Geography 2142A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Friedrich Ratzel, Critical Geopolitics, Geopolitics
19 Mar 2014
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Document Summary
Topics of classical geopolitics: power of the heartland (central european landmass, principles in the monroe doctrine (1823) = essentially, was an established concept by the u. s. that the western hemisphere would be free from european intervention. Justified as protecting the western hemisphere from colonialism and imperialism which they considered evil: division of the globe into continental blocs (pan-region) Importance of natural frontiers to the security of a country. Geopolitics modalities: military = key element of german geopolitics in 1940s, policies of genocide, racism and expansionism, us geopolitics has been closely tied to military examination of battle fields, technology (satellites/gis) and tactics, ex. Cold war which was shared by other western allies: critical geopolitics, an examination of language and discourse, content analysis of speeches, documents, treaties, maps and memoirs. Realist approach: the international arena or geopolitical world is conceived as being anarchic.
