1. What is geopolitics?

Abstract

‘What is geopolitics?’ explains that geopolitics involves three qualities. First, it is concerned with questions of influence and power over space and territory. Second, it uses geographical frames to make sense of world affairs. Third, geopolitics is future-oriented. It offers insights into the likely behaviour of states because their interests are fundamentally unchanging. States need to secure resources, protect their territory including borderlands, and manage their populations. Two fundamental ways of understanding the term geopolitics are offered: classical geopolitics that focuses on the interrelationship between the territorial interests and power of the state and geographical environments, and critical geopolitics, which tends to focus more on the role of discourse and ideology.