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1) Geopolitics- -, the main provisions of which are set out in this book.

2) Geopolitics- - 1) one of the directions foreign policy state, based on the need to take into account the peculiarities geographical location(spatial-territorial place) of a country or group of countries in the world and carried out on a regional-continental and global, planetary scale; 2) the use of the ideas of the geographical school in sociology and political science to substantiate and justify the aggressive policy of expansion of states and peoples by referring to the lack of “living space”, “vital resources”, etc., as was the case in fascist Germany and Italy, militaristic Japan on the eve and during the Second World War (see also: Geographical school).

3) Geopolitics- - a political economic concept that aims to determine the direction of development of the entire population of the globe. The imperialist concept of geopolitics justifies the imperialists' desire to establish world domination with references to the historical mission and civilizing goals of developed capitalist countries, geographical and other factors. Rightly pointing to the development at the end of the twentieth century of a series of crisis situations of a global nature, bourgeois ideologists of geopolitics are silent about the fact that all these crises (demographic, environmental, energy, raw materials, etc.) were generated by the predatory imperialist policies of developed capitalist countries and transnational corporations and banks. Actually the resolution global crises is possible only through the destruction of the capitalist mode of production throughout the world and the transition to socialist, and in the future to communist production relations.

4) Geopolitics- - a concept characterizing the theory and practice of international relations based on the interconnection of geographical, geostrategic, socio-political, military, demographic, economic and other factors. All these various factors of national power are considered from the perspective of the balance of forces in the region or in the world as a whole. In today's domestic political science, geopolitics is considered as a fundamental concept in the theory of international relations. Moreover, geopolitics with its the most important parameters, conceptual guidelines and methodological principles are considered as an independent scientific discipline, constituting an important part of political science. The term "geopolitics" in scientific circulation introduced by the Swedish explorer and politician Rudolf Kjellen (1864-1922). It stood for "geographical policy." R. Challen not only coined the term, but also created an entire theory of the state as a geographical organism developing in a space in which geopolitics constituted only one direction. “Geopolitics,” he wrote in his book “The State as a Form of Life,” “is the study of the fundamental qualities of space associated with land and soil, it is the study of the creation of the Empire and the origin of countries and state territories.” Along with Kjellen, the British geographer and politician H. Mackinder (1861-1947), the American historian of naval strategy A. Mahan (1840-1914), the German geographer, the founder of political geography F. Ratzel (1844-1901), the German researcher are considered classics of geopolitical science K. Haushofer (1869-1946), American researcher of international relations I. Spykman (1893-1944). In geopolitics, the spatial-political factor plays a very important role, because any political unit (subject of international relations) is determined by its own territory, the characteristics of its geographical location - the presence or absence of river communications, access to the sea, natural obstacles to the development of communications with neighboring states, coastal or island position, influence of climate, soil, minerals, etc. Due to its geographical location Great Britain's predominantly maritime orientation was taking shape, and hence the need for a powerful fleet. Great Britain actively developed a “balance of power” policy: without directly interfering in European conflicts, it could influence their outcomes by choosing one or another ally. The United States carried out its foreign policy, taking advantage of its geographical position: the Pacific and Atlantic oceans are the arena of their actions navy. The USSR was largely a land power and could, as the Chief of Staff of the US Army said, “without soaking its soles in water,” control the situation in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Spatial and geographical features are reflected in the concepts of proportional development of certain types of armed forces and, for example, for Russia, apparently, there is no need to strive for equality with the US naval forces. At the same time, models of international relations built only according to geopolitical parameters, especially in terms of Russia’s “natural” strategic rivals, popular on the “power-patriotic” flank of political thought, do not adequately reflect the realities of the world political situation. In addition to the space that geopolitics focuses on, the overall development process of modern states is determined by many other factors - ethnic, social, economic, civilizational.

5) Geopolitics- - a concept that characterizes the place and forms of influence of the territorial position of states on its policies and international processes. The term "geopolitics" was first used by the Swedish researcher R. Kjellen (1846-1922), who analyzed the "anatomy of power" of states and identified five main components of state policy - economic policy, demopolitics, sociopolitics, cratopolitics, geopolitics. IN modern research geopolitics is considered in a broader aspect, as a sphere foreign policy strategy, focused on the formation of a certain world political space, the struggle for hegemony on the world stage.

6) Geopolitics- - a direction of political thought, a concept based on the recognition of the interests of the state, extending beyond the officially recognized borders. Studies the dependence of government actions on the influence of geographical factors on the state and evolution of economic, political and social systems society.

7) Geopolitics- - one of the fundamental concepts of the theory of international relations, characterizing the place and specific historical forms of the impact of the territorial-spatial features of the position of states on local, regional and global international processes.

8) Geopolitics- (gr. ge land + poli-tike politics) - studying the totality of physical and social, material and moral resources of the state, constituting the potential, the use of which (and in some cases even just its presence) allows it to achieve its goals in the international arena . The origin of geography, according to established tradition, is associated with its separation from political geography. In this regard, many theorists give a genetic definition of geography, which boils down to stating the differences between geography and political geography. So, it is believed that political geography is satisfied with a static description of the state, which may include a study of changes in the course of its past development. G. is a discipline that weighs and evaluates specific situation, in which the state is located, it is always aimed at; future. Quite common! is also the organic definition of government. According to this approach, government is considered as a science about the state as a living organism; sometimes they speak of the state as a supra-biological organism. Important for understanding the essence of the science under consideration is its instrumental definition. From this point of view, geography is understood as a tool used in developing a state’s foreign policy and allowing one to take into account geographical, demographic, environmental and some other factors. Geographical determinism played the most important role as a theoretical prerequisite for the emergence of geography as a science. Modern geography is a science that studies the foreign policy of a state through comprehensive analysis a number of factors that determine it. In geopolitical analysis, three aspects are distinguished: 1) the study of the socio-political situation from the point of view of specific geographical and temporal conditions of their development; 2) comparison of real data with different and often opposing ideas about the same territory; 3) forecast and recommendations for implementing a political strategy for transforming space. The main geopolitical factors are: geographical (spatial location, natural resources); political (political system and features of the state, its borders, social structure of society, the presence of fundamental freedoms, etc.); economic (power and structure of productive forces, standard of living of the population, infrastructure, strategic reserves, etc.); military (size, power, combat readiness and combat capability of the armed forces, etc.); cultural (confessional, national traditions, level of development of science, education, healthcare, urbanization, etc.); demographic (population density and composition, dynamics of its development); environmental (demographic pressure on the limited resources of the country and the planet, depletion of raw materials, changes in the viability of the population various countries etc.).

9) Geopolitics- Reactionary theory, trying to justify and justify the seizure of foreign territories by the “inadequacy” of the territory of their state.

Geopolitics

Science, the main provisions of which are presented in this book.

1) one of the directions of the state’s foreign policy, based on the need to take into account the peculiarities of the geographical location (spatial-territorial place) of a country or group of countries in the world and carried out on a regional-continental and global, planetary scale; 2) the use of the ideas of the geographical school in sociology and political science to substantiate and justify the aggressive policy of expansion of states and peoples by referring to the lack of “living space”, “vital resources”, etc., as was the case in fascist Germany and Italy, militaristic Japan on the eve and during the Second World War (see also: Geographical school).

A political economic concept that aims to determine the direction of development of the entire population of the globe. The imperialist concept of geopolitics justifies the imperialists' desire to establish world domination with references to the historical mission and civilizing goals of developed capitalist countries, geographical and other factors. Rightly pointing to the development at the end of the twentieth century of a series of crisis situations of a global nature, bourgeois ideologists of geopolitics are silent about the fact that all these crises (demographic, environmental, energy, raw materials, etc.) were generated by the predatory imperialist policies of developed capitalist countries and transnational corporations and banks. In fact, resolving global crises is only possible through the destruction of the capitalist mode of production throughout the world and the transition to socialist, and in the future to communist, production relations.

A concept that characterizes the theory and practice of international relations based on the interconnection of geographical, geostrategic, socio-political, military, demographic, economic and other factors. All these various factors of national power are considered from the perspective of the balance of forces in the region or in the world as a whole. In today's domestic political science, geopolitics is considered as a fundamental concept in the theory of international relations. Moreover, geopolitics with its most important parameters, conceptual guidelines and methodological principles is considered as an independent scientific discipline, constituting an important part of political science. The term “geopolitics” was introduced into scientific circulation by the Swedish researcher and politician Rudolf Kjellen (1864-1922). It stood for "geographical policy." R. Challen not only coined the term, but also created an entire theory of the state as a geographical organism developing in a space in which geopolitics constituted only one direction. “Geopolitics,” he wrote in his book “The State as a Form of Life,” “is the study of the fundamental qualities of space associated with land and soil, it is the study of the creation of the Empire and the origin of countries and state territories.” Along with Kjellen, the British geographer and politician H. Mackinder (1861-1947), the American historian of naval strategy A. Mahan (1840-1914), the German geographer, the founder of political geography F. Ratzel (1844-1901), the German researcher are considered classics of geopolitical science K. Haushofer (1869-1946), American researcher of international relations I. Spykman (1893-1944). In geopolitics, the spatial-political factor plays a very important role, because any political unit (subject of international relations) is determined by its own territory, the characteristics of its geographical location - the presence or absence of river communications, access to the sea, natural obstacles to the development of communications with neighboring states, coastal or island position, influence of climate, soil, minerals, etc. Due to its geographical location, the predominantly maritime orientation of Great Britain was formed, and hence the need for a powerful fleet. Great Britain actively developed a “balance of power” policy: without directly interfering in European conflicts, it could influence their outcomes by choosing one or another ally. The United States carried out its foreign policy, taking advantage of its geographical position: the Pacific and Atlantic oceans are the arena of operations of its navy. The USSR was largely a land power and could, as the Chief of Staff of the US Army said, “without soaking its soles in water,” control the situation in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Spatial and geographical features are reflected in the concepts of proportional development of certain types of armed forces and, for example, for Russia, apparently, there is no need to strive for equality with the US naval forces. At the same time, models of international relations built only according to geopolitical parameters, especially in terms of Russia’s “natural” strategic rivals, popular on the “power-patriotic” flank of political thought, do not adequately reflect the realities of the world political situation. In addition to the space that geopolitics focuses on, the overall development process of modern states is determined by many other factors - ethnic, social, economic, civilizational.

A concept that characterizes the place and forms of influence of the territorial position of states on its policies and international processes. The term "geopolitics" was first used by the Swedish researcher R. Kjellen (1846-1922), who analyzed the "anatomy of power" of states and identified five main components of state policy - economic policy, demopolitics, sociopolitics, cratopolitics, geopolitics. In modern studies, geopolitics is viewed in a broader aspect, as a sphere of foreign policy strategy focused on the formation of a certain world political space, the struggle for hegemony on the world stage.

A school of political thought, a concept that recognizes the interests of the state as extending beyond officially recognized borders. Studies the dependence of government actions on the influence of geographical factors on the state and evolution of the economic, political and social systems of society.

One of the fundamental concepts of the theory of international relations, characterizing the place and specific historical forms of the impact of the territorial and spatial features of the position of states on local, regional and global international processes.

(gr. ge land + poli-tike politics) - a science that studies the totality of the physical and social, material and moral resources of the state, constituting the potential, the use of which (and in some cases even just its presence) allows it to achieve its goals in the international arena . The origin of geography, according to established tradition, is associated with its separation from political geography. In this regard, many theorists give a genetic definition of geography, which boils down to stating the differences between geography and political geography. Thus, political geography is considered to be satisfied with a static description of the state, which may include the study of changes in the course of its past development. G. is a discipline that weighs and evaluates the specific situation in which the state finds itself; it is always aimed at; future. Quite common! is also the organic definition of government. According to this approach, government is considered as a science about the state as a living organism; sometimes they speak of the state as a supra-biological organism. Important for understanding the essence of the science under consideration is its instrumental definition. From this point of view, geography is understood as a tool used in developing a state’s foreign policy and allowing one to take into account geographical, demographic, environmental and some other factors. Geographical determinism played the most important role as a theoretical prerequisite for the emergence of geography as a science. Modern geography is a science that studies the foreign policy of a state through a comprehensive analysis of a number of factors that determine it. In geopolitical analysis, three aspects are distinguished: 1) the study of the socio-political situation from the point of view of specific geographical and temporal conditions of their development; 2) comparison of real data with different and often opposing ideas about the same territory; 3) forecast and recommendations for implementing a political strategy for transforming space. The main geopolitical factors are: geographical (spatial location, natural resources); political (political system and features of the state, its borders, social structure of society, the presence of fundamental freedoms, etc.); economic (power and structure of productive forces, standard of living of the population, infrastructure, strategic reserves, etc.); military (size, power, combat readiness and combat capability of the armed forces, etc.); cultural (confessional, national traditions, level of development of science, education, healthcare, urbanization, etc. ); demographic (population density and composition, dynamics of its development); environmental (demographic pressure on the limited resources of the country and the planet, depletion of raw materials, changes in the viability of the population of various countries, etc.).

A reactionary theory that tries to justify and justify the seizure of foreign territories by the “inadequacy” of the territory of one’s own state.

Definition of geopolitics

Today, geopolitics is of increased interest almost everywhere, especially in Eastern Europe. The renaissance of geopolitics does not at all mean a return to old concepts, many of which are associated with rather negative associations. Close attention to Mackinder’s theory, the pre-war concepts of “Middle Europe”, the history of colonial concepts of geopolitics in general, to everything positive that they contained, is combined with the search for new approaches and attempts to build a new theoretical basis for geopolitics. Despite the fact that the term “geopolitics” is often used in political rhetoric, not everyone is aware of the sources, models and codes behind this term. The danger of perceiving geopolitics only as an ideology of spatial expansion is just as great as the danger of ignoring it.

Geopolitics often resorts to explaining both the foreign and domestic policies of states in terms of geographical factors: the nature of borders, endowment of minerals and other natural resources, island or land location, climate, terrain, etc. The key system-forming relationship in geopolitics, even more so than in geography, has long been distance in physical and geographical space. Traditional geopolitics can be considered as the science of the influence of geospace on the political goals and interests of the state. Gradually, geopolitics moved to a more complex understanding of space as an environment that transforms economic, political and other relations between states. With the growth of interdependence in the world, the nature of interstate relations and its interaction with geospace, which was no longer only polarized around centers of power, but increasingly stratified and hierarchically organized, became increasingly important in geopolitical analysis.

The self-determination of geopolitics as a science has its own history. Rudolf Kjellen, the author of the term “geopolitics,” defined it as “the doctrine that considers the state as a geographical organism or spatial phenomenon.” The goal of geopolitics, according to its founders, is to realize the fatal necessity of territorial conquests for the development of states, since “the space of an already divided world can be conquered by one state from another only by force of arms” 1 . The leading German geopolitical journal “Zeitschriftfur Geopolitik” (“Journal of Geopolitics”), founded by Karl Haushofer, gave the following definition, which, by the way, is most often cited in works on geopolitics: “Geopolitics is the science of the relationship between the earth and political processes. It is based on a broad foundation of geography, primarily political geography, which is the science of political organisms in space and their structure. Moreover, geopolitics aims to provide appropriate instructions for political action and give direction to political life as a whole. Thus, geopolitics becomes an art, namely, the art of guiding practical politics. Geopolitics is the geographical intelligence of the state."

In approximately the same spirit, but with some important additional accents, geopolitics is defined by Otto Maulle. Geopolitics, he believes, has as its subject the state not as a static concept, but as a living being. Geopolitics studies the state mainly in its relation to the environment - to space and aims to solve problems arising from spatial relations. It is not interested, unlike political geography, in the state as a natural phenomenon, that is, its position, size, shape or boundaries as such. She is not interested in the state as a system of economics, trade or culture. From a geopolitical perspective, a simple analysis of the state (physical or cultural), even if it relates to space, remains static. The area of ​​geopolitics, Maull emphasizes, is the spatial needs and requirements of the state, while political geography is mainly interested in the spatial conditions of its existence. Concluding, Maull once again notes the fundamental difference between political geography and geopolitics: the former is satisfied with a static description of the state, which may also include the study of the dynamics of its past development; the second is discipline, weighing and evaluating this situation; geopolitics is always focused on the future.

Karl Haushofer defined geopolitics as the doctrine of “the geographical conditionality of politics” 2 . Elsewhere, Haushofer, together with Erich Obeth, Otto Maull and Hermann Lautensach, characterized geopolitics as “the doctrine of the dependence of political events on the earth” 3 . In the memorandum "Geopolitics as a national science of the state", appeared in connection with the establishment of the Nazi regime in Germany, geopolitics was defined as “the study of the relationship between the land and the state” 4 . The Journal of Geopolitics characterized geopolitics as “the science of political form life in living space in its dependence on the earth and conditionality of historical movement" 5. Together with the publisher of the Journal of Geopolitics, Kurt Vowinkel, Haushofer noted that geopolitics itself is “not a science, but an approach, a path to knowledge” 6 . Somewhat later, Vowinckel wrote an article entitled “ Geopolitics as a science» 7 . Albrecht Haushofer declared the essence of geopolitics to be “the relationship between the space surrounding a person and the political forms of his life” 8.

In the “Dictionary of Philosophical Terms,” geopolitics is characterized as “the doctrine of the dependence of political events on the characteristics of the surface of the earth, space, landscape, and country” 9 . American researcher L. Kristof believes that geopolitics covers an area parallel to and lying between political science and political geography. While recognizing the difficulties of defining geopolitics, Christophe nevertheless takes risks to do so. “Geopolitics,” he believes, “is the study of political phenomena, firstly, in their spatial relationships and, secondly, in their relationship, dependence and influence on the Earth, as well as on all those cultural factors that constitute the subject of human geography ... in its broadest sense. In other words, geopolitics is what the word itself etymologically suggests, that is, geographical politics; not geography, but rather politics, geographically interpreted and analyzed in accordance with its geographical content. As an intermediate science, it does not have an independent field of research. The latter is defined in terms of geography and political science in their interrelation.” Christophe believes that there is no fundamental difference between geopolitics and political geography, both in the field of study and in the methods of research. The only real difference between the two, in his opinion, is the emphasis and focus of attention. Political geography, being primarily geography, emphasizes geographical phenomena, providing political interpretation and analysis of political aspects. Geopolitics, being primarily politics, on the contrary, concentrates its attention on political phenomena and seeks to provide a geographical interpretation and analysis of the geographical aspects of these phenomena 10 .

Within the framework of geopolitics itself, there are two fairly clearly defined directions:

geopolitics prescriptive, or doctrinal-normative(one can count among it, without fear of being mistaken, the entire German school associated with the name of Haushofer);

geopolitics evaluative-conceptual(typical representatives - Mackinder, Speakman, Cohen).

It is not always possible, of course, to draw a clear line between one and the other, but it still exists, just as it exists more generally between normative and conceptual political science.

In modern political and reference literature, the concept of “geopolitics” is sometimes interpreted so broadly and multifacetedly that it ultimately loses the specific features that make any field of study a scientific discipline. Geopolitics is used to assess the international political positions of states, their place in the system of international relations, and the conditions for their participation in military-political alliances. Great importance is attached to research into a complex of economic, political, military-strategic, environmental, resource and other issues that play an important role in maintaining or changing the global and regional balance of power.

Of course, to one degree or another, all of the above aspects are related to geopolitics, but in this case the question cannot help but arise: how does geopolitics differ from general theoretical studies of international relations and foreign policy, which also consider all these issues? The available encyclopedic explanations clarify little in this sense. Encyclopedia Britannica, for example, citing the opinions of authorities, links geopolitics with the use of geography to benefit governments. The most common point of view is this: geopolitics serves to determine national policy, taking into account the factors influencing it from the natural environment. In the American Encyclopedia, geopolitics is considered as a science that studies and analyzes in unity geographical, historical, political and other interacting factors that influence the strategic potential of a state. The Soviet Philosophical Encyclopedic Dictionary (1989) defines geopolitics as a Western political science concept, according to which “the policies of states, especially foreign ones, are mainly predetermined by various geographical factors: spatial location, the presence or absence of certain natural resources, climate, population density and the rate of its growth and etc.”

Despite the extreme diversity of topics, approaches, and territorial coverage of geopolitical research, a common core can be identified in them, including an analysis of the relationship between any changes in individual countries and regions (in the structure of the economy and its resource availability, the introduction of new technologies in the economy in general and military production in particular , telecommunications connections, the quantity and quality of the population, its political and ideological cohesion, etc.) and foreign policy and strategic problems. Previously, the “independent variables” of geopolitical analysis included mainly such traditional parameters as geographical location, the availability and limitation of mineral and other natural resources, features of the country’s territory (relief, hydrographic network, distance from the borders of vital centers, etc.) . The importance of these factors has changed, but they have not completely lost their role. Geopolitics as a science directs its main attention to revealing and studying the possibilities of active use by politics of factors of the physical environment and influencing it in the interests of the military, economic and environmental security of the state. The sphere of practical geopolitics includes everything related to the territorial problems of the state, its borders, and the rational use and distribution of resources, including human resources.

Based on the above, geopolitics can be defined as a branch of knowledge that studies the patterns of interaction between politics and the system of non-political factors that shape the geographic environment (nature of location, relief, climate, landscape, minerals, economics, ecology, demography, social stratification, military power). Geopolitics is traditionally divided into fundamental and applied sections; and the latter, sometimes called geostrategy, examines the conditions for making optimal political decisions affecting the above factors.

The problem of the scientific nature of geopolitics. Geopolitics in the knowledge system

Theoretically, geopolitics can act in two forms - as a science that understands the natural connections between geographical conditions and politics, and as an ideology, that is, as a means of justifying the achievement, implementation, preservation, strengthening and growth of power. It is necessary to establish practically, firstly, in what form geopolitics really exists, and secondly, whether geopolitics can be a science at all.

As an ideology, geopolitics can use any arguments related to the geographical environment, without any system - just to justify certain political actions as effectively as possible. In this regard, geopolitics constitutes only a specific component of ideology in general - its “geographical” part.

As a science, geopolitics should be free from the need to in any way justify any power in any of its manifestations. The authorities can take advantage of the fruits of geopolitics as a science, turning its conclusions into ideologemes. However, this is far from the only application of geopolitical achievements. Of course, geopolitics can have the most noticeable and significant applied consequences precisely at the level of power, but, like any science, it can be useful to knowledge as such. In this regard, geopolitics can acquire universal educational and research significance.

In a number of its own modifications, geopolitics tries to trace the connection between two completely distant groups of elements - geographical elements and the elements of human subjectivity, expressed in the chaos of political decisions. Both politics and geography themselves are chaotic phenomena: geography includes the interaction of the most diverse forces - geological, cosmic, social, etc., politics is a true expression of the unpredictability and irrationality of human nature, suggesting absolutely unexpected decisions in infinitely diverse political situations. Geopolitics seeks to discover a strict natural connection between these phenomena. Such boldness of the cognitive claims of geopolitics puts it on a par with philosophical disciplines.

If we consider geopolitics as part philosophy of history, then all spheres of historical contingency fall to its share, since it is geography and politics that introduce contingency into the historical process: geography - because its laws are of a completely different nature than the laws of human relations, politics - because it is the ultimate expression of subjective arbitrariness in these relationships. If we consider geopolitics as part philosophy of politics, then, firstly, we should note the most general patterns and the most global problems of politics, as well as the planetary phenomenon in the context of more general problems of human history. Finally, if we consider geopolitics as part philosophy of nature, its specific subject becomes the dependence of nature on the unpredictable activity of man - a natural being, but separated from nature and transforming the very basis of his own life in accordance with the whims of his, often irrational, will.

Discussions of a geopolitical nature on the expansion of borders and the annexation of new lands by peaceful and military means based on a preliminary comparative assessment real power states, about maintaining dominance over newly acquired territories through the creation of colonies, moving capitals there and isolating them from the influence of neighboring countries, about the creation of regional military-strategic alliances are found in the work “The Prince” by the Italian thinker and political figure of the 16th century Piccolo Machiavelli 1 . It is also necessary to point out the classic works on international relations of the Prussian historian and General Karl Clausewitz(XIX century), who emphasized the need for the state to emerge from a dangerous situation from a position of strength. State science also contributed to the formation of geopolitics. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, when studying the triad of state attributes “territory - population - power”, many state scientists gave priority to the territory 12. The prominent German statesman Georg Jellinek, in particular, believed: “Territory, as an element of the state, has a decisive influence on the entire life process of the state” 13. The cyclical theory of state development 14, the methodological basis of which is the organicist concept of the evolution of society, has gained wide popularity.

The tradition of geopolitical analysis of the international situation is closely connected with the history of the emergence and development of Western political geography. Their formation proceeded in parallel and is associated with the names of the same scientists and politicians. “This... current, which participated in the birth of political geography, is... traditional: it was the result of military thought and is related to strategy,” says the famous French geographer P. Claval 15.

Describing the difference between geopolitics and political geography, one of K. Haushofer’s students and followers, Otto Schaefer, wrote: “Political geography is the science of space. Therefore, political geography is aimed at the past, while geopolitics is aimed at the present. Political geography reveals a picture of how space affects the state and, so to speak, absorbs it. In contrast, geopolitics studies the question of how the state overcomes the conditions and laws of space and forces it to serve its intended goals” 16.

Political geography, as is known, chronologically preceded geopolitics, although its origins are also associated with the era of the Great Geographical Discoveries. It was necessary to systematize a huge amount of data, describe new lands, the nature of political rule, etc. Thus, it was about creating a political map of the world. In other words, political geography was at that time a kind of “registering” science. When determining the relationship between these two directions, geopoliticians themselves pointed to this feature. In the fundamental work edited by K. Haushofer, “Fundamentals, Essence and Goals of Geopolitics,” it was noted that political geography “was much more satisfied, although it should not have been satisfied, with purely recording work” 17.

In the West, for a long time political geography was seen as just a direction that studies the spatial aspects of political processes, which, in fact, took it out of the sphere of geography. The long series of definitions of this kind also includes many definitions given relatively recently: according to R. Kasperson and J. Mingi 18, political geography is a spatial analysis of political phenomena, K. Cox, J. Reynolds and S. Rokkan - “a placement approach to the study of power and conflict" 19, R. Bennett and P. Taylor - "political studies from a spatial perspective." GeopolitikX. de Blay 20 called the subject of political geography only the spatial aspects of international relations, narrowing it even further. More specific definitions are in which the purpose of political geography is the study of political units, that is, first of all, the state. All these definitions, one way or another, are based on those published in the early 50s. the work of the prominent American geographer R. Hartshorne, who considered the task of political geography to be the study of political units (regions) defined by state or political-administrative boundaries, as well as spatial similarities and differences between such units. Thus, S. Cohen and L. Rosenthal 21, J. Fielding 22 defined political geography as the science of the dynamics and spatial manifestations of the political process, by which they understood actions aimed at establishing and maintaining control over a political unit. N. Pounds 23 pointed out that the subject of political geography is the state from the point of view of its genesis, evolution, provision of resources, and the conditionality of specific geographical forms. Following K. Ritter and A. Göttner, Hartshorne and his followers actually called on their colleagues to study the political differentiation of space, and only de jure differentiation, believing that only legally established political units are objective. Thus, political geography turned into “political chorology”. The rejection of the principle of historicism, and often of the study of cause-and-effect relationships, led political geography to stagnation in theory, and then to decline in general. A number of geographers sought to “geographize” political geography, to find for it an “ecological niche” among the sciences where it could not be replaced. Typical of these geographers is the point of view of J. Prescott, who believed that political geography studies the geographical consequences of political decisions, as well as the geographical factors taken into account when making such decisions 24 . Somewhat earlier, a group of prominent American geographers defined political geography as a science that studies the interaction of geographic areas and the political process 25 .

In general, political geography studies the patterns of formation of political space, that is, a system of spatial conditions that are directly determined by political decisions. As we see, political geography and geopolitics have different directions, although the close connection of these disciplines cannot be denied. This connection is manifested in a certain synchronicity of their development. New trends equally concern both sciences, which manifested itself, in particular, in the almost simultaneous emergence of anthropological and humanistic attitudes in political geography and geopolitics. Thus, R. Hartshorne considered the main task of political geography to be the search for the relationship between “centripetal” and “centrifugal” forces operating in each state and contributing to its integrity and power or disintegration. According to Hartshorne, the political geographer must also identify that “key idea” without which the state would not be able to maintain the loyalty of the majority of citizens. At the same time, geopolitics can be considered a discipline that generalizes the data of political geography.

Geopolitics and existential geography

Existential geography originates from humanistic geography, the principles of which have often been used by geopoliticians in recent decades. Humanistic geography emphasizes the study of aspirations, values ​​and goals social groups and individual people depending on their position in geospace. In political geography, the humanistic direction is reflected in the concept of living, or mastered, space, defined as the sphere of direct experience that precedes a person’s making rational decisions and determines his motivation. Proponents of this approach consider the fundamental category of geopolitics to be a sense of self-identification with a territory, belonging to some socio-territorial community, a “state idea” (here, as we see, there is a return to the classical provisions of Hartshorne in a new round), the historical experience of life in a community and community self-government.

In applied geopolitics, humanistic approaches are used, in particular, when studying border zones and the political past of other territories using the updated concept of “political landscape.” It is understood as a reflection of the current and former political affiliation-territory in the nature of land use, the layout and architecture of buildings, settlements, monuments, and the appearance of streets and squares. Symbolic elements of the political landscape influence the socialization of people and the formation of regionalism 26 .

Although geopolitics deals with space and geographical factors, it cannot be considered a strictly positive natural science. Both in the objectively existing texts of geopolitics and in the ideal tasks of this discipline, we find a desire to identify the spiritual foundations of spatial life and political decisions. Geopolitics, often claiming the status of a pragmatic science, in itself is very far from pure pragmatism: it, willingly or unwillingly, spiritualizes not only the continental and oceanic masses, which in geopolitical theories acquire their own imperative activity and become the direct receptacle of the spirit, but also politics itself, which From prosaic management, solving current problems and satisfying the pride of leaders, it turns into an instrument of planetary struggle that determines the fate of world civilization. In contradiction with this kind of romanticism comes the reductionist pathos of most geopolitical concepts - their authors see a special flight of thought in reducing the causes of the diverse movement of peoples to the nature of their location. Thanks to this contradiction, geopolitics degenerates either into speculation of an occult nature, or into a positivist statistical accounting of the fragmentary dependencies of geography and politics.

A similar fate can escape geopolitics only if its representatives do not ignore the existential factor of their analysis. Geopolitics in its essence and in its original design is an existential science, part of existential geography, which considers the integrity of the existence of human communities from the point of view of the unifying and inspiring meaning underlying these communities, as well as how this meaning is reflected in the nature of their time and space existence.

We cannot know nature and use it without applying our a priori ideas to it. However, when applying these ideas, we inevitably interpret nature as spirit: we interpret the natural connections between things as categorical or hypothetical imperatives (dynamic or statistical laws, respectively), more or less strictly “prescribing” their “behavior” to things.

The spirit determines space both at the level of representation, since the content of the representation of space depends on the content of the spirit, and at the physical level, since the carriers of the spirit physically transform the space of their existence in accordance with this content. If the space constituted by a certain existential idea is invaded by carriers of another existential idea, they are forced to reckon with the inertia of this space, which contains alien imperatives. Even if a certain people inhabits a territory long abandoned by their predecessors, the soil itself, which contains hundreds of years of vital activity, will have an imperceptible and mysterious influence on the lives of the settlers.

Each existential community occupies a certain landscape, a certain geographical environment, not due to the accidents of its movement or the play of natural elements, but due to the fact that the same idea that united this community forces it to create a specific space around itself. And this space, being a creation of the spirit, begins to live its own life, to a certain extent determining not only the fate of its creators, but also the fate of those who come to replace them. The place of life of individual peoples and civilizations continues to live and operate after their death; its invisible centers and boundaries retain their power for bearers of other ideas.

Already this, so to speak, archaeological significance of spaces cannot be ignored by geopolitics, so what can we say about the actual transformations of space, which in this vein are considered as transformations of the very existence of peoples? In order to solve its main task, existential geography traces the placement and movement of existential communities in the geographical environment, as well as the specifics of the transformation of this environment by individual existential communities. Existential-geographical analysis is characterized by such concepts as “existential center”, “existential province”, “existential border”. A striking example of the significance of these categories can be the relations between Russia and the West, which have served as the basis for many geopolitical studies.

The West has long been characterized by extreme existential expansiveness. He extended the sphere of his spirit to the whole of Central Europe, successively including the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Lithuania, etc. in his orbit. These countries, not without resistance, sometimes quite stubborn and bloody, became, in fact, existential provinces of the West, since if any people join an already established existential community, and do so not entirely voluntarily, they must listen to those who came to the truths underlying this community first, as a result of an original, absolutely independent search. Therefore, Czechs, Poles, Croats, Lithuanians and others like them should listen to the French, Italians, English, Germans and follow their ideas, tastes, habits, fashion as a model. The same fate was destined for the West and Russia, as exemplified by the Pskov and Novgorod Republic. However, Russia put up much more powerful resistance, for it relied on numerous and formidable allies from the Eurasian steppes. Russia retained its existential identity, but the continuous expansion of the West bore fruit in the form of a broad movement of Westernism, which gradually gained strength within Russian culture. The cultural victory of Russian Westernism turned into enormous political consequences, the manifestation of which occurred in the 20th century.

Methodology of geopolitics

The methodology of geopolitics is largely based on linking phenomena and processes at the state level with the macroregional and global levels, for example, the size, configuration and outline of state borders, the location of economic regions, the country's climate, etc., with foreign policy conflicts. The geopolitical approach can be used as a frame for presenting regional information from a certain angle. No less important for geopolitics is the “top-down” view: from the analysis of regional systems of states, shifts in the distribution of economic and military power - to the study of the influence of these processes on the geostrategy of a particular state, internal political conflicts, from the analysis of global geopolitical factors, for example, the number and influence of diasporas , the limitations of any resource on a global scale - to the study of the influence of this factor on the foreign and domestic political “behavior” of a particular state.

The methodology of many geopolitical concepts is characterized by extreme eclecticism and vagueness, a tendency to absolutize the influence of any factor or group of factors on foreign policy, to simplify situations, and a desire to borrow fashionable theories and concepts from related sciences. So, in the late 70s and early 80s. “humanistic”, behaviorist and existentialist interpretations were fashionable, based on an explanation of the connection between foreign policy and the geographical environment through its perception by a politician, his life experience, and the psychologically mastered space.

In addition, the methods of geopolitics are, in principle, extremely diverse - from speculative thinking to the use of complex mathematical apparatus. The use of quantitative methods does not always increase the significance of the results: on the contrary, “qualitative” geopolitical analysis in the spirit of the traditions of the French school can be much richer in ideas than the results of cumbersome calculations. Methods of multivariate statistics are most often used in geopolitics for cross-country comparisons, numerous attempts at geopolitical zoning of the world, by analyzing diverse and comparable information for all countries, in constructing “power indicators” designed to quantitatively reflect the influence of states in different areas life. Another area of ​​application of quantitative methods in geopolitics is the search for regular relationships between flows in space (primarily foreign trade) and the political connectivity of regional groupings of countries, foreign policy and strategic problems. IN Lately, with the advent of numerous programs for constructing anamorphic images, a special direction arose - geopolitical mapping, the goal of which is to find adequate ways to reflect global geospace on a map. Another technique in geopolitical mapping that allows one to obtain interesting models of political geospace is changing the centers of projection, “playing with projections.”

The system of categories that has developed in geopolitics is now rapidly expanding with the enrichment and change of its problems. In addition to the old concepts - sphere of influence, balance of power, buffer zone, satellite countries, deterrence, marginal belt - new categories have now entered scientific circulation: integration-disintegration, national interests, dynamic balance of interests, introduced by the famous American geopolitician S. Kozn 27 concept “gateway country,” which means a small state with an advantageous geographical location at the junction of large countries and their blocs, with an economy that is transitional in function and structure, capable of playing the role of an intermediary in bringing its large partners closer together.

One of the most important categories geopolitics is geostrategy - the direction of activity of states in the international arena based on geopolitics. Based on geopolitical concepts, the authorities of individual countries are pursuing a policy of annexing territories through military and diplomatic means, creating alliances, establishing spheres of influence, building military bases, countering revolutionary processes - “making space,” in the language of Western geopoliticians, for TNCs and TNBs. Due to the geographical features of space, geostrategy can be classified as land, sea, air, or space. The scale of geostrategy can be global, macro-regional, or country-specific.

The “new geostrategy” of the US administration is based on a bipolar (conservative) approach to international relations and aims to re-establish American dominance in the world. It proceeds from the need to suppress liberation movements by economic, political and military methods, and to overthrow progressive governments in third world countries on the basis of a geopolitical idea of ​​the global nature of US interests. Any changes or local conflicts in the non-socialist world are assessed through the prism of a global rather than regional perspective, and revolutions in the traditional spheres of US influence are assessed as a threat to national security 28 .

The scope of the “new geostrategy” is associated by its creators with the deployment of nuclear-pumped laser weapons in outer space 29 . The technical and technological capabilities of this weapon to operate within seconds determine the priority of the space direction in the “new geostrategy” and, accordingly, outer space over land, sea, and air. The “New Geostrategy” is designed to ensure both global and regional superiority of the United States.

Since the end of the 19th century, the United States has paid exclusive attention to macro-regional geostrategy, aimed at certain groups of countries. Regarding the Central and South America macroregional geostrategy is traditionally based on the Monroe Doctrine, the basis of which is the thesis of “spatial proximity” 30 . Today, the military-geographical position of the countries of Central America and the Caribbean, through which about half of trade and two-thirds of US imported oil passes, and through the Panama Canal and the Gulf of Mexico - more than half of imported minerals 31, is assessed as “vital.” Events in Cuba and Nicaragua were viewed by the Reagan administration as a direct threat to this US commercial artery. The President of the United States announced that the United States' "third border" runs through Central America and the Caribbean 32 .

Along with the provision on “spatial proximity,” the “new geostrategy” of the United States in Central America and the Caribbean uses the so-called “domino theory” 33 . The states of this region are considered as plates of a well-known game: a change in the number of points on the field of one plate leads to a change in the number of points on the field of the adjacent one. The Domino Theory is an interpretation of the well-known concept of exporting revolution, which argues that revolution needs a “nudge,” that socialism can be imposed on the population of other countries through military force.

Many American geopoliticians are actively involved in this country's military preparations. N.N. drew attention to this at one time. Baransky 34. The US geostrategy in relation to individual countries (country geostrategy) is most illustrative of the example of Vietnam. Those who developed bombing strategy and tactics demonstrated the profound importance of geographic information and geographic thinking 35 . American strategists waged a “geographical war,” destroying from the air the networks of dams that protect the multi-million population of the plains from flooding, destroying and genetically altering the organic habitat of people using chemical and bacteriological weapons. “The war in Indochina,” writes Lacoste, “indicated in the history of war and geography new stage“: for the first time, methods of destruction and change of the geographical environment simultaneously in natural and social aspects were put into action to abolish the geographical conditions necessary for the life of several tens of millions of people” 36. Today there is a danger that “geographical war” could be used on a massive scale by the imperialist powers in any country in the non-socialist world.

Strategists of the imperialist powers see one of their main tasks in predicting the hotbeds of emergence and possible directions of escalation of insurgent movements on the territory of a particular country. Geostrategic studies of the country's territory have a selective focus. First of all, a political-geographical study is carried out, in particular the compilation of large-scale maps, of those areas in which the emergence of insurgent movements and the formation of partisan detachments, waging a guerrilla war (guerilla) seems most likely. Territories that could become support bases for the revolutionary struggle are being carefully explored. Recommendations are being developed to suppress insurgency in urban and rural areas, mountainous and jungle areas, wetlands and river deltas.

Maritime geostrategy, along with land strategy, is an important direction in the foreign policy activities of states. The maritime territorial claims of the imperialist powers are realized in the establishment of military-political control over sea routes and ports of international importance, which as a result are transformed from geographical arteries and points into strategic ones.

J.Prescott , separating Nazi geopolitics (Geo-politik) from the geopolitical analysis of the international situation in modern Western political geography (geopolitics, geo-politique), speaking from the position of Pentagon naval strategists, writes in his "Political geography of the oceans":"Maritime states probably felt that the use of the canal was safer under the American administration compared to the Panamanian one" 37 . Thus, the American military presence in the Panama Canal zone, which is under US jurisdiction, is declared to be a guarantor of the possibility of its use by all states.

Modern US geostrategy extends to underdeveloped and inaccessible maritime areas. Close attention is paid to the Arctic. “This region,” says American geographer J. Rosek , - extremely sparsely populated, but it is of increasing importance both in relation to defense and in relation to the use of natural resources" 38 . In his opinion, the Arctic currently appears to be richer in oil, gas and other raw materials than Antarctica, and, in contrast to the latter, is the shortest corridor for launching a first nuclear strike on the USSR both by air and through the use of a submarine fleet. Arctic energy resources are considered of strategic importance because they have the potential to reduce US dependence on oil imports from Arab countries. The militarization of the Arctic has a negative impact on the foreign policy of Western countries whose facades face the Arctic Ocean. The budgets of states such as Norway, Denmark, Iceland, and Canada find themselves burdened with significant military expenditures for the needs of American geostrategy.

During the period of the collapse of colonial empires and the formation of territories of sovereign, politically independent states, the great powers made every effort to slow down the processes of their further development. One of the consequences of this policy was the formation of fourteen landlocked states in Africa 39 . Obtaining a corridor to the sea by a state remote from it is closely related to the problem of transit. The solution to the issue is complicated by tribalism - this “micronationalism” of modern Africa, which leaves its mark on relations between the states of the continent. The following conflict situation may arise between neighboring African countries: one is landlocked, the other impedes transit or, in exchange for the right to transit, demands concessions - political, territorial, related to national and tribal problems. Such “residual colonialism” creates a split in the united front of the struggle of third world states against the policies of neo-colonialism.

Apparently, one should not equate the maritime geostrategy of an imperialist state. and a developing country, although both may justify their claims on similar grounds. The claims of some developing countries to large areas of the adjacent continental shelf, their declaration of a two-hundred-mile zone are often forced actions in response to the predatory exploitation of marine coastal resources by TNCs, and to environmental disasters associated with the collapse of oil tankers in coastal zones of intense international shipping. The maritime geostrategy of a number of newly industrialized countries is associated with the annexation of vast areas of the continental shelf. For example, Argentina claims the so-called “Argentine Sea” (“Liquid Pampa”) with its islands and part of Antarctica, allocated on the basis of the sectoral principle 40. Similar projects are being put forward in some other Latin American countries 41 .

Geopolitics as ideology

Ideology is any system of ideas that is used to justify to others the achievement or exercise of power. Ideology is always focused on a group of people; it must explain to society why this group takes the initiative and acts in this way and not otherwise. The primary task of ideology is to justify socially significant actions of certain groups of people. To accomplish this task, the creators of the corresponding system of justifications - ideologists - must turn to the highest values ​​shared by the entire society in which this or that group is going to act. It would be stupid for Mussolini in Italy to appeal to the authority of the Vedas, and Mao in China to appeal to the biblical Ten Commandments; on the contrary, Mussolini forms a fascist ideology, relying on the dominant religious (Catholicism) and secular (individualism, imperialism and even socialism) teachings in his country, and Mao develops a communist ideology, appealing not only to the ideas of Marx, Engels and Lenin, but also to the fundamental thoughts of Confucius and Lao Tzu. However, ideology only uses different value systems, but never coincides with them.

It is interesting to note that almost all representatives of geopolitics were more or less major officials and government figures; they had serious weight in society and had a significant influence on political decision-making not only through their ideas, but also directly. This pattern can be traced from Ibn Khaldun to Haushofer. In December 1993, the State Duma of the Russian Federation established the Committee on Geopolitics. Scientific consultant of the book A.G. Dugina “Fundamentals of Geopolitics” (1997) - Head of the Strategy Department of the Military Academy of the Russian General Staff, Lieutenant General N.P. Klokotov. All these facts, as well as the nature of the content and methods of geopolitics, give grounds for many geopoliticians to consider their branch of knowledge primarily an ideology. “Geopolitics,” writes A.G. Dugin, is the worldview of power, the science of power and for power. Only as a person approaches the social elite does geopolitics begin to reveal its meaning for him, whereas before that it was perceived as an abstraction. Geopolitics is the discipline of political elites (both current and alternative)... Without pretending to scientific rigor, geopolitics at its own level determines what is valuable to it and what is not. ...In the modern world, it is a “short handbook of the ruler”, a textbook of power, which provides a summary of what should be taken into account when making global (fateful) decisions - such as concluding alliances, starting wars, implementing reforms, structural restructuring of society , the introduction of large-scale economic and political sanctions, etc. Geopolitics is the science of ruling” 42. And although some geopoliticians claim that “geopolitics is fundamentally anti-ideological” 43 , it is difficult to disagree with the statement that “a geopolitician cannot help but be biased” 44 .

If you ask yourself what kind of ideology geopolitics belongs to, the answer suggests itself that geopolitics is closely related to imperialism. Imperialism (from Latin imperium - power, domination) in its later meaning is understood as a historical situation of division of spheres of power on earth between large empires or as a characteristic of the policy of large empires aimed at seizing power over the entire earth. Meanwhile, the cynical activity of empires can be traced to a special ideology - imperialism, understood as the position of people who create empires and invest their vital forces in their existence and development. According to the provisions of this ideology, the natural order, indifferent to man, forces man to fight for the acquisition of earthly goods. However, the risk of losing this fight is too great to devote your life to it. Therefore, if a man wants to avoid defeat in the struggle for earthly goods, he must belong to a group of people whose organized efforts are constantly aimed at capturing them and effectively counteracting the similar efforts of rivals. If such a group exists, a person should strive to join it; if such a group does not exist, he should strive to create one. The preservation and strengthening of the unity of an empire can be ensured either by the kinship of the people included in it, or by a common sense of existence that requires such unity. Therefore, empires are most often formed, firstly, on the basis of nations, and secondly, on the basis of the confession of a single faith, from which unifying social conclusions follow. Relations between empires are formed not only on the basis of the real balance of forces, but also on the basis of the specifics of the ideas dominant in them.

In the 19th century, human history entered a phase when the development of empires led to the division of the entire world between them. Since then, although they have fought many wars to redistribute the world (including two world wars), they have always been looking for an acceptable form of compromise. However, it is obvious that such a compromise can only be a temporary truce, unless every single “good politician” disappears from the face of the earth.

In order for geopolitics to be born, “an era of imperialism had to come, in which both in the field of politics and in the field of economics the desire for space dominates,” 41 noted the German geopolitician Professor Grabowski. In order for things to come to the theory of a “planned spatial economy,” the “planned spatial economy of the imperialist era” had to take the place of the previous one, “based on the arbitrary policy of expansion.” The imperialist era lives “entirely under the sign of space, and the need arose to study space in detail in its relation to politics. Consequently, they also came to geopolitics based on the spatial economy of the imperialist era” 46.

Even in the Roman Empire, the concept of “terraenulliusseditprimooccupanti” (“no man’s lands belong to those who first seize them”) was introduced, and all territories that could be conquered were recognized as no man’s lands, while the population was not taken into account at all and was either exterminated or turned into slavery. This term was adopted in the Middle Ages and became firmly established in the so-called “international law of civilized peoples.” Until the end of the last century, the legal basis for the seizure of colonies was the so-called initial occupation of no-man's lands. During the period of imperialism, the need arose to assert the right to colonial conquest. At the Berlin Conference (1884-1885), 14 states tried to “streamline” the division of Africa. It was decided to consider colonial land seizures “legal” if they are “real, effective and brought to the attention of other powers” ​​47 . It goes without saying that these lands were far from being owned by anyone. But the rights of the peoples who inhabited them were not taken into account at all, and these territories were declared no man’s land on the sole grounds that they did not belong to any colonial power and were considered legitimate objects of territorial seizures and colonial plunder.

The Vatican, which for centuries had tried to maintain not only spiritual but also temporal power over the entire world, took advantage of the bitter disputes between Portugal and Spain to once again act as the supreme arbiter of international affairs. To this end, already in 1493, that is, just a year after the first voyage of Christopher Columbus, Pope Alexander VI, “in accordance with the request he received, divided the New World between two rivals - Portugal and Spain, while giving the lion's share to his homeland. In a series of bulls, the pope outlined a line running from north to south 100 leagues west to the east of this line, and Spain to the west” 48. The division of both already discovered lands and those that could be discovered in the future between the two powers was legally enshrined in the Treaty of Tordesillas of June 7, 1494, concluded by representatives of Spain and Portugal and approved by Alexander VI.

The ideological connection of geopolitics with imperialism has created a strong association of this discipline with the justification of military aggression and territorial conquests. Since spaces in most cases are not owned by anyone, but are inhabited by peoples who do not want to part with their land, geopolitics, as part of ideology, comes into close connection with other “natural” components.

Geopolitics and biopolitics: the connection of geopolitics with racial theory

So, since geopolitics appeals to natural principles as an ideological direction, it can be attributed to the so-called “natural (natural) ideology.” This also includes a movement related to geopolitics, which also focuses on the natural foundations of political decisions - racism, which by analogy can be called “biopolitics”.

Naturally, the territorial claims of some states inevitably come into conflict with the self-defense interests of other states. Both aggressors and victims put forward arguments to justify their positions and refer to international law to manipulate public opinion in their favor by all means available to them. Particular importance has always been attached to references to the historical and geographical conditionality of territorial claims, as well as to the national composition of the population of the “disputed territory”, often classified by the aggressor as an inferior race, which allegedly can not be taken into account at all.

Already in ancient states, racism was widely resorted to to justify the institution of slavery, as well as to fuel hostile feelings towards the peoples with whom they were going to fight. In the ancient Greek city-states, certain rights were enjoyed only by people from neighboring ancient Greek city-states (in Athens they were called metics). Other foreigners were declared absolutely without rights. “The Hellenic people,” Aristotle wrote, “occupying, geographically, a kind of middle place between the inhabitants of northern Europe and Asia, combines the natural properties of both; she has both a courageous character and a developed intellect; therefore, it retains its freedom, enjoys the best state organization and would be able to rule over everyone if only it were united by a single system.”

Racial or national exclusivity is an important attitudinal position in the geopolitical analysis of the international situation. Its beginnings are contained in the works of the French philosopher and diplomat J.A. de Gobineau 49 (1816-1882) and the English sociologist H.S. Chamberlain 50 (1855-1927). Racial and national composition of the population " disputed territories» 51 is carefully taken into account by governments when planning foreign and sometimes domestic policies 52 .

Before the Nazis came to power, K. Haushofer not only refrained from promoting the concept of racial superiority of the Germans, but even ridiculed it in the first issue of the magazine he founded 53 . However, the concepts of “living space” and “natural borders” of Germany are based on the postulate of the racial superiority of the Germans, and soon after the Nazis came to power, articles began to appear in the pages of the “Journal of Geopolitics”, which substantiated the concepts of “blood and soil”, “blood is stronger passports,” etc. One of K. Haushofer’s followers wrote: “Fate bequeathed to the German people the role of mediator between East and West, South and North. She gave him the right to a space that runs through all of history” 54. Another of his followers believed that Nazi Germany was entrusted with the mission of cultural influence on the peoples of the East, since it was supposedly “the most cultural and advanced country in the world” 55.

1) Geopolitics- - science, the main provisions of which are presented in this book.

2) Geopolitics- - 1) one of the directions of the state’s foreign policy, based on the need to take into account the peculiarities of the geographical location (spatial-territorial location) of a country or group of countries in the world and carried out on a regional-continental and global, planetary scale; 2) the use of the ideas of the geographical school in sociology and political science to substantiate and justify the aggressive policy of expansion of states and peoples by referring to the lack of “living space”, “vital resources”, etc., as was the case in fascist Germany and Italy, militaristic Japan on the eve and during the Second World War (see also: Geographical school).

3) Geopolitics- - a political economic concept that aims to determine the direction of development of the entire population of the globe. The imperialist concept of geopolitics justifies the imperialists' desire to establish world domination with references to the historical mission and civilizing goals of developed capitalist countries, geographical and other factors. Rightly pointing to the development at the end of the twentieth century of a series of crisis situations of a global nature, bourgeois ideologists of geopolitics are silent about the fact that all these crises (demographic, environmental, energy, raw materials, etc.) were generated by the predatory imperialist policies of developed capitalist countries and transnational corporations and banks. In fact, resolving global crises is only possible through the destruction of the capitalist mode of production throughout the world and the transition to socialist, and in the future to communist, production relations.

4) Geopolitics - - a concept characterizing the theory and practice of international relations based on the interconnection of geographical, geostrategic, socio-political, military, demographic, economic and other factors. All these various factors of national power are considered from the perspective of the balance of forces in the region or in the world as a whole. In today's domestic political science, geopolitics is considered as a fundamental concept in the theory of international relations. Moreover, geopolitics with its most important parameters, conceptual guidelines and methodological principles is considered as an independent scientific discipline, constituting an important part of political science. The term “geopolitics” was introduced into scientific circulation by the Swedish researcher and politician Rudolf Kjellen (1864-1922). It stood for "geographical policy." R. Challen not only coined the term, but also created an entire theory of the state as a geographical organism developing in a space in which geopolitics constituted only one direction. “Geopolitics,” he wrote in his book “The State as a Form of Life,” “is the study of the fundamental qualities of space associated with land and soil, it is the study of the creation of the Empire and the origin of countries and state territories.” Along with Kjellen, the British geographer and politician H. Mackinder (1861-1947), the American historian of naval strategy A. Mahan (1840-1914), the German geographer, the founder of political geography F. Ratzel (1844-1901), the German researcher are considered classics of geopolitical science K. Haushofer (1869-1946), American researcher of international relations I. Spykman (1893-1944). In geopolitics, the spatial-political factor plays a very important role, because any political unit (subject of international relations) is determined by its own territory, the characteristics of its geographical location - the presence or absence of river communications, access to the sea, natural obstacles to the development of communications with neighboring states, coastal or island position, influence of climate, soil, minerals, etc. Due to its geographical location, the predominantly maritime orientation of Great Britain was formed, and hence the need for a powerful fleet. Great Britain actively developed a “balance of power” policy: without directly interfering in European conflicts, it could influence their outcomes by choosing one or another ally. The United States carried out its foreign policy, taking advantage of its geographical position: the Pacific and Atlantic oceans are the arena of operations of its navy. The USSR was largely a land power and could, as the Chief of Staff of the US Army said, “without soaking its soles in water,” control the situation in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Spatial and geographical features are reflected in the concepts of proportional development of certain types of armed forces and, for example, for Russia, apparently, there is no need to strive for equality with the US naval forces. At the same time, models of international relations built only according to geopolitical parameters, especially in terms of Russia’s “natural” strategic rivals, popular on the “power-patriotic” flank of political thought, do not adequately reflect the realities of the world political situation. In addition to the space that geopolitics focuses on, the overall development process of modern states is determined by many other factors - ethnic, social, economic, civilizational.

5) Geopolitics- - a concept that characterizes the place and forms of influence of the territorial position of states on its policies and international processes. The term "geopolitics" was first used by the Swedish researcher R. Kjellen (1846-1922), who analyzed the "anatomy of power" of states and identified five main components of state policy - economic policy, demopolitics, sociopolitics, cratopolitics, geopolitics. In modern studies, geopolitics is viewed in a broader aspect, as a sphere of foreign policy strategy focused on the formation of a certain world political space, the struggle for hegemony on the world stage.

6) Geopolitics- - a direction of political thought, a concept based on the recognition of the interests of the state, extending beyond the officially recognized borders. Studies the dependence of government actions on the influence of geographical factors on the state and evolution of the economic, political and social systems of society.

7) Geopolitics- - one of the fundamental concepts of the theory of international relations, characterizing the place and specific historical forms of the impact of the territorial-spatial features of the position of states on local, regional and global international processes.

8) Geopolitics - (gr. ge land + poli-tike politics) - a science that studies the totality of the physical and social, material and moral resources of the state, constituting the potential, the use of which (and in some cases even just its presence) allows it to achieve its goals in the international arena. The origin of geography, according to established tradition, is associated with its separation from political geography. In this regard, many theorists give a genetic definition of geography, which boils down to stating the differences between geography and political geography. Thus, political geography is considered to be satisfied with a static description of the state, which may include the study of changes in the course of its past development. G. is a discipline that weighs and evaluates the specific situation in which the state finds itself; it is always aimed at; future. Quite common! is also the organic definition of government. According to this approach, government is considered as a science about the state as a living organism; sometimes they speak of the state as a supra-biological organism. Important for understanding the essence of the science under consideration is its instrumental definition. From this point of view, geography is understood as a tool used in developing a state’s foreign policy and allowing one to take into account geographical, demographic, environmental and some other factors. Geographical determinism played the most important role as a theoretical prerequisite for the emergence of geography as a science. Modern geography is a science that studies the foreign policy of a state through a comprehensive analysis of a number of factors that determine it. In geopolitical analysis, three aspects are distinguished: 1) the study of the socio-political situation from the point of view of specific geographical and temporal conditions of their development; 2) comparison of real data with different and often opposing ideas about the same territory; 3) forecast and recommendations for implementing a political strategy for transforming space. The main geopolitical factors are: geographical (spatial location, natural resources); political (political system and features of the state, its borders, social structure of society, the presence of fundamental freedoms, etc.); economic (power and structure of productive forces, standard of living of the population, infrastructure, strategic reserves, etc.); military (size, power, combat readiness and combat capability of the armed forces, etc. ); cultural (confessional, national traditions, level of development of science, education, healthcare, urbanization, etc.); demographic (population density and composition, dynamics of its development); environmental (demographic pressure on the limited resources of the country and the planet, depletion of raw materials, changes in the viability of the population of various countries, etc.).

9) Geopolitics- Reactionary theory, trying to justify and justify the seizure of foreign territories by the “inadequacy” of the territory of their state.

Geopolitics

Science, the main provisions of which are presented in this book.

1) one of the directions of the state’s foreign policy, based on the need to take into account the peculiarities of the geographical location (spatial-territorial place) of a country or group of countries in the world and carried out on a regional-continental and global, planetary scale; 2) the use of the ideas of the geographical school in sociology and political science to substantiate and justify the aggressive policy of expansion of states and peoples by referring to the lack of “living space”, “vital resources”, etc., as was the case in fascist Germany and Italy, militaristic Japan on the eve and during the Second World War (see also: Geographical school).

A political economic concept that aims to determine the direction of development of the entire population of the globe. The imperialist concept of geopolitics justifies the imperialists' desire to establish world domination with references to the historical mission and civilizing goals of developed capitalist countries, geographical and other factors. Rightly pointing to the development at the end of the twentieth century of a series of crisis situations of a global nature, bourgeois ideologists of geopolitics are silent about the fact that all these crises (demographic, environmental, energy, raw materials, etc.) were generated by the predatory imperialist policies of developed capitalist countries and transnational corporations and banks. In fact, resolving global crises is only possible through the destruction of the capitalist mode of production throughout the world and the transition to socialist, and in the future to communist, production relations.

A concept that characterizes the theory and practice of international relations based on the interconnection of geographical, geostrategic, socio-political, military, demographic, economic and other factors. All these various factors of national power are considered from the perspective of the balance of forces in the region or in the world as a whole. In today's domestic political science, geopolitics is considered as a fundamental concept in the theory of international relations. Moreover, geopolitics with its most important parameters, conceptual guidelines and methodological principles is considered as an independent scientific discipline, constituting an important part of political science. The term “geopolitics” was introduced into scientific circulation by the Swedish researcher and politician Rudolf Kjellen (1864-1922). It stood for "geographical policy." R. Challen not only coined the term, but also created an entire theory of the state as a geographical organism developing in a space in which geopolitics constituted only one direction. “Geopolitics,” he wrote in his book “The State as a Form of Life,” “is the study of the fundamental qualities of space associated with land and soil, it is the study of the creation of the Empire and the origin of countries and state territories.” Along with Kjellen, the British geographer and politician H. Mackinder (1861-1947), the American historian of naval strategy A. Mahan (1840-1914), the German geographer, the founder of political geography F. Ratzel (1844-1901), the German researcher are considered classics of geopolitical science K. Haushofer (1869-1946), American researcher of international relations I. Spykman (1893-1944). In geopolitics, the spatial-political factor plays a very important role, because any political unit (subject of international relations) is determined by its own territory, the characteristics of its geographical location - the presence or absence of river communications, access to the sea, natural obstacles to the development of communications with neighboring states, coastal or island position, influence of climate, soil, minerals, etc. Due to its geographical location, the predominantly maritime orientation of Great Britain was formed, and hence the need for a powerful fleet. Great Britain actively developed a “balance of power” policy: without directly interfering in European conflicts, it could influence their outcomes by choosing one or another ally. The United States carried out its foreign policy, taking advantage of its geographical position: the Pacific and Atlantic oceans are the arena of operations of its navy. The USSR was largely a land power and could, as the Chief of Staff of the US Army said, “without soaking its soles in water,” control the situation in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Spatial and geographical features are reflected in the concepts of proportional development of certain types of armed forces and, for example, for Russia, apparently, there is no need to strive for equality with the US naval forces. At the same time, models of international relations built only according to geopolitical parameters, especially in terms of Russia’s “natural” strategic rivals, popular on the “power-patriotic” flank of political thought, do not adequately reflect the realities of the world political situation. In addition to the space that geopolitics focuses on, the overall development process of modern states is determined by many other factors - ethnic, social, economic, civilizational.

A concept that characterizes the place and forms of influence of the territorial position of states on its policies and international processes. The term "geopolitics" was first used by the Swedish researcher R. Kjellen (1846-1922), who analyzed the "anatomy of power" of states and identified five main components of state policy - economic policy, demopolitics, sociopolitics, cratopolitics, geopolitics. In modern studies, geopolitics is viewed in a broader aspect, as a sphere of foreign policy strategy focused on the formation of a certain world political space, the struggle for hegemony on the world stage.

A school of political thought, a concept that recognizes the interests of the state as extending beyond officially recognized borders. Studies the dependence of government actions on the influence of geographical factors on the state and evolution of the economic, political and social systems of society.

One of the fundamental concepts of the theory of international relations, characterizing the place and specific historical forms of the impact of the territorial and spatial features of the position of states on local, regional and global international processes.

(gr. ge land + poli-tike politics) - a science that studies the totality of the physical and social, material and moral resources of the state, constituting the potential, the use of which (and in some cases even just its presence) allows it to achieve its goals in the international arena . The origin of geography, according to established tradition, is associated with its separation from political geography. In this regard, many theorists give a genetic definition of geography, which boils down to stating the differences between geography and political geography. Thus, political geography is considered to be satisfied with a static description of the state, which may include the study of changes in the course of its past development. G. is a discipline that weighs and evaluates the specific situation in which the state finds itself; it is always aimed at; future. Quite common! is also the organic definition of government. According to this approach, government is considered as a science about the state as a living organism; sometimes they speak of the state as a supra-biological organism. Important for understanding the essence of the science under consideration is its instrumental definition. From this point of view, geography is understood as a tool used in developing a state’s foreign policy and allowing one to take into account geographical, demographic, environmental and some other factors. Geographical determinism played the most important role as a theoretical prerequisite for the emergence of geography as a science. Modern geography is a science that studies the foreign policy of a state through a comprehensive analysis of a number of factors that determine it. In geopolitical analysis, three aspects are distinguished: 1) the study of the socio-political situation from the point of view of specific geographical and temporal conditions of their development; 2) comparison of real data with different and often opposing ideas about the same territory; 3) forecast and recommendations for implementing a political strategy for transforming space. The main geopolitical factors are: geographical (spatial location, natural resources); political (political system and features of the state, its borders, social structure of society, the presence of fundamental freedoms, etc.); economic (power and structure of productive forces, standard of living of the population, infrastructure, strategic reserves, etc.); military (size, power, combat readiness and combat capability of the armed forces, etc.); cultural (confessional, national traditions, level of development of science, education, healthcare, urbanization, etc. ); demographic (population density and composition, dynamics of its development); environmental (demographic pressure on the limited resources of the country and the planet, depletion of raw materials, changes in the viability of the population of various countries, etc.).

1 question. Geopolitics arose at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, as a science in Russia, from the beginning of perestroika.

Swedish scientist Rudolf Kjellen (1864-1922) introduced the concept of “geopolitics” into science.

Geopolitics considers the state not statically, as a permanent, unchanging formation, but dynamically - as a living being. This approach was proposed by the German theorist Friedrich Ratzel (1844-1904). Geopolitics studies the state mainly in its relation to its environment, primarily to space, and aims to solve problems arising from spatial relations. Geopolitics studies political phenomena in their spatial relationships, their impact on the Earth, and on cultural factors.

geopolitics -science, a system of knowledge about control over space.

The subject of geopolitics are current problems of the existence and development of the state, national interests, and the natural interdependence of politics and geographical factors. The most important problems that form the subject of the study of geopolitics include: spatial relations between countries and continents; the life (habitat) of a people in a specific geographical environment and a specific political situation; forms of life of the state associated with economic development, production of means of subsistence; the state's attitude to land and the production of material goods; strategy for global and regional (national) development, geopolitical strategy of the nation, etc.; trends in world geopolitics and contradictory geopolitical traditions. Methods of geopolitical science

System method.The essence of this method is to consider any area public life, science, in particular, geopolitics, as a holistic, complexly organized self-regulating organism, in continuous interaction with the environment through the inputs and outputs of the system.

Activity method It is focused on studying the dependence of the behavior of individuals or groups on their inclusion in more global communities, as well as on the study of the psychological characteristics of nations, classes, crowds, small groups, etc. In geopolitics, the activity method is aimed at analyzing the political picture in its dynamics.

Comparative method.. It involves comparing similar life phenomena to highlight them common features and specifics, finding optimal ways to solve problems, etc. This method allows you to fruitfully use the experience of other peoples and states. Historical method This method in geopolitics, as well as in philosophy, sociology, history, and political science, is one of the most important. The first Russian professional sociologist MM. Kovalevsky (1851 - 1916) proposed the historical-comparative method on the basis of comparative and historical methods. He is well known and does not need any special comments.

Essence normative-value method- in its name. It includes clarifying the significance of certain facts and phenomena for the state and the individual; assessment of these facts or phenomena for the benefit of the country and the individual.

Functional method requires a careful study of the dependencies between various spheres of public life or relations between countries or a group of countries: their economic, political relations, levels of military contacts or confrontation, the degree of urbanization of the population, its density, political activity, the height of moral and psychological spirit, etc.

Institutional method focuses on studying the activities of institutions through which political activity is carried out - the functioning of the state, parties, organizations and associations, etc. Until the beginning of the 20th century, this method was leading in political science and was widely used in sociology and geopolitics. The very concept of “social institution” came to science from sociology, and this term was introduced into scientific circulation by an English sociologist G. Spencer (1820-1903).

It is worth pointing out anthropological method. In first place in importance, he places not social factors, but the nature of man, who has a large set of needs, primarily material (air, water, food, clothing, housing, safety, spiritual development and so on.).

General logical methods relate to a greater extent to the organization and procedure of the cognitive process associated with geopolitical actions and changes.

Functions of geopolitics

Cognitive function associated primarily with the study of trends in the geopolitical development of countries and peoples, changes in various phenomena, processes, and events.

Prognostic function geopolitics follows from cognitive science and is closely linked with it. Actually, any research - theoretical, empirical - is carried out largely in order to give a more or less correct forecast of the development of geopolitical forces, fields, to identify the configuration of countries or unions, their influence on the development of international and ethnic relations, to resolve possible local conflicts and to develop recommendations to prevent or extinguish them.

Management function geopolitics is manifested primarily in the collection and analysis of empirical information, the development of specific management decisions and recommendations.

Ideological function geopolitics is as multifaceted as the previous ones. This discipline itself was a bone of ideological contention for many decades and was considered in the USSR to be a pseudoscience, an ideology of imperialism and fascism that justifies the aggressive aspirations of highly developed countries for world domination. So, geopolitics is the science of large spaces, of global political, economic and other processes and the art of managing them.

2.question Categories:Geopolitical space– the sphere where resources are located, where geopolitical entities interact, developing these resources and striving for their redistribution. Geo. Process- on the one hand, the state is geo. Produced on the other hand, the history of formation and distribution. The influence of a state over its resources in relation to similar actions of other states Subject of geopolitics– source of geo-activity – isolation of a national community, state or union of states Geo strategy– determination of geopolitical goals and means of achieving them

Geo potential – set of resources of the subject of geopolitics

Geo core the soviet national communities of its endemic field and controlled resources of time Geo interests– awareness by geopolitical subjects of their objects. Space control options

Geo field– spatial parameters of the state

Endemic-space belonging to the national community and completely controlled by it

Border field- government under the control of a given community, but not entirely founded by it

Cross field - a space claimed by several nationalities. Commonalities

Total field - a continuous space under the control of a national community.

Geopolitical reference point - a place (territory) located outside the total field, controlled by some state, but communications to this territory are controlled by another or other states. For example, the Kaliningrad region is now the stronghold of Russia.

Metafield - space developed simultaneously by several countries, states

Basic laws of geopolitics

The main law that most attracts the attention of researchers of this science, according to prominent experts, is the law of fundamental dualism. For example, Western scientists R. Challen and A. Mahan, X . Mackinder (1861 - 1947) and K. Haushofer (1869-1946), Russian researchers of this problem N.Ya. Danilevsky and V.P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky (1870-1942), P.N. Savitsky and L.N. Gumilev believed that this dualism is expressed in the opposition of land power (“tellurocracy”) and sea power (“thalassocracy”). The first manifests itself in the form of a military-authoritarian civilization (for example, Ancient Sparta, Ancient Rome), the second - a trading civilization (Ancient Athens and Carthage).

According to the founders of geopolitics, especially A. Mahan and H. Mackinder, this dualism initially carries within itself the seeds of hostility, which, falling on good political and military soil, give rise to the fruits of irreconcilable enmity of two elements (liquid, fluid and solid, permanent), two types of cultural and historical civilizations (democracy and ideocracy). Land power, or tellurocracy, is characterized by clearly defined boundaries, fixed space, ways of life of the population, the stability of its qualitative orientation: sedentism, limited choice of application of labor, conservatism, strict moral or legal norms and laws to which all individuals and groups of people, clans are subject. , tribes, peoples, countries, empires. Land is always strong, stable, solid. This firmness forms the firmness of morality and law, the firmness of tradition. Morals are fixed in the public consciousness, passed on by inheritance, and a code of ethical norms and principles is formed. This is manifested, in particular, in the fact that land peoples, especially sedentary ones, have a sense of collectivism rather than individualism; the spirit of entrepreneurship and profit is alien to them. In managing large and small groups, the main principle is hierarchy.

Sea power, or thalassocracy, according to the author of this concept, A. Mahan, is a completely opposite type of civilization (for more details, see Chapter 2). Thalassocracy, or trading civilization, is more dynamic and receptive to technological progress. She is characterized by the spirit of individualism, profit, and entrepreneurship. These and other qualities of an individual or group are determined by the sea, which requires a type of personality that can survive in extreme conditions. Therefore, an individual capable of enterprise and innovative solutions represents the highest value. Consequently, in such a civilization, moral and legal norms, principles, and laws become relative. This type of civilization develops more actively than the tellurocratic one, easily changes moral and cultural values, characteristics, while maintaining only one basic attitude - the desire to move forward, to new discoveries, adventures, and profit.

For centuries, continental civilizations (land) dominated the maritime ones: Sparta and Athens, Rome and Carthage, but with the development of technology (increasing the level of shipbuilding, improving weapons, division social labor and, consequently, commodity exchange and trade) the position of the sea and maritime civilizations objectively strengthened. This leads to another law of geopolitics: strengthening of the space factor in human history. This is especially emphasized by A. Mahan in his work “The Influence of Sea Power on History.” In particular, he notes that the English nation owes its greatness to the sea more than any other. The growth of the influence of thalassocracy begins with the era of great geographical discoveries, and reaches the peak of its power at the end of the 20th century, when Anglo-Saxon capitalism and industrialism formed as a single complex. A vocal stronghold of thalassocracy since the mid-20th century. steel USA. In the middle of the 20th century. geopolitical dualism reached its apogee when tellurocracy was identified with the USSR, and thalassocracy with the USA and the spheres of influence controlled by it.

As a derivative of the basic law of geopolitics - the dualism of thalassocracy and tellurocracy, we can, with a certain degree of convention, call the law synthesis of land and sea -"coastal zone". This is also a key concept in geopolitics, the “coastal zone”, or Rimland - a fragment of thalassocracy or lurocracy. The influence of the sea predetermines more active development on the coast than on land, so it is a more complex and cultural formation. Rimland simultaneously resembles, as A. Dugin believes, “an island and a ship,” and on the other hand, “Empire and Home.” In his opinion, Rimland is “a complex reality that has an independent logic and greatly influences both thalassocracy and tellurocracy” 13. The coastal zone acts as a subject of history with its own will and destiny, but they are realized within the framework of geopolitical dualism. Thus, Rimland acts as a belt, a border zone, or a border. In geopolitics, this term carries a different meaning than the concept of borders between states. Sea aliens see the coast not as a line for the continent itself, but as a territory that can be torn away from the continental mass, turned into a base, trade, military enclave for a further attack on land.

Question 3. Continental European school.

peculiarities:

    Telecratic focus

    The inextricable connection of the territory of population

    The theory of living space, the concept of a world power, and xn ter are being formed. Expansion, the idea of ​​a continental block of states.

The German scientist is rightfully considered one of the founders of geopolitics Friedrich Ratzel. Ratzel substantiated the thesis that the state is a biological organism acting in accordance with biological laws. Moreover, Ratzel saw the state as a product of organic evolution, rooted in the earth like a tree. The essential characteristics of a state are therefore determined by its territory and location, and its prosperity depends on how successfully the state adapts to environmental conditions. One of the main ways to increase the power of this organism, Ratzel believed, is territorial expansion, or expansion of living space. With the help of this concept, he tried to substantiate the idea that the main economic and political problems of Germany were caused by unfair, too tight borders that hampered its dynamic development.

The state has a tendency to grow into natural closed spaces, and this can be fully satisfied within the continent. The work was published in 1901 "On the laws of spatial growth of states." It has 7 laws: 1. The space of the state grows along with the growth of its culture. 2. The spatial growth of states is accompanied by the development of ideas, increased activity in various areas of trade. 3. The growth of the state is carried out by absorbing other states. 4. The border is a peripheral organ of the state; it is a demonstration of the strength or weakness of the state, a change in its body. 5. In its growth, the state strives to absorb the most valuable elements of the physical circle: coastlines, river basins, plains, resource-rich areas - “politically valuable places.” 6. The initial impulse for space growth comes to the state from outside, thanks to changes in the level of civilization and neighboring territories. 7. The general tendency of the absorption of weak civilizations by strong ones passes from state to state and, as the transition proceeds, gains strength, i.e. encourages expansion of territory.

Rudolf Kjellen- author of the term “geopolitics”. The main thesis of R. Kjellen: the state is a living organism. This is developed in his main work, “The State as a Form of Life,” in which, in particular, he writes: The state is not a random or artificial conglomeration of various aspects of human life, held together only by the formulas of legalists; it is deeply rooted in historical and concrete realities, it is characterized by organic growth, it is an expression of the same fundamental type what a person is like. In a word, it represents a biological entity or a living being.

Ratzel and Kjellen were the first to formulate an important geopolitical concept - the concept of "world power". Thus, Ratzel emphasized that large countries in their development tend towards maximum geographical expansion, gradually reaching the planetary level, i.e. are gradually becoming world powers. Ratzel predicted the fate of a continental “world power” in the future for Germany. This idea of ​​Ratzel was brought to its logical conclusion by Kjellen in the book “Great Powers” ​​(1910). He argued that the main subject of geopolitics are the great powers, which are “doomed” to subjugate small countries and unite them into large geographical and economic “complexes.” He pointed out that individual “complexes” of this type, in particular the USA, the British Empire, the Russian Empire, developed in the 18th-19th centuries, and he called Russia “the central figure of the planetary exhibition”, since it is the sphere of intersection of two large cultural worlds - Western Europe and East Asia. Because of this, it is more suitable than even the United States for a mediating role in interstate relations. At the beginning of the 20th century, according to Kjellen, a large European “complex” should be formed under the auspices of Germany, because the German space has axial dynamism and can structure the rest of the European countries around itself. As is known, this idea of ​​Ratzel and Kjellen about Germany as a “continental state” uniting the countries of Europe was “brilliantly resurrected” by the leaders of the Third Reich.

The basis of the geopolitical concept Haushofer he studied the history of the formation and geographical spread of the states of the Far East, primarily Japan, using the example of which he tried to demonstrate the relationship between the spatial growth of the state and the development of its constituent ethnic community. Among his works on the subject, the following should be mentioned: “The Japanese Empire in its Geographical Development”, “Geopolitics of the Pacific Ocean”, “Geopolitics of Pan-Ideas”, “World Politics Today”. The planetary dualism of “sea power” and “land power” confronted Germany with the problem of geopolitical self-identification. Supporters of the national idea - and Haushofer was undoubtedly one of them - sought to strengthen the political power of the German state, which implied industrial development, cultural upsurge and geopolitical expansion. But Germany’s very position in the Center of Europe, the spatial and cultural “middle position,” made it a natural adversary of the Western, maritime powers - England, France, and, in the future, the United States. The thalassocratic geopoliticians themselves also did not hide their negative attitude towards Germany and considered it (along with Russia) one of the main geopolitical opponents of the maritime West. In such a situation, it was not easy for Germany to count on a strong alliance with the powers of the “outer crescent,” especially since England and France had historical territorial claims against Germany. Consequently, the future of the national Greater Germany lay in geopolitical opposition to the West and especially the Anglo-Saxon world, with which “sea power” was actually identified. The entire geopolitical doctrine of Karl Haushofer and his followers is based on this analysis, which lies in the need to create a continental bloc or an axis Berlin - Moscow - Tokyo. There was nothing accidental in such a bloc - it was the only full-fledged and adequate response to the strategy of the opposite camp, which did not hide the fact that the biggest danger for it would be the creation of a similar Eurasian alliance. Haushofer wrote in the article "Continental block":“Eurasia cannot be strangled while its two largest peoples - the Germans and the Russians - strive in every possible way to avoid an internecine conflict similar to the Crimean War or 1914: this is an axiom of European politics.” There he quoted the American Homer Lee: “The last hour of Anglo-Saxon politics will strike when the Germans, Russians and Japanese unite.”

In this regard, it should be emphasized that Haushofer’s concept of “openness to the East” did not at all mean “occupation of Slavic lands.” It was about the joint civilizational effort of two continental powers - Russia and Germany - which would establish a “New Eurasian Order” and restructure the continental space of the World Island in order to completely remove it from the influence of “sea power”. The expansion of German space was planned by Haushofer not through the colonization of Russian lands, but through the development of gigantic uninhabited Asian spaces and the reorganization of the lands of Eastern Europe. However, in practice, everything did not look so clear. Haushofer's purely scientific geopolitical logic, which led to the need for a continental bloc with Moscow, collided with numerous trends of a different nature, also inherent in the German national consciousness. It was about a purely racist approach to history, which Hitler himself was infected with. According to this approach, racial proximity, rather than geographic or geopolitical specificity, was considered the most important factor. The Anglo-Saxon peoples - England, the USA - were seen in this case as natural allies of the Germans, since they were closest to them ethnically. The Slavs, and especially the non-white Eurasian peoples, turned into racial opponents. Added to this was ideological anti-communism, largely based on the same racial principle - Marx and many communists were Jews, which means that in the eyes of anti-Semites, communism itself is an anti-German ideology. Since Karl Haushofer was to some extent engaged in solving specific political problems, he was forced to adjust his theories to political specifics. Hence his contacts in the highest spheres of England. In addition, Haushofer outwardly welcomed the conclusion of the Anti-Commintern Pact, that is, the creation of the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo axis, trying to present it as a preliminary step towards the creation of a full-fledged Eurasian bloc. He could not help but understand that the anti-communist orientation of this union and the emergence of a heartland (Moscow) instead of the center

Geopolitical doctrine K. Schmitt relies on the development of two fundamental dichotomies: East - West and Land - Sea.

The value of politics, according to Schmitt, is not that it can lead to peace and well-being, but rather that forgetting the friend-enemy distinction can lead to decline. In this part of his concept, the noticeable influence of Mahan's ideas should be noted.

According to Schmitt, the countries of the Sea and the countries of the Land are civilizations that are opposite and hostile to each other, whose peoples develop and organize their living space in different ways.

He denotes the civilizational dualism of Earth and Sea with the help of two biblical monsters - Behemoth (it embodies land creatures) and Leviathan (represents all water and sea creatures). In relation to the “forces of the Land” he used the name Behemoth, and to the “forces of the Sea” - Leviathan. He compares the symbols of Sea and Land - Ship and House. “The ship is the basis of people’s sea existence, just as the House is the basis of their land existence.”

Schmitt came to the conclusion about the essential opposition of the “nomos” of the Earth to the “nomos” of the Sea. The "Nomos" of the Sea is a reality hostile to traditional society.

To reveal the dialectical nature of the polarity between the civilizations of the Sea and the civilizations of the Earth, K. Schmitt uses the “challenge-response” mechanism, which is able to adequately describe the historical situation.

Humanity is beginning to realize the absolute value of the natural world and limit the rampant technological innovation. The sharp deterioration of the environmental situation leads to the fact that even clean water and clean air have become scarce. It turned out that the natural environment cannot be replaced, therefore, it needs to be preserved, and this means, first of all, the need to stop the expansion of Absolute Technology by moving to a fundamentally different organization of cultural space - moving from the iconography of the Sea to the iconography of the Land.

Schmitt warns about the danger of a civilizational catastrophe caused by an imbalance between the Sea and the Earth, which is associated with the transition from the “old nomos” of the planet (when the sea dominated) to the “temporary”.

Schmitt saw three options for getting out of the disturbed balance between the Soil and the state of civilization.

First is that during the confrontation between the Earth and the Sea there will be a winner who will become the sole master of the world.

Second involves an attempt to maintain the equilibrium structure of the “old nomos”, i.e. to maintain the superiority of the Sea, adding to its naval superiority also land and air superiority. However, with such a development of the situation, according to Schmitt, the “partisan figure” of Sushi may appear as the last actor history, which will strive by all means to protect the “land order”, resisting the total offensive of the Sea. Schmitt's hypothesis about the special role of the “partisan figure” as a representative of the Continent, remaining faithful to the “nomos” of the Earth, can be seen as an attempt at revenge of the East on the West.

Schmitt foresaw that terrorism by fundamentalist groups would become a phenomenon in the 21st century. that real force that will force us to take a fresh look at all existing methods of geopolitical redivision of the world. "Guerrilla" develops a new ethic of war that does not involve traditional armed forces. “Partisan” is faithful to the spirit of the Continent and its traditions and is able to fight even alone to the end, defending the continental order against the “mercantile spirit of the Sea.”

Third the option is also based on the idea of ​​balance, which will be based on several blocks forming Large independent spaces that will establish agreement among themselves in maintaining order on the planet.

Blanche Vidal de la(1845 – 1918) – French professional geographer, founder of the French geopolitical schools. Works: “Picture of the Geography of France” (1903), “Eastern Europe” (1919). The founder of the “anthropological school” of political geography - possibilism (space does not predetermine history, but predisposes to one direction or another), which became an alternative to the German school of geopolitics. At the center of geopolitical theory, B. placed not geographical fatalism, but the will and initiative of man. Man, like nature, can be considered as a “geographical factor”. The latter is assigned an active role as a subject of influence on historical processes, which does not act in isolation, but within the framework of the natural complex. The main element of his theory is the category of locality in the development of civilization. It is based on individual foci, which are small groups of people formed in the interaction of man with nature. The state is determined by the nature and form of interaction between local cells of civilizations.

Question 4 In 1904 Mackinder published a report "Geographical axis of history", containing his geopolitical concept. He considers the internal space of Eurasia to be the main region of the geopolitical axis. He develops the Heartland theory. Heartland is a heart-shaped land. Heartland territory for world control. Africa, Asia, Europe make up the entire massif, which he calls the world island, then there is the inner crescent and the outer. Who rulesEasternEurope,dominatesaboveHeartland;WhorulesHeartland dominatesabove World Island; Whorules World island dominates over the world.

Mahan.

Sea power concept.

Proving the primary influence of naval armed forces on the outcome of wars and the fate of the state, Mahan tries to establish a direct connection between the geographical location of the state, its prosperity and the presence of sea power. To analyze the position and geopolitical status of the state, he proposed 6 criteria:

1. Geographical location of the state- its openness to the seas,

possibility of sea communications with other countries, length

land borders, the ability to control strategically important areas and threaten enemy territory with its fleet;

2. "Physical configuration of the state- the configuration of the sea coast, the number of ports, harbors, bays, on the presence of which the prosperity of trade and strategic security depend;

3. Length of territory equal to the length of the coastline;

4. Population and the state's ability to build and maintain ships.

5. National character- the ability to engage in trade, to found colonies, and to sail.

6. Political nature of government- on which depends the reorientation of the best natural and human resources to create a powerful sea force. 1

“Politics,” wrote Mahan, “changed both with the spirit of the age and with the character and insight of the rulers; but the history of the coastal nations was determined not so much by the dexterity and foresight of governments as by the conditions of the situation ... that is, in general, by what is called natural conditions" 2

These conditions contribute to the creation of a strong navy, the actions of which will ensure the fullest functioning of trade, which Mahan considered the main instrument of policy: “The proper use and control of the seas constitutes only one link in the chain of exchange by which countries accumulate wealth... , but this is the central link." 3

With a favorable combination of all the above factors, the formula comes into play

N + MM + NB = SP,

navy + merchant fleet + naval bases = sea power,

which Mahan explains as follows: “To capture individual ships and convoys of the enemy, at least in larger numbers... and overwhelming superiority at sea, expelling the enemy flag from its surface... such superiority makes it possible to establish control over the ocean and close the routes along which merchant ships are moving from enemy shores..." 4

The concept of "Sea Power" is based, according to Mahan, on the freedom of "Maritime Trade", and naval forces serve as a guarantor of this trade. Taking ancient Carthage and the historically closer Britain of the 17th - 19th centuries as a model of “Sea power”, Mahan calls “sea power” a special type of civilization - the best and most effective, and therefore destined for world domination.

Nicholas Spykman(1893-1943) - American scientist, professor of international relations, director of the Institute of International Relations at Yale University, was a continuator of the theory of Admiral T. Mahan. N. Spykman saw geopolitics not as a science that studies the influence of soil on the life of a state, and relief on national character, but as an analytical method that allows one to develop effective international policy. All the research of this scientist is purely pragmatic in nature. Spykman's main thesis can be boiled down to the fact that Mackinder overestimated the geopolitical significance of the Heartland. Spykman believed that the geographical history of the "inner crescent", the Rimland, and the "shore zones" was formed and proceeded on its own, and not under the pressure of "land nomads", as Mackinder argued. Heartland, according to Spykman, is a space that receives impulses from coastal zones, and not vice versa. Therefore, Rimland is the key to world domination, so whoever dominates it dominates Eurasia holds the fate of the world in their hands.

He identified ten criteria for the geopolitical power of a state: the surface of the territory, the nature of the borders, the size of the population, the presence or absence of minerals, economic and technological development, financial strength, ethnic homogeneity, the level of social integration, political stability, national spirit. If the sum of the assessment of the political capabilities of a state according to these criteria turns out to be small, then this state is forced to give up part of its sovereignty. In addition, Spykman introduced a new category - the “Middle Ocean”, which acts as an “inland sea”, which was the Mediterranean Sea in the Ancient World and the Middle Ages. He identifies a special geopolitical reality - the “Atlantic Contingent”, bound by a common culture of Western European origin, the ideology of liberal capitalism, democracy, and the unity of the political and ethical destiny of its kind. Western Europe and the US East Coast belt (especially New York) are becoming the brains of the new Atlantic community; the main power mechanism of the continent is the United States, which has a powerful military-industrial and trade potential.

Europe is an appendage of the USA: economic, military, intellectual. Its role and the political sovereignty of European states should be reduced. Power on the continent will gradually transfer to a special structure that unites the leaders of all “Atlantic” spaces. The main role in this structure will, of course, be played by the United States. Spykman developed to the utmost the idea of ​​“anaconda” - control and strangulation of the coastal territories of Afro-Asian, Arab countries, India and China, which can only be done by relying on force. He was a supporter of the use of force in international relations. Force, in his opinion, is a necessary component of any political order

5 Question:

The followers and students of N. Spykman not only developed, but also corrected the views of their teacher, a major representative of the Atlanticist line in geopolitics. Analyzing Spykman's theses, his student political scientist D. Meinig in his work “Heartland and Rimland in Eurasian History” notes that

geopolitical criteria should especially take into account the functional orientation of the population and the state, and not just the purely geographical relationship of the territory to Land and Sea 3 .

He divides the entire territory of the Eurasian Rimland into three types depending on functional and cultural predisposition. The first included China, Mongolia, North Vietnam, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Eastern Europe (including Prussia), the Baltic states and Karelia - spaces organically gravitating towards Heartland. The second type united countries such as South Korea, Burma, India, Iraq, Syria, Yugoslavia, i.e. geopolitically neutral countries. The countries of Western Europe, Greece, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, and Thailand were classified by D. Maynig as the third type, prone to the thalassocratic block 4 .

Spykman’s followers also took as a basis Maenig’s cultural-functional analysis, his vision of “tellurocratic” and “thalassocratic” predisposition, and believed that main role played by coastal civilizations, from which cultural impulses come into the continent. The intensity of these impulses may vary. The “thalassocratically oriented” sectors of the “inner crescent” have the highest cultural formats and the historical initiative belongs to them.

From the point of view of an American political scientist Saul Cohen all regions of the Earth can be divided into four geopolitical components:

1. external maritime (water environment), depending on the merchant fleet and ports;

2. continental core (nucleus), identical to "Hinterland” (a geopolitical term meaning “inland regions remote from the coast”);

3. discontinuous belt (coastal sectors oriented either inward or away from the continent);

4. regions geopolitically independent of this ensemble 5 .

Famous scientist and politician (former US Secretary of State) G. Kissinger , relying on the ideas of “discontinuous belts,” he believed that the US political strategy was to unite the disparate coastal zones into one, which would allow the Atlanticists to gain complete control over Eurasia and the USSR. This one whole should include those “coastal sectors” that remained neutral or gravitated towards Eurasia. The Kissinger Doctrine proposed that the United States act using the “carrot and stick” method: Vietnam - war, China - cooperation, support for the regime of the Shah of Iran M. Reza Pahlavi, nationalists of Ukraine and the Baltic states, etc. G. Kissinger’s ideas were closely linked to the US nuclear deterrence doctrine and NATO. The location of American and NATO nuclear weapons took into account the geographical and geopolitical characteristics of the regions. Atlanticism, being the geopolitics of the sea, was not alien to new ideas associated with scientific and technological progress, with the scientific and technological revolution in the military sphere. The emergence of new types of weapons - strategic bombers (the first of which dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki), intercontinental, cruise and other missiles - shook the priority of the Sea over Land. New doctrines were required, which, instead of the two most important elements of geopolitics (Sea and Land), had to take into account air and outer space, which involve the use of not only nuclear, but also plasma and laser weapons. These two new elements were called aerocracy and etherocracy. The mastery of these two environments, which the founders of geopolitics did not pay any attention to, nevertheless turned out to be an extension of thalassocratic theories, but at a higher level. History has shown that Atlanticism more dynamically and aggressively used all environments based on the Law of the Sea. The geopolitics of the Atlanticists turned out to be offensive, while the geopolitics of Eurasia was in a state of passive defense. In the sphere of aerocracy, the USSR achieved relative parity, but was unable to compete in “Star Wars,” which largely led to defeat in the Cold War, to the collapse of the Warsaw Pact community, and subsequently the USSR. In the 90s, geopolitical thought in the West was divided into two currents: “neo-Atlanticism” by Samuel Huntington (b. 1927) and “the end of history” by Francis Fukuyama. We will talk about Fukuyama’s concept below, but now we will talk about the neo-Atlanticism of Huntingdon, who, as director of the Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University, outlined in the article “The Clash of Civilizations” 6 his views on the problem of further relations between Sea and Land, West and East. He argued that the strategic victory of the Atlanticists over the Eurasians was not a civilizational victory. The West and the East are still civilizationally far apart. Western values ​​are the market, liberal democracy, individualism, human rights, etc., Eastern values ​​are collectivism, traditionalism, conciliarism, paternalism, etc. Huntington argued that Western ideology has triumphed temporarily, that its triumph will raise deep-seated cultural layers of the East: the influence of religious factors will increase, in particular, Islam and Orthodoxy, Shintoism and Buddhism, Confucianism and Hinduism. In the near future, in his opinion, Slavic-Orthodox, Confucian (Chinese), Japanese, Islamic, Hindu, Latin American and, possibly, African civilizations will make themselves known 7 . This factor again creates conditions for confrontation between the West and the East. This means, Huntington concludes, we must prepare for it, regulate in advance, if not restrain anti-Atlantic sentiments and tendencies, and prevent the geopolitical centers of opposition to the West from uniting into a single union. To do this, the West should:

Cooperate more closely, ensure unity between the US and Europe;

Integrate into Western civilization those societies in Eastern Europe and Latin America whose cultures are close to Western ones;

Prevent local conflicts between civilizations from escalating into global wars;

Limit the military expansion of Confucian and Islamic states;

Suspend the rollback of Western military power and ensure military superiority in Far East And in South-West Asia;

Use difficulties and conflicts in the relations between Islamic and Confucian countries;

Support groups that are oriented toward Western values ​​and interests in other civilizations;

Strengthen international institutions that reflect and legitimize Western interests and values, and ensure the inclusion of non-Western states in these institutions 8 .

As can be seen from these recommendations, Huntington considers China and Islamic states, primarily Iran, Iraq, Libya, and not Russia or any other Eurasian countries, to be among the most likely opponents of the West. But other neo-Atlanticists, such as Paul Wolfowitz, still believe that Russia is potentially the most powerful challenger to the United States and its NATO partners. In this regard, he calls for the creation of a “cordon sanitaire” against Russia, which would include the countries of Eastern Europe and the Baltic states.

The ideas of Atlanticism were developed by the ideologist of the “new world order” Z. Brzezinski. Back in 1986, in his book “The Game Plan,” he for the first time clearly characterized the rivalry between the USSR and

USA as a geopolitical struggle for control over Eurasia. He became one of the theorists of the “mondialism” movement.

The term “geopolitics” is used quite often in political rhetoric, but not everyone understands what is behind this concept (what sources, models, codes). The concept of “geopolitics” was first used by the Swedish scientist Rudolf Kjellen (1864-1922). He proceeded from the fact that the state is a geographical, spatial phenomenon.

Therefore, from his point of view, geopolitics is the science of the relationship between the earth and political processes. (Geopolitics consists of two Greek words: geo - earth, politikos - state, citizen, etc.) The basis of this knowledge system is political geography. The significance of this factor was very succinctly formulated by another classic of geopolitics, N. Speakman: “Geography is the most fundamental factor in a state’s foreign policy because this factor is the most constant. Ministers come and go, even dictatorships die, but the chains of mountains remain unshakable.”

Thus, geopolitics is a scientific discipline that explains politics from the point of view of geographical factors: the nature of borders (land, sea), security natural resources(can be explained by the nature of the country’s foreign policy orientation), island or land location of the country, climate, terrain (features social policy, customs, the nature of the country’s openness), etc. At the same time, geographical factors are studied in conjunction with historical, political and others that have the greatest impact on the strategic potential of the state.

Geopolitics studies

The influence of the geographical aspects of the state (nature of location, relief, climate, landscape, minerals),

Factors of strategic importance for the security of the state: new technologies in the economy in general and in military production, primarily telecommunications, the quantity and quality of the population, its political and ideological cohesion

The traditional elements of geopolitics are:

Geographical location of the country

Length

Configuration

Landscape

Dimensions

Population structure

New, modern views weapons,

Means of communication and information.

Object of geopolitics: this planetary space - solid land, water (seas and oceans), air envelope, enveloping the globe, on which for millions of years there has been a great confrontation between sea and land, air and earth's crust, i.e. planetary space with states, their borders, resources, etc. The object of geopolitics is planetary space, geopolitical processes and phenomena in the world community as a system.

The subject of geopolitics is the relationship between geopolitical subjects in solving global and regional problems (taking into account the influence of all types of space). The subject of geopolitics is:

1) control over planetary space

2) information wars aimed at information and psychological defeat of the enemy and at shaping public opinion

3) technical and economic processes, whose influence on political situation in the world at the end of the century increased sharply

4) the latest military-technical means: weapons of mass destruction and means of delivering them, detecting and destroying enemy weapons, controlling troops and their maneuvers, etc. etc.

5) expansion of the number of nuclear powers, and for Russia - the emergence of a new element of geopolitics - the expansion of NATO, which has arrogated to itself the right of an international arbiter

6) The demographic situation in countries has a great influence on the geopolitical balance of power South-East Asia, south of the Asian continent

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