JEOPOLİTİK STRATEJİ - Deneme Sınavı - 15

In line with containment, Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former national security advisor of Jimmy Carter, is another name who approached containment through the lenses of geopolitics. According to Brzezinski, for containing the Soviet Union it was imperative to gain control over ‘linchpin’ states, which were key states owing to their geopolitical location. The linchpin states according to Brzezinski at that time were, Germany, Poland, Iran, Afghanistan-Pakistan, South Korea and the Philippines.

Geo-economics makes use of economic tools for gaining influence in geostrategic competition and for the global powers in shaping the institutional framework of the international economic order. These tools are all economic techniques of statecraft, ranging from trade policy to investment policy and from sanctions to foreign aid. However, at this point, some questions arise which blurs the line between military and economic tools. Bombing a factory for example is not geo-economics since bombs are not economic means. But when it comes, for example, to the economic blockades, the case gets confusing. Although blockades are part of military power, they still are economic tools because they should not be engaged only in hot military conflicts. For this reason, blockades can be included within the sphere of geo-ecomics as a means.

Geo-culture was coined by Immanuel Wallerstein to refer to the cultural framework of the modern world system. Geo-culture in his conception is representing the cultural framework within which the world-system operates. For Wallerstein, the world system is global capitalism and the geo-culture of the system has been formed by liberalism beginning from the French revolution which has been underlined by the nation state as a form of political entity. The world economy that is capitalism in Wallerstein’s understanding and liberalism as its ideological premise formed the geo-culture of the world system.

From a contemporary geopolitical perspective, the Caucasus is the region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea and comprised of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia, though the parts of Russia, Turkey and Iran could be included from a geographic standpoint.

Black Sea region has in the past played a major role in shaping history of the regions around it. For centuries, the diversity of people living in the region has been both a source of conflict and of cultural enrichment. Since Antiquity, when Jason and Argonauts went to its shores to search for Golden Fleece, it attracted wider European attention. It had been, from Antiquity to the end of the 20th century, a backyard of one power or the other; otherwise witnessed their competition to dominate it. It saw the dominance of the Byzantine, Ottoman, and finally Russian Empires that successfully closed it to the outside world for a number of years. During the most of the 18th and 19th centuries, the Black Sea saw a struggle for supremacy over the sea between the Ottoman Empire and Czarist Russia. In fact, the control over the Turkish Straits, which links the Black Sea to the open seas, was one of the most influential determining factors shaping the alliances in world politics. Supremacy over the Black Sea was the main reason behind the Crimean War of 1856 and struggle to control the Straits created one of the most memorable battles of the First World War. Similar situation existed during the Second World War and after that during the Cold War. Russian maneuvering to gain control over the Straits, or at least to share their responsibility, during the Second World War had induced Turkey to seek membership in the NATO, thus bringing the latter to the region.

As a result of the disintegration of the Soviet Union in December 1991, eight diverse republics emerged in Central Asia and the Caucasus, in addition to two more in the Black Sea region apart from Russian Federation, facing similar problems. While national minorities rediscovered long suppressed identities and demanded new rights throughout the region, political leaders in all the countries plunged into what could best be described as a prolonged period of nation and state building process. While the Caucasian countries had experiences of statehood before finally subjugated to the Russian/Soviet rule in the early 20th century and Moldova had a very brief independence in 1918, Central Asian countries as well as Ukraine had never in history experienced with a modern state system and did not exist in the forms that they gained their independence at the end of the 20th century. Most of the borders emerged after their independence did not have much meaning for the nomadic people of the pre-Russian Eurasia. As people of these regions started to realize their ethnic, religious, and historical roots, the emerging diversity created domestic and regional rivalries as well as international influences and pressures

Geopolitics, in its broader definition, is the analysis of the geographic influences on power relationships in international relations. Etymologically consisting of the words “geo” meaning earth, land and “politics”; geopolitics is a discipline emerged out of political geography

Another related concept of geopolitics is geoeconomics. Basically, geo-economics is the use of economic instruments to produce beneficial geopolitical results. In this sense, it appears as a concept related to statecraft. But on the other side, there is another aspect of geo-economics that determines the term as the effects of other states’ economic actions on a state’sexisting geopolitical goals. In this regard geo-economics means a method of analysis (Blackwill and Harris, 2016: 19). The two concepts are not only closely linked but they also overlap and are mutually reinforcing.

In the Western tradition, ancient Greek and Roman philosophers are the first sources regarding geopolitical thinking. In this manner, Aristoteles (BC 384 -322) stands out among his contemporaries. He discussed many topics which can be now classified as geopolitics, more than twenty centuries before the term was coined. Aristoteles analyzed the relationship between climate and human nature, the impact of geography on states economic and military preferences.

The Medieval era had contributed to the geopolitical understanding of subsequent ages, primarily through the geographical discoveries of the 15th and 16th centuries. With the discovery of new geographies, oceans, peoples, and states, European thinkers became aware of the importance of geography for the strategic and economic benefits of states. The emergence of capitalism in the 16th century, on the other hand, was the main driver for new geopolitical works along with the development of colonialism. In this line, the writings of Jean Bodin (1530 – 1596) are worth mentioning. Bodin followed the ancient idea that the natural environment is a determining factor of human character and he suggested that for establishing the structure and laws of the state, environmental conditions should be taken seriously into account

Montesquieu in the 18th century explained in his book “The Spirit of the Laws” the difference of legislative structures of states by relating it to geography, namely the climate. For example, according to Montesquieu, warm climates weaken people, and they become more prone to be enslaved, while people living in colder climates are braver and thus prone to be free. The geographical determinism in Montesquieu’s writing has beena phenomenon lasting since Aristoteles in geopolitical or geographical thought and this phenomenon is the main point where geopolitical thinking splits into premodern and modern categories. The pre-modern geopolitical thinking assumes the man as a part of the nature and therefore is not geopolitics in the sense of the word. In other words, what separates modern geopolitical thinking from the premodern one is the assumption that man and nature are distinct and geopolitics as a science aims to reveal and analyse the relationship between them

The North and South Caucasus have especially complicated ethnic mixtures. Even though each of the newly independent Caucasian states has its own dominant titular nation, each state also has a significant number of minorities. Moreover, while the majority in Central Asia is Sunni Moslem, the South Caucasus also has a complex diversification in terms of religious faiths that are closely related to separate nationalethnic identities. The Azerbaijanis belong to the Turkic race and the majority of them are Shi’ite Moslems. However, a majority of Armenians and Georgians are believers of two branches of the Eastern Orthodox Church. There are Armenians living in Azerbaijan and Georgia. The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region is located within the borders of Azerbaijan while 76,4 percent of its indigenous population is Armenians. In contrast, Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic, which is part of Azerbaijan but located between Armenia and Iran, is formed mostly of Azerbaijanis.

Dutch Disease: It is a term coined by the Economist in 1977 to describe the problems of the Dutch economy related to its one-product economy. In 1960s, after the large oil reserves are discovered in the North Sea, the Dutch oil exports increased on a vast scale. Despite the positive development, there were serious consequences on important segments of the Dutch economy as the Dutch guilder (former currency of the Netherlands) became stronger. Non-oil exports became more expensive and therefore less competitive. Moreover, between 1970 and 1977, the unemployment rates increased from 1,1% to 5,1%. Since the oil and gas extraction are capital-intense businesses, they generate few jobs. This situation occurred in many countries across the world. The Dutch disease is generally linked to a natural resource discovery but it can be related to the any sector in which there is an unexpected high increase that causes a decline in other sectors.

The term “frozen conflict” indicates to a condition in which active fighting has ended or subsided but there is no peace agreement beyond a tenuous cease-fire. It was politically first used to refer to the conflicts that emerged in the Caucasus during the early 1990s, and continued without a solution since then, but there is no active fighting anymore along the ceasefire lines. Since then the terminology expanded to include Trnasnistrea conflict in Moldova as well.

Despite the fact that the official hostility between Russia and the Chechens ceased in August 1996, the instability and volatility of the situation continued in the North Caucasus for some time because of political kidnappings and hostage taking, as well as the non-implementation of agreements. One of the most important consequences of the Chechen conflict was the gradual failure of law and order in Dagestan, which was significant for Russia as it was clear that the complete control of the North Caucasus by the Russian authorities could provide the continuation of Russian influence in the South Caucasus.

According to Montevideo Convention which sets out the parameters of a state spells out four aspects for a political entity to be properly called a state: defined territory, permanent people, centralized authority and sovereignty. The correct answer is A.

Globalization refers to links tying nations of the world together. The correct answer is B.

Samuel Huntington (1996) argued that a potential clash between major civilizations replaced the ideological rivalry during the Cold War. Huntington’s famous clash of civilizations argument suggests that ideology is no longer the source of conflicts and disputes in interstate politics which would be from now on characterized by the disagreements associated with desires for domination by different civilizations. The correct answer is C.

The End of History thesis offered by Francis Fukuyama holds that the battle between major ideologies ended with the obvious victory of liberal democracy, suggesting that the liberal values are the ultimate achievement of mankind. The answer is D.

Particular strands of geopolitics are the geopolitics of oil, the geopolitics of religion, the geopolitics of water, the geopolitics of propaganda and the geopolitics of the internet. The answer is E.