To understand the military struggle, we must first understand the political struggle and its causes.
Usually, national politics involves many disciplines of political science, such as:
I. Political geography
(1) concept and research scope
Ratze believes that political geography is "a science to clarify the relationship between state and land".
Geographical Volume of Encyclopedia of China: "Study the geographical distribution or spatial layout of political activities within and between various territories such as countries and regions"
American geography: "Political geography studies the interaction between geographical areas and political processes, or the spatial distribution and spatial relationship of political processes".
The research scope of political geography:
1. International political geography: the relationship between world political phenomena and geographical environment. Including: the analysis of geopolitical factors, the formation and evolution of the world political map, the development and changes of the world political geography pattern and the political and economic situation of countries on the earth, the geographical background of international political relations and political phenomena (such as regional conflicts), the combination and role of national groups and international organizations, etc.
National political geography: the relationship between national political activities and geographical environment. Including: the formation and development of national political space, the structure and characteristics of territory, the division and change of frontier functions, the influence of geographical factors on national system, domestic and foreign policies and national defense strategies, the geographical background of national political behavior and government decision-making, the position and role of core areas and national capitals, the composition and distribution of population and nationalities and their influence on national stability, and the study of centripetal force to promote national unity and centrifugal force to split the country.
Domestic political geography: the relationship between domestic local political activities and geographical environment. The internal task of political geography is to provide theoretical basis and scientific plan for decision-making for national reform and administrative division adjustment, improve the level of governance and management, strengthen the construction of democratic politics, formulate and implement correct social development strategies, ethnic policies and frontier policies, and rationally develop, utilize and rectify the country.
(B) the emergence and development of political geography
Westerners have long attached importance to the relationship between politics and geography.
The term "political geography" was first used by French scholar Thoget in 1750. (Say 19C Kant).
British historian Barker's History of British Civilization 65438-0857 also discusses the influence of geographical factors on political organization and personal temperament.
Ratze's Political Geography (1897) studies political geography as a branch of geography for the first time, describes a country as a spatial phenomenon and puts forward the theory of "organic country", so it is called the founder of modern political geography. Later, he published a paper on the theory of living space. It is believed that a country, like a biological organism, has a process of birth, prosperity and decline; The state should strive for living space and resources; The outward expansion of the country is the embodiment of the country's strength and vitality, which is natural and reasonable; The winning country will be a Germanic country in Europe. This theory, developed by Cheron of Sweden, became the theoretical basis of geopolitics.
There are three main theories in western political geography during this period:
environmental determinism
Second, the national organism theory.
Three living space theories
Starting from the basic correct premise, they reached the wrong conclusion and ignored the restriction of social development law.
2. Rapid development period (early 20th century-1930s)
Geopolitics developed rapidly during this period, and the discipline structure system and content of political geography were determined. Many scholars study the historical evolution of nation-states, the composition and distribution of population and race, and the strategic significance of these areas, and pay attention to the relationship between political events and regional geographical characteristics, the ability to supply resources in peacetime and wartime, the closure of territory and the land-sea effect. On the other hand, some geopolitics serve fascist aggression.
The rapid development of geopolitics makes it the core theory of political geography. Because geopolitics was used by fascists as the theory of invading other countries, geopolitics and even the whole political geography fell into a trough after World War II.
3. Small progress period (40-60' s)
The presentation of function theory and unified field theory is beneficial to dynamic analysis.
4. Revival period (since 1970s)
First, pay more attention to geopolitical factors in international relations.
Second, the research field has expanded to many social fields, and a number of new disciplines have been divided: electoral geography, urban geography and so on.
Third, the research methodology has made a breakthrough, combining with behavior theory and system theory.
Two. geopolitics
(A) the concept
Geopolitics, also known as geopolitics, is to analyze and predict the strategic situation of the world or region and the political behavior of the countries concerned according to various geographical elements and regional forms of political structure. Geopolitics regards geographical factors such as geographical location, land area, population, nationality, resources, economic strength and strategic armament as the basic factors that affect or even determine the country's foreign political decision-making. This view has also been absorbed by western international relations theory.
Speakman believes that geopolitics is "the overall planning of a country's security policy based on geographical factors".
American scholars Lee pelletier and Spencer believe that geopolitics is "the art or science of using geography to seek guidelines for political purposes". Therefore, it is also a kind of strategic geography, which studies the relationship between a country's foreign political strategy (including national defense and diplomacy) and its geographical environment.
19 17 years, Qi Lun (1864- 1922) first put forward the term "geopolitics" in his book On the State, calling it "the science of understanding the state as a geographical organism or a spatial phenomenon." He believes that the main conditions of a strong country are its internal cohesion and smooth external traffic.
Haushoff ...
Since 1970s, the scientific position of geopolitics has been restored and valued. This is related to a series of international political events and the judgment of geopolitical theorists: the expansion of the Soviet Union, the containment strategy of the United States, the Israeli argument of "safe borders", the US-Soviet struggle for the Middle East, the US-Soviet war with China and Vietnam, and so on. Geopolitics has become a theoretical branch of western international relations. Some western scholars believe that geopolitics is no different from political geography.
(2) Main schools
1, sea power theory
Mahan (1840- 19 14) was the two-time dean of the US Naval Academy. 1890 "the influence of sea power on history" founded his sea power theory. His thoughts are also valued by Germany and many other countries.
1986 The United States openly claims to control the throat of 16 global sea lanes. Mahan ignored the role of the mainland. Long before Mahan, the British realized that only by controlling the sea power could they become the real world hegemon. Through three Dutch wars, Britain defeated Holland, a sea coachman, and gained its hegemony, making Britain an eternal empire. After entering the 20th century, it experienced World War I and World War II successively. With the weakening of Britain's strength, Britain's maritime hegemony officially gave way to the United States.
Three eras of marine economic development: Mediterranean era → North Atlantic era → Pacific Rim era (being formed). In fact, for the United States, its unique geographical position, coupled with the decline of Britain's strength, makes the United States the overlord of the world's oceans today. The opening of the Panama Canal provides a convenient passage for the US Pacific Fleet and Atlantic Fleet. At present, the status of the United States benefits from the US 12 aircraft carrier. It is precisely because of America's powerful maritime strength that the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean have become its two inner lakes. With the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the United States gradually shifted its focus to the Pacific Ocean, and its strategy gradually shifted from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, containing China through a series of island chains.
2. Theory of land rights
Mackinder (186 1- 1947) is a British political geographer. He used to be the head of the geography department of Oxford University, the dean of the London School of Economics and Political Science, and the vice president of the Royal Geographical Society.
1904 first mentioned the article "Historical Geographic Hub", and 19 19 supplemented and revised the book "Democratic Ideal and Reality". ... this theory was originally for Britain, but Germany is happy to study it.
1943, Mai's "World Geography and Peace Realization" put forward the concept of "the ocean in the middle of the earth" with the North Atlantic and its affiliated waters and the rivers and basins connected with it as the geographical scope, Britain as the island airport, France as the bridgehead and the United States and Canada as the powerful base. I believe this area will soon keep pace with the heart. 1949 the establishment of NATO is considered to be influenced by this idea.
Mai's theory has great limitations, but now most western strategists continue to observe the world according to his theory. For example, the competition for Eastern Europe has been fierce.
Speakman (1893- 1943) is an American geographer, professor of international relations at Yale University, and director of the Yale Institute of International Studies. He criticized, inherited and developed heartland theory in Mackinder, and put forward the fringe theory in 1944 Geography of Peace.
3. Navigation right theory
Italian J Du Hei (1869- 1930) is an air force strategic theorist and the founder of the theory of air superiority. 192 1 air supremacy holds that the sky is more important than the ocean, and the key to winning a war is to master air supremacy; Air supremacy includes two parts: air traffic control and air combat success. His theory has a great influence, especially for some countries that have no hinterland on land and no good ports at sea.
Seversky, an American, put forward the space theory and the idea of the Arctic center in the book Air Force: The Key to Survival in 1950, which developed Du Hei's air rights theory. Searle emphasized the importance of air superiority in the global strategy of the aviation era, and thought that the Arctic might be the key to control the heart and even the world. The high frontier strategy of the United States and the Star Wars plan in the 1980s are the embodiment of the idea of air power in the space age.
In fact, the theory of air supremacy is an extension of the theory of sea power. Without air power, there is no sea power. The example of the Pacific War is an excellent lesson: huge battleships gradually withdrew from the position of maritime hegemony and gave way to emerging aircraft carriers.
In fact, before mankind went to the ocean, it was mainly to control the land. Before the maritime industry was highly developed, Datang and Mongolia were once all-powerful, relying on their powerful army. Later, the Arab Empire and the Ottoman Turkish Empire dominated Eurasia with powerful armies. With the highly developed maritime industry in the15th century, the theory of land ownership gradually gave way to the theory of sea power.
Looking at the theory of land rights, sea rights and air rights, in fact, the three are organically combined: first, the world has entered the ocean age, because the maritime transport capacity is much higher than the land transport capacity, whoever controls the ocean will control trade and control the throats of other countries. Sea power cannot be separated from the air force. As we all know, there is no sea power without the air force. At the same time, as a sea power country, to face a new type of big country that challenges its sea power status, it is inseparable from its land allies weakening potential opponents from land power. For example, after Britain gained maritime hegemony, it has been taking advantage of the contradictions between countries in continental Europe. Britain firmly controlled France in its own hands, making France an important ally of the European continent in confronting and challenging Germany, Russia and other countries.
In the Russian era, in order to get a seaport, on the one hand, through the land war with Sweden, the Baltic Sea was obtained; At the same time, through the war with Ottoman Turkey, it gained access to the Black Sea. Finally, Vladivostok was obtained from the corrupt Manchu government, which enabled Russia to reopen the sea passage to the Pacific Ocean. Without that series of land struggles, Russia will always be just a "landlocked" country.
After World War II, there have been many local wars in the border areas: Korea, India, zhina, India and Pakistan three times, the Middle East five times, Iran, Afghanistan, the Gulf, Kosovo and so on. Marginal countries have concentrated two-thirds of the population and the richest natural resources.
Moreover, if the United States wants to maintain its position as a maritime hegemon, it cannot do without Japan in the Pacific Ocean and Britain in the Atlantic Ocean. At the same time, they compressed Russia's living space through NATO's eastward expansion, that is, to contain potential opponents on land, so that opponents must be tired of dealing with enemies on land and cannot let go of developing a navy that can fight against themselves. A series of island chains in the Pacific Ocean are the bases of American air supremacy.
4. German geopolitics
Haushoff was a major general of the Army during World War I. 1923 When Greek was imprisoned, he visited him many times. Hou Hao was the president of the German Academy of Sciences, helped to establish the Munich Geopolitics Institute, and served as the editor-in-chief of Geopolitics Magazine from 65438 to 0924. He became the main spokesman of German geopolitics. Howe's theory of living space is a distortion of Ratze's theory of national organism and the concept of living space. He believes that the demand for living space is the most basic demand of the country; Spreading national culture is the most effective way to conquer space; A dynamic country will inevitably absorb small countries with immature political structures around it; The occupation of the ocean is a springboard for further expansion.
193 1 year, Howe put forward the pan-regional theory, saying that 194 1 divided the world into four pan-regions controlled by a powerful country: Pan-America, Pan-Asia, Pan-Europe-Africa and Pan-Russia, and advocated that Germany, Japan and Russia should unite to challenge the British Empire globally.
"Geographical conditions determine the place where history takes place, but it is always people who create history" ―― Controversial theory of international relations (8 1).
The reason why Germany can't be the hegemon is that its geographical position is extremely unfavorable: there is a powerful Soviet Union in the east and France under British control in the west. With the defeat of World War II, Germany not only failed to dominate, but also suffered a great blow to its own strength. However, World War I and World War II weakened Britain's strength, thus sending the United States to the hegemonic position.
Speaking of this, some people may say that if Germany hadn't been in a hurry to tear up the treaty and launch the Soviet-German war, perhaps history would have been rewritten. In fact, Stalin, as the leader of the Soviet Union, could not treat himself calmly after Germany destroyed Europe. Even if Germany did not launch the Soviet-German war, the Soviet Union would attack Germany sooner or later.
5. New geopolitics
With the end of the Cold War, a new geopolitical theory has emerged, which focuses on the geopolitical conditions governing the rise and fall and the geopolitical basis of the new international order. Based on humanitarianism, it holds that ideology, organization and system must not have any independent elements divorced from human beings themselves. The representatives are Geoffrey Parker and P O 'Sullivan in Britain. Based on the opinions of all people, the author draws a concrete conclusion:
No one who rules power is eternal. Overexpansion won't do.
The end of the period of rule and hegemony usually brings a period of territorial adjustment until the establishment of a new order.
Third, to ensure world peace and order, we need to understand each other through consultation rather than force and rule.
(3) Other schools of thought
1, partition theory
1938 was first put forward by Fairgrave in Britain, who believed that climate was the main determinant of geopolitical structure; The center of world power must be in the temperate and subtropical regions of the northern hemisphere, and the most important ones are North America, European countries, the former Soviet Union and Japan.
2. Centralism
1979 wallerstein, British representative. It is believed that the rich countries in Europe and America have formed a confrontation with the surrounding underdeveloped countries.
3. Part-time job
The representative figure is American scholar Cohen (first seen in 1964, Geography and Politics of a Divided World). He believes that the world power center will move with the times, and "dynamic balance" is conducive to maintaining a stable world order. The guarantee of global balance lies in the multipolarization of the world power center.
In a word, "political geography" and "geopolitics" are two very similar concepts, and they have many similarities. The scope of political geography is wider, and geopolitics is the core part of political geography.