JEOPOLİTİK STRATEJİ

Roman philosophers focused mainly on the relationship between nature and human beings as in ancient Greece, using geographical circumstances for the benefit of the state, and in some sense geostrategic considerations in relation to occupying lands and even uniting nations under one political administration.

Ratzel is the first theorist who introduced and used space and location as a means of analyzing the state. His theory of state was based on the organic state idea that accordingly suggests that states are living organisms which are born and have to grow. For a state, to grow a sufficient life-space (lebensraum) is imperative, therefore in order to grow, states have to expand by changing existing borders. Lebensraum was defined by Ratzel as the geographical surface area required to support a living species at its current population size and as population grew it had to expand.

In 1904 Halford Mackinder published his article “The Geographical Pivot of History” (Mackinder, 1904) 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”.

According to Kjellen, geopolitics is one of the main disciplines to understand and analyze the state. Other disciplines were ekopolitik for the analysis of the economic structure of the state, demopolitik (etno) which is for population analyses, Sociopolitiks for analyzing the state-society relations and finally kratopolitiks for governmental constitutional politics.

Kjellen made a classification of states and divided great powers into two categories as world powers and great powers. Accordingly, England, the United States, Russia and Germany were counted as world powers; France, Japan, Austria- Hungary and Italy on the other side as great powers.

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 domino theory essentially was based on the idea that if one country in a region came under the influence of communism, then the surrounding countries would follow it in a domino effect. It was first suggested in 1947 by William Bullit (Cohen, 2015: 29) and was adapted in policies of the Kennedy and Nixon administrations.

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.

Another geopolitical approach which made a great impact is Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations. Huntington’s approach is not based on the struggle for gaining control over geographical areas, or in other words the determining factor for struggle in Huntington’s theory is not geography but civilization. In Huntington’s words, “the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or economic. [But instead] the great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural”. The answer is B.

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.

Within the area of geopolitics, it is more common 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. The answer is D.

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.