JEOPOLİTİK STRATEJİ - Deneme Sınavı - 6

Vietnam War (1963-1973) is one of the best examples that reflect the implementation of domino theory. The reason of the involvement of the US into the Vietnam War was explained as a measure to save other parts of Southeast Asia from the spread of communism, or in other words to prevent the domino effect which would stem from the war in Vietnam.

As Dodds suggests, a threefold division can help understand the working of critical geopolitics by showing the different directions they take as their focal point (Dodds, 2007: 45). The threefold division encompasses; the formal, practical and popular sub-categories. The formal is about revealing how academics and commentators lead to an intellectual tradition of geopolitics, the practical, on the other hand, is policy-oriented and focuses on geographical templates used by leaders, bureaucracy and other political institutions, and finally the popular one includes the role of the media and other forms of popular culture which people use to make sense of their own world.

Within the area of geopolitics, it is more com- mon to study geo-culture through the lenses of states foreign policies. In this sense, geo-culture is concerned with how a state might utilize its cultural bonds with other countries in the pursuit of geopolitical interests. These cultural bonds are factors such as religious, historical, linguistic or ethnic ties.

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. The answer is B.

In ancient Chinese and Indian writings, geopolitical ideas were set forth in relation to war strategies and statecraft. In the writings of Confucius (Confucius, The Analects) and Sun-Tzu (Sun-Tzu, 2002) the focal point is geostrategy through which the two thinkers aimed to guide their state for political and military success. Control of resources, topographical access routes, building alliances, inhabiting empty lands after occupation weresome of the subjects they had considered in their analyses. The answer is D.

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 answer is A.

In 1904 Halford Mackinder published his article “The Geographical Pivot of History” which represents the birth of political geography. He introduced a number of key elements and concepts within his theory, one of which is the “heartland”. Mackinder’s writings were mainly concerned with the grand strategy of the British empire and at this juncture geography was the pivot for a clear understanding of world politics. Writing in early 20th century, Mackinder was aware that with the end of the 19th century the imperialist expansionism of Europe had reached its boundaries and thus was trying to reveal the pivot region for world dominance. He described Eurasia, which is inaccessible by sea power, as the geographical pivot of world politics. This pivot region in this sense is the key to dominate world politics and thus the main root that the imperial grand strategy should be directed. Including Siberian forests in the north and the steppes in the south and bordered by Turkestan deserts, this pivotal region was ruled by the Russian Empire at that time, but the other potential dominant could be Germany allied with Russia or China. In 1919 Mackinder re-examined his argument and concluded that his thesis was still valid and applicable. In his new book “Democratic Ideals and Realities” he replaced the term pivot with heartland and expanded its boundaries as to encompass also Eastern and Central Europe. In this work, he also postulated that “Who rules Eastern Europe commands the Heartland. Who rules the Heartland commands the World Island. Who rules the World Island commands the world”. The answer is E.

George Kennan was the figure who suggested containment as the core of US geopolitical strategy against Soviet activities after the Second World War. The main source for his containment theory is an article Kennan published in 1947, in Foreign Affairs, but under the pseudonym “Mr. X”. Since Kennan was a member of the US Department of State during the Truman administration, he could promote the idea of containment. Containment, according to Kennan, is the “application of counter-force at a series of constantly shifting geographical and political points, corresponding to the shifts and maneuvers
of Soviet policy”. The answer is C.

The outcomes of the re-conceptualization of geopolitics as a discursive practice are diverse and significant which can be summarized as follows; 

• Geopolitics is not an area limited to the works of a small academic group, but a political act of political actors. 

• Traditional geopolitical reasoning produces spatial representation of world which is determinant in shaping and founding political perceptions. For example, the representation of the Soviet and communist regions as the axis of evil during the Cold War. 

• Core states or hegemonic powers have the privilege to form geopolitical perceptions of the rest of the world. 

• Emphasizing geopolitical differences gives geopolitics a salient role in identity politics. 

Geopolitics as an area of research then owes much to critical geopolitics since it opened a new way of thinking and revealed the underlying assumptions of mainstream geopolitics. However, this does not mean that mainstream geopolitics stopped to produce its traditional analyses in the post-Cold War period. Rather, they became more popular and attractive than they were in the Cold War. The answer is D.

What is common in all different definitions is that geostrategy links geography with strategy, and it is the intersection between them. In this manner, geostrategy is the field which transforms geopolitical visions into strategic plans. Then in a more precise and simple manner, geostrategy can be defined as the implementation of geopolitical visions. The answer is C.

Russia, the main actor of US and European energy geostrategies, is therefore a good example of the materialization of geoecomics. Russia uses its energy endowment to advance strategic objectives, which can best be seen in the Russian-Ukrainian gas crisis of 2008. In December 2008, Russia cut off the gas supply to Ukraine on due to the disagreement of the two on prices and tariffs. When Russian exports to Ukraine were cut off, exports to 16 EU member states and Moldova were first drastically reduced and cut completely from 7 January. This has affected all European countries, but mostly Balkan countries which turned about to be a humanitarian problem. Russia’s use of its economic advantage in this way exposed the power of economic tools in gaining geopolitical benefits and thus intensified the efforts of Europe to diversify away from Russian gas. The answer is B.

Because it is different from an ordinary type of land, territory appears to be a significant criterion to define the state. For this reason, to make distinction between the modern nation state and the states before the arrival of nation state, the first is also referred to as territorial state. The difference is that in the definition of modern nation state, physical space is attributed to the state as an integral and indispensable element. In other words, only a state has territory which holds a political connotation and implies a monopolistic political control. In other words, a state, by definition and out of legal necessity, has to have a territory; and it is not possible to speak of a state without a defined territory. The answer is A.

The literature spells out different aspects and dimensions of globalization. A substantial number of scholarly accounts are focused on economic globalization. First used in 1986, it is fairly difficult to define the term globalization. In defining this term, some scholars place emphasis upon multinational enterprises and information technology as driving forces of the process, as well as their global impacts. Market economy plays a determinative role in economic globalization: “[t]he market economy has conquered all over the world. Ten years ago, less than 1 billion people were living in market economies. Now that number is 5 billion. This is the phenomenon called globalization.”. This definition focuses on the economic dimension of globalization only. However, in another definition, “globalization refers to links tying nations of the world together”. The answer is B.

There is a strong linkage between the study of political geography and the IR discipline as an attempt at understanding interstate politics and the practices of the political stage including warfare, conflict, power struggle, development and cooperation. Thus, it is no surprise to observe the development of geopolitics
as a concept and as a discipline in tandem with the study of international relations. Students of the IR and of geopolitics have produced significant accounts in the interwar period during which pursuit of lasting peace among nations has been the main engagement. The answer is E.

In response to the criticisms that globalization process undermined the significance of geography in the study of world politics, proponents suggested that the advances in technology helped people and relevant actors to rely on premises of culture to mobilize like-minded people in different parts of the world. In other words, geopolitics has become even more relevant in this age of information and mobilization. This argument can be confirmed by the recent popular uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region where unconnected masses were organized through social media and initiated a process called the Arab Spring. The answer is A.

Unilateral use of force as well as territorial acquisitions by coercion is strictly prohibited in international law; and as such, states no longer attempt to change their legally recognized borders. Any action that violates this cardinal rule is often sanctioned and punished through collective measures. The international action taken against Saddam Hussein who invaded Kuwait is a prime illustrative example. The answer is C.

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. Like Fukuyama, Huntington also agrees that the Cold War ended with the indisputable victory of the Western liberal democracy but further recalls that rivalry will not be replaced by permanent and lasting peace just because of that victory. In other words, the clash of civilizations approach underlines that there might be even a fiercer rivalry which, however, will now take place due to intercivilizational disputes and ambitions. The answer is B.

Diversification and complexity in the international affairs further led to specialization and compartmentalization in the definitions and the contents of other relevant areas and disciplines, including geopolitics. By nature, geopolitics is already associated with a number of relevant fields; but this connection and association became stronger in the era of globalization. While this could be an asset for the discipline itself, divisions have also emerged among analysts studying different aspects of geopolitics. For instance, who study the classical geopolitics, placing emphasis upon the deterministic nature of geography, are of the view that the field focuses on space, land, water and outer space because these are the vital elements for the political supremacy in the world (Cohen, 1964). For others, geopolitics is a research field that pays particular attention to not only geography but also dynamics leading up to clashes and rivalries between great powers. In fact, this is how particular strands of geopolitics came into life: the geopolitics of oil (Klare, 2009), the geopolitics of religion (Dijkink, 2006), the geopolitics of water (Selby, 2005), the geopolitics of propaganda and the geopolitics of internet (Hlihor, 2014). The answer is E.

Interdependence is a term referring to the intricate ties and bonds between the states and intergovernmental organizations that cannot be possibly ignored in the analysis of world politics. The theory of interdependence basically suggests that due to the inevitable engagement between states in political, military and economic realms, international cooperation is a must and a wise
move for the overall betterment of all states and of the international system. The answer is B.

Association between geopolitics and globalization can be maintained in three different levels in the era of globalization. The first is the geopolitics of globalization. There is a need to focus on globalization as a term that can be analyzed from a geopolitical perspective. The second takes place at the national level where geopolitics develops with reference to the difference between states and can be called geopolitics of development. The third is an increasingly complex system governed by globalization which can be called “low geopolitics.” This is the type of geopolitics without consideration of military strategies but with real impacts on everyday life of the people. The answer is A.