Between Geopolitics and Anti-Geopolitics: Czech Political Thought

Abstract

This article examines the role of geopolitics in modern Czech political thinking. It draws on the distinction between geopolitics and anti-geopolitics to argue that the dominant tradition of Czech political thinking is anti-geopolitical. This anti-geopolitics is presented by a review of four central figures of Czech political thought since the nineteenth century (Palacký, Masaryk, Nejedlý and Havel). However, it also shows that geopolitics represents an important undercurrent in Czech political thinking which tends to dominate for brief periods of turmoil. Three such periods are addressed: the early 1920s, the late 1930s and the early 1990s.