geographer H. J. Mackinder put forward the theory of "continental heart", arguing that whoever controls eastern Europe can rule the heart of Eurasia, and whoever controls the Eurasian belt can rule the world island, thus dominating the world. Known as the "land ownership school", the masterpiece is "the geographical hub of history". In the 1940s, Speakman, an American international relations scholar, put forward the "Marginalism Theory", which became another theory of "Land Ownership Theory". In 1950s, American strategist A Sevsky put forward the theory of "air superiority" according to the special geographical position of the Arctic between the two superpowers and the increasingly important role of the air force. In 1970s and 1980s, American geographer Cohen put forward the model of geopolitical strategic zone. All these geopolitical viewpoints overemphasize the importance of this part or a certain region in the geographical environment, and exaggerate that they can dominate the world by controlling a certain region, and then adopt corresponding strategies to realize their country's attempt to dominate the world. Even the author of American Military Strategy has to admit that these views are unrealistic. They say that "ruling the heart area does not mean controlling the world island, and ruling the peripheral area does not mean controlling the world island." Morgenthau, the author of the American book Politics between States, pointed out: "Geopolitics is a pseudoscience, which raises geographical factors to an absolute position and thinks that geography determines the strength of a country and thus its destiny." However, these theories have played an important role in the formulation of principles and policies in western countries.
geopolitics
1, "Concise Encyclopedia Britannica" said: Geopolitics is "the analysis and study of how geographical location affects political relations between countries in international politics. Geopolitics points out the importance of some solid elements in determining national policies, such as obtaining national interests, controlling sunken ship traffic lines, and having a strategic position.
2. The Encyclopedia of China (Geographical Volume) says: "Geopolitics is a part of political geography, which analyzes and predicts the strategic situation around the world and the political behavior of the countries concerned according to various geographical elements and the geographical form of the political pattern. Geopolitics regards geographical factors as the basic factors that affect or even determine the political behavior of the country, and this view has been absorbed by the theory of international relations and has had a considerable impact on the political decision-making of the country. "
Geopolitics can be divided into broad sense and narrow sense, which can be roughly divided into three levels: first, it refers to the geopolitical relationship between a country and its neighboring countries, which is also the most widely used definition; Second, at the meso level, it mainly refers to a wider area than the surrounding area of a country, which is regionalism or regionalism geopolitics; Third, great geopolitics is the geopolitics of the whole world. Studying the world as an indivisible whole is a concept often used by big countries, especially those countries with dark intentions of world war. Geopolitics at this level mostly involves relations between major powers.
3. Geopolitics is an effective way to determine a country's interests, which is of great help to understand its foreign strategy and foreign policy. It is a useful tool, but we can't attribute everything to geopolitics, especially to distinguish geopolitics from international politics, countries and diplomatic activities. These three concepts are closely related, and their contents overlap, but they are also different and cannot be confused.
4. Geopolitics has two distinct characteristics: one is its openness. Any kind of geopolitics connects a country with neighboring countries and border areas, and connects a country with the rest of the world. It is the connection between two countries and more than two countries, and it is impossible to carry out geopolitical activities in a closed environment; Second, any geopolitics can not be separated from geopolitics and the interactive influence of geopolitics. Geopolitics does not talk about economy, culture and politics. In fact, any geopolitical change is linked to economic and cultural changes. In the long-term geopolitical practice, people have roughly formed seven modes of thinking, which also reflects the laws of geopolitics to some extent. These laws are:
1, Qiang Bing, a rich country, is the first essence in geopolitical relations.
2. Geopolitics can show obvious marginal effects, which can be shown as follows: a country that is friendly to you and brings you benefits will double this benefit because it is your neighbor; Similarly, a country that is unfriendly to you, because it is your neighbor, will double the damage. Geographical distance plays an important role here. Countries that are close to each other will have much greater influence on their own countries than countries that are far away.
There are no eternal friends and enemies in geopolitics.
4. The center of geopolitics will shift with the change of the center of geopolitics and the relations between neighboring countries.
5. Pursuing the protection of big countries is the instinctive reaction of small countries in the geopolitical pattern.
6. Borders, borders and borders are important factors in geopolitics. Geopolitics first lies in borders and oceans, so geopolitics can be said to be border politics, frontier politics and territorial politics in a sense.
7. The goal of geopolitical pattern is regional strength balance.
One of the biggest characteristics of geopolitics is that the political, economic and military actions and development of neighboring countries will have a great impact on neighboring countries. The so-called geopolitical theory mainly studies the influence of geographical factors on the political situation between countries and on the political behavior of countries. So what are the geographical factors of a country? They mainly refer to the size of the national territory, the geographical location of the country, the natural resources owned by the national territory, the climatic conditions, the population of the country and the natural attributes of the nation. From the perspective of reality and history, a country's geographical elements have many influences on the country, and geographical conditions, such as location, topography, pool appearance and climate, have a direct impact on a country's potential. Compared with the political, economic and social factors of other countries, the influence of geographical factors on national politics is more direct and definite.
In geopolitics, Mackinder's "Lu Xin" theory has played an important role. Mackinder is the first geography department in Britain.
Professor of geography, head of geography department of Oxford University, and later, he served as the dean of the famous London School of Economics and the British emperor.
President of the National Geographic Society. In addition, he is a member of the British Parliament, an adviser to the Privy Council and chairman of the Imperial Economic Committee.
British High Commissioner in Yugoslavia and Russia, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It can be seen that he is a scholar and political activist.
/kloc-Britain's political and economic position in the world, especially its geopolitical strategy, during the transition period from 0/9th century to 20th century.
There has been a major change in status. Economically, due to the great development of industrial revolution and industrial production in the19th century, Britain became.
As a "world factory", its industrial product output occupies a monopoly position in the world. At that time, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands
Blue imperialism has declined, and the British Empire is in an indisputable position in the world. To this end, Britain's diplomatic freedom.
Trade policy. By the end of19th century, the industrial revolution had spread to Western Europe, Central Europe, even Eastern Europe and North America, France and Germany.
In the United States and other countries, industrial production has risen sharply and exports have increased greatly, so it is difficult for Britain to become a competitor.
Think about it.
In order to stabilize overseas markets, Britain had to vigorously develop colonies to ensure that Britain sold goods and capital there.
Control and monopoly on export and raw material procurement. As a result, Britain is in Asia, Africa, France, Germany, Russia and Japan are in America.
Competition and conflict with the United States. In this kind of competition and conflict, for Britain, it can be said that there is a common feature, that is, the ocean.
Despite the competition between countries and land countries, Britain and Russia are colonies in Asia, Britain, France and China are colonies in Asia and Africa.
They are interrelated, but in essence they still reflect the contradiction between the British Isles and Europe, France and Germany. In the colonial battle
The war between Britain and Boers in South Africa was very hard. These situations show that the idea that maritime hegemony is invincible in the past has been challenged.
The war reflects the rise of a land power.
Under the influence of this great change in reality, Mackinder put forward the concept of time with a unique historical vision and profound macro space.
A Representative New Geopolitical Theory —— "heartland theory". 1904, Mackinder read his
The article "The Geographical Hub of History".
In this paper, according to the characteristics of geopolitics, Maxwell divided the world into "hub area", inner crescent area and outer crescent area.
Area. The hub area is located in the middle of Eurasia, where the terrain is flat, the climate is dry or cold, and the south is grassland.
And mountains, plateaus and basins in the east, west and south.
The west is connected with the eastern European plain.
The inner crescent region is an annular region around the hub region. Buddhism in East Asia is in the east, and Brahmanism in South Asia is in the south.
Domain, the southwest is the Islamic domain of southwest Asia and North Africa, and the west is the Christian domain of Europe. The outer edge of this area is the same as that of
The coasts of the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean and Atlantic Ocean. The outer crescent moon is the rest of the world, including Eurasia.
Islands outside land, such as Britain and Japan; Sub-Saharan Africa; All of South America, North America and Oceania.
According to historical records, Mai pointed out that nomadic people in the hub area, from the early Huns, Alva, Bulgarians,
Magyars and the Mongols passed through the pass between the Urals and the Caspian Sea and the southern Russian grassland in batches, instead of passing through the Carpathian Mountains.
The eastern European plain in the north of the mountain enters the hinterland of Europe through the Danube River basin in the south of Carpathian Mountains. The Mongols marched west, at
There is the Golden Account Khanate in southern Russia and the Ilkhanate in southwest Asia. It was the prairie people who used the mobility of horses and camels.
The invasion of sovereignty into Europe has formed the history of a big European country. So Marx said that European civilization is against the long-term struggle in Asia.
As a result of the debate, the history of Europe should be regarded as the history of Asia.
Then, Maxwell said that after Columbus discovered the mainland, the west used the maneuver of maritime navigation to break through Europe and go to the world. he
We established the right to control the sea with the fleet, and established large colonies in the inner crescent and the outer crescent. On land, Russia
Germans used Cossacks to cross the Urals, cross Siberia, reach the Pacific coast, and then enter Central Asia. Ocean and
The cooperation on land offset the strategic advantage of nomadic people in the original hub area.
Mai believes that today, due to the invention of the steam engine and the construction of the railway, the role of a land power has changed, and it has replaced horses and camels.
The mobility of camels in the past has restored the pressure on the surrounding areas, and a hub area in world politics has emerged. In view of this situation,
Mai's conclusion is: "the expansion of hub countries to the edge of Eurasia has changed the balance of power in its favor."
This will make it have huge mainland resources to build a fleet, and then the world empire will be in sight. If Germany and
This may happen in the Russian alliance. "
In the face of this possible situation, in order to maintain Britain's world status and naval advantage, Maxwell's countermeasures for Britain are:
"The threat of this state of affairs must unite France with a maritime power (namely Britain), so France, Italy, Egypt,
India and North Korea will become bridgeheads from which external navies can support, forcing the hub alliance to deploy the War Department.
Team to prevent them from concentrating on building a fleet. ""For the benefit of maritime countries, we should cooperate with France as a bridgehead on land.
Unite and urge Germany to give up any attempt to participate in the policy of hub areas. "
After World War I, Maxwell saw that in the battle between the German army and the Russian army, the German army attacked the east coast of the Baltic Sea in Russia.
Ukraine and the Sea of Azov. Although Germany lost in the war, Prussia's traditional strength still exists, and Russia has also carried out reforms.
Life, the strength of Germany and Russia will certainly recover, and will once again pose a threat to maritime countries jointly or separately. To this end, he is in 1.
At the 9 19 Paris Peace Conference, the article "The Ideal and Realization of Democracy" was published. In the article, he replaced it with "the heart of the land"
"Hub area", and see the important role of geopolitics in Eastern Europe, and put his world geopolitics "heartland theory"
Summarize into three famous sayings:
Whoever controls eastern Europe will rule the "heartland";
Whoever controls the "hinterland" will rule the world island;
Whoever controls the world island will rule the world.
The world island is Europe, Asia and Africa, and it is called the world island because of its connection. Eastern Europe is a multi-ethnic region,
It has long been influenced by Central European countries and Russia. The Paris Peace Conference established a new country according to national principles, making it an obstacle.
The key to prevent the two countries from realizing their geopolitical trend.
In the Second World War, Eastern Europe failed to play its preventive role. The Soviet Union not only controlled the defeat of Germany and the victory of the Soviet Union.
The situation in eastern Europe, even in East Germany, is extremely superior according to the land center of Mai. However, in the case of the cold war,
The confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union lasted for nearly half a century, resulting in the disintegration of the Soviet Union, ending the pattern of bipolar opposition during the Cold War. It seems that geography
There is no doubt that the geographical condition of politics is an important condition in the world political structure, and it is also restricted by other conditions. Otherwise, the geographical zone
It will become a fatalistic philosophy of environmental determinism.
Mackinder's heartland theory is the progress of geopolitical theory. First of all, he broke the long-term sea power thought and put it
The idea of land ownership has risen to the height of global strategy. This can be seen from the two world wars the importance of land rights. Secondly,
He observed the characteristics of geographical conditions from a global macro perspective, paying attention to the hub area first and then pushing it to the inner crescent area.
Outside the new area, at the same time pay attention to their mutual relations and connections in the global strategy. Thirdly, from the historical background,
Grasp the relationship between hub areas and foreign regions. This view of history is a time and space formed by combining with the global view of geography.
Global strategy. This geopolitical thought of global time and space is Mackinder's great contribution. Fourth, the grassland people have always
Its superior position lies in its mobility. Mai noticed that the appearance of the railway at that time would bring new mobility to the hub area. This reflects
Realize the influence that his technological development and change will bring to geopolitics.
In addition, we should also see that Maxwell's analysis, conclusions and countermeasures are all centered on the decline of the British Empire in order to recover its losses.
Decline, loudly called on Britain to pay attention to the fatal threat of German-Russian development to Britain. Therefore, it can be said that the theory
It has a distinct era. It is this geopolitical thought of Marx and its three famous sayings that came into being at the turn of the century.
It also reflects the brand of the popular geographical environment determinism thought at that time.