Geopolitical Thinking Research Articles

American security discourse: the persistence of geopolitics

This paper explores the relationship between geopolitics and security in post Second World War American political discourse. Geopolitics is one of four security discourses (the others being sovietology, strategy and the realist approach in international relations) which American ‘security intellectuals’ have drawn on in constructing the ‘Soviet threat’, America's predominant ‘Other’ in the last four decades. The ‘Soviet threat’ is the rationale used in the US foreign policy of containment militarism designed ultimately to ensure US national security. Using a formulation of geopolitics in terms of discourse this paper widens the conventional understanding of geopolitics to show how geopolitical conceptions operate ideologically. Focusing on the practices of the discourses of security shows that a broader understanding of geopolitics in terms of discourse reveals a persistence of geopolitical thinking in US discussions of security. A final section briefly suggests how the concept of security can be reformulated and outlines the role of a critical geopolitics in revealing how geopolitical discourse operates.

The rise and fall of Finnish geopolitics

The paper examines the development and content of Finnish political geography and in particular the development of geopolitical thinking and its social and historical contexts in Finland and internationally. Political geography has not been popular in Finland, even though the country is often regarded as an epitome of living geopolitics, as described by the expression ‘Finlandization’. Geopolitics was more popular in Finland among academic circles and within various nationalist movements before World War II, and one specifically geopolitical number of Terra, the journal of the Geographical Society of Finland, is analysed to identify the tendencies that have been central to Finnish geopolitical thinking. The roots of geopolitics in Finland can be traced to relations between Finland, the Soviet Union and Germany.

Antarctica and South American Geopolitics: Frozen Lebensraum.

Part I: Introduction to Antarctic and South American Geopolitical Thinking Antarctica: The Setting Geopolitical Significance of Antarctica and Its Resources The Nature and Significance of South American Geopolitical Thinking Part II: National South American Geopolitical Thinking and Antarctica Argentina Chile Brazil Other Latin American Nations

Domestic Violence, Refugee Flows, and International Tension: The Case of EI Salvador

When viewed as a political problem rather than as a humanitarian or legal issue, refugee flows present many potential challenges to state pQlicy-makers. Challenges to decision-making autonomy are among the most significant of these. Such challenges arise because of the ability of refugee flows to exacerbate international tensions and contribute to increased levels of domestic violence. They pose an especially severe problem where political development is weak and the expansion of state autonomy isa critical issue for policy-makers. In states that are hostile to one another, it is obvious that refugee flows are likely to take on a political rather than humanitarian dimension. The receiving state will at the very least use the refugees for propaganda purposes. It might be expected that when the sending and receiving states are friendly or at least ideologically compatible, any response to refugees will be humanitarian in nature. However, where the cause of the refugee flow is domestic repression and violence, the response to the flow is likely to be politicized. The tensions acccompanying refugee flows can be organized around the issue of decision-making autonomy. By far those tensions surround ing foreign policy options present the greatest potential for creating and exacerbat ing regional tension, because they most directly involve the refugee in the power calculations made by states regarding their ability to realize national security ob jectives. In states where decision-making autonomy is weak, policy-makers react to challenges to their authority by evoking national security whenever possible. By emphasizing threats to security, they can unite elite groups and justify repressive solutions to problems. Refugees fleeing repression in a neighbouring state present challenges to decision-making autonomy and potentially threaten national security in the receiving state. To the extent that policy-makers in the receiving state have developed a habit of geopolitical thinking, they are likely to respond to the refugees primarily as a threat to national security. The most m mediate victims are the refugees themselves, but the potential is created for in creased regional violence. This phenomenon is illustrated by the flow of refugees from El Salvador into Honduras. Language: en

Maritime geopolitics in Latin America

Latin American conflicts have been proliferating in recent years, and have been aggravated by a regionwide trend towards militarization. Particularly ominous is the worsening of some traditional disputes as well as the emergence of new disputes whose causes have been multifaceted and interlocking. Since conflicts have become increasingly disruptive of regional order and even threaten to weaken further the already precarious global order, it is imperative to understand the dynamics of these conflicts and the geopolitical thinking underlying many of them. Maritime geopolitics in Latin America are distinctive both in general terms and more specifically as expressed in the subregional contexts of the Caribbean Basin and South America. The conflicts themselves are distinctive, as are great power naval/maritime involvement and the hierarchy of local maritime and naval capabilities. Unfortunately, insufficient attention has been given to maritime aspects of Latin American geopolitical conflicts. This paper aspires to help correct this deficiency.

Geopolitical Thinking in Latin America

Geopolitics as an approach to politico-military matters was of considerable significance up to the end of World War II, when it declined in respectability and prestige due to its association with Nazi theories of world conquest. As a result, very few strategic or military writings in the United States or Western Europe since World War II have been called “geopolitical,” even though they might include many of the concepts subsumed under the pre-1945 term. But, interestingly enough, the concept is alive and well in Latin America, especially in those Southern Cone countries (Brazil, Argentina, and Chile) where the most prolific thinking and writing on geopolitics has taken place in the last thirty years.