Generalized Types of Geopolitical Models

Abstract

The activity-geospatial approach as one of the most powerful interdisciplinary approaches in geopolitical research is considered. It provides a means of studying political phenomena in terms of the geospatial organization and self-organization of society, including its geopolitical organization. The key to this lies with the “geopolitical relation” category. It implies a unity of political activity and geographical space as well as an elementary subject for study. In the broader context, geopolitics is regarded as the political type of geo-adaptation of society. From this perspective, it is suggested that the following idealized types of geopolitical models be identified, namely: natural-geographical, socio-geographical, activity-related, and chronogeopolitical. A generalized logic of their construction is shown. The natural-geographical type describes a coercive determination of the characteristics of the geopolitical actor caused by natural phenomena as well as geo-adaptational pressure produced by them. The socio-geographical type reflects the influence of socio-geographical space (economic, civilizational, ethnic, etc.) on the characteristics of the geopolitical actor. Activity-related models characterize the interaction process between any geographical factors and the activity of particular geopolitical actors as well as results of such an interaction, i. e. the spatial forms of political phenomena. If such models are applied to several actors, they will overlap and identify common geopolitical regions. Graphical schemes of generalized geopolitical models are presented.