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Geopolitical conditions influence all strategic behaviour - even when co-operation among different kinds of military power is expected as the norm, action has to be planned and executed in specific physical environments. The geographical world cannot be avoided, and it happens to "organized" into land, sea, air and space - and possibly the electromagnetic spectrum including "cyberspace". Although the meaning of geography for strategy is a perpetual historical theme, explicit theory on the subject is only 100 years old. Ideas about the implication of geographical, especially spatial, relationships for political power - which is to say "geopolitics"--Flourished early in the 20th century. Divided into theory and practice sections, this volume covers the big names such as Mackinder, Mahan and Haushofer as well as looking back at the vital influence of weather and geography on naval power in the long age of sail (16th-19th centuries). It also looks forward to the consequences of the revival of geopolitics in post-Soviet Russia and the new space-based field of "astropolitics".--Publisher description.
E-Book Content
GEOPOLITICS, GEOGRAPHY AND STRATEGY
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Geopolitics, Geography and Strategy Editors
COLIN S. GRAY (Centre for Security Studies, University of Hull)
GEOFFREY SLOAN (Britannia Royal Naval College)
~l Routledge
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Taylor & Francis Group
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First Published in 1999 by FRANK CASS PUBLISHERS
Published 2013 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 USA
Transferred to Digital Printing 2005
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright © 1999 Taylor & Francis
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Geopolitics, geography and strategy I. Geopolitics 2. World politics - 1945I. Gray, Colin S. (Colin Spencer), 1943- II. Sloan, G. R. (Geoffrey R.), 1955-
320.1'2 ISBN 978-0-714-64990-0 ISBN 978-l-3l5-03833-9(eISBN)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Geopolitics, geography, and strategy / editors, Colin S. Gray, Geoffrey Sloan. p.cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-714-64990-0. - ISBN 978-1-315-68053-8
I. Geopolitics. I. Gray, Colin S. II. Sloan, G. R. (Geoffrey R.) JC319.G487 1999
320.r2-dc21
99-38173 CIP
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Contents
1. Why Geopolitics?
I.
Geoffrey Sloan and Colin S. Gray
GEOPOLITICAL THEORY AND STRATEGY: THE WORDS AND THE HISTORY OF IDEAS
2. Sir Halford Mackinder: The Heartland Theory Then and Now
3. Alfred Thayer Mahan, Geopolitician
Geoffrey Sloan