Imagining a Critical Geopolitical Cartography

Abstract

AbstractWhile maps have long been influential in the dissemination of geopolitical ideas, the critical geopolitical project often frames maps as evidence of the discourse it seeks to displace. As a result, very few maps appear on the pages of the field's most prominent journals. This paper explores this phenomenon and argues that novel approaches to mapping may actually strengthen critical geopolitical scholarship. We argue that scholars can learn much from contemporary approaches in critical cartography to provide geopolitical analysis with new, informative visualizations. We demonstrate this argument with an alternative cartographic representation of Kashmir. This paper makes two key contributions to critical geopolitics: (i) that alternative cartographic representations are well suited to aid in critiques of normative geopolitical ideas and (ii) that the map presented in this paper is but one way to illustrate emerging critical geopolitical scripts. Our hope is that this brief intervention to ‘take back the map’ will encourage like‐minded scholars to (re)consider the merits of maps in articulating geopolitical narratives.