JEOPOLİTİK STRATEJİ

The Ural range cannot be considered a natural dividing line separating these two adjacent regions despite the fact that it has been widely used for this purpose, and thus well established as a geopolitical boundary as exemplified in the common usage of “from the Atlantic to the Urals” in reference to Europe’s geographical identity. “The status, ascribed to the Urals, of a conventional frontier between Europe and Asia, is a human contrivance. We owe it to Tatichtchtev, the official geographer of Tsar Peter the Great, who hit on it at the start of the 18th Century for strictly political purposes. His goal at the time was for Moscow to be considered as a European city, for two reasons: firstly, to legitimate the strategy of alliance with resourcerich Western powers – notably military – liable to modernise the Empire; secondly, to legitimate a series of military victories against the Turks and the Tatars”. Therefore, the correct option is E.

In the past several decades, both the deepening and enlargement of the EU has affected the meaning of the internal borders and the dynamics of bordering across Europe. With the entry into force of Schengen Treaty in 1985, and the completion of the EU’s single market in 1992, the internal borders of the EU have become fuzzier and individual countries are easily accessible, since border checks and controls have been removed and cross-border interactions have increased steadily. This has led to a change in the meaning of borders across the EU, and external borders have gained a new relevance and importance in the face of security concerns following the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the growing tide of illegal immigrants in the 2000s. Therefore, the correct option is A.

Similarly to the Romans, the northern Europeans also tried to use maritime trade for the purpose of geopolitical domination. In the Baltic Sea, from the 13th Century onwards, two key ports, Hamburg and Lubeck, managed to set up the Hanseatic League in order to achieve both autonomy for their respective cities and safety for their commercial network reaching to the Atlantic through the English Channel. Therefore, the correct option is B.

With the increasing rivalry of other major European powers with these two Iberian naval powers, it was possible to speak of recurrent overseas conflicts between them which led to a process of colonization across the world with dire consequences for the colonized peoples at the hand of the colonizing Europeans. Before the outbreak of the First World War, most of the world was under the rule of European colonial powers. However, this colonial domination came to an end in the post-Second World War period, facilitated by the post-war fall of major colonial powers, most notably Britain and France, which led to the independence of European colonies in Africa and Asia from the 1950s to the 1970s. Therefore, the correct option is B.

European integration project launched in the 1950s was devised and regarded as an antidote to the geopolitical thinking by nature: “…the EU has staked its reputation on being an anti-geopolitical unit. In the memorable phrase of Ole Wæver, ‘Europe’s other is Europe’s past’, the EU being a peace organization, a ‘civilian’ or ‘normative’ power, aimed precisely at overcoming the militarism and nationalism, historically associated with classical geopolitical thought, that had plagued Europe’s early twentieth century.” The restoration of peace in Europe after long centuries of conflict between European nations was the main success of the 70 year-long European integration, and due to this success, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2012. Therefore, the correct option is C.

Given that the Realist school in IR was not able to predict the end of the Cold War, and thus looked to be losing ground to non-Realist approaches, the revival of geopolitics in European politics was unexpected for many scholars, but not so surprising for the Realists and political geographers. According to Guzzini: “For them, the post-Cold War era was a dangerous peace, resurrecting a host of factors that almost required a revival in geopolitics.” This revival was identified as “neoclassical geopolitics”, since it is no longer an evil political way of thought often associated with Hitler’s German Geopolitik and his expansionist foreign policies, while still representing the environmentally deterministic posture of the old (classical) school of geopolitics in the post-Cold War era. Therefore, this rise of the neoclassical school in Europe was justified on these grounds, and relevant for explaining the foreign policy behaviors of European powers. Therefore, the correct option is D.

Despite the fact that it was never clarified by the EU, the adjective ‘European’ was thought to be a geographical concept which identifies the boundary of Europeanness or European identity, which also has historical and cultural elements. Thus non-European states such as Morocco were unable to become a member of the EU, as Rabat’s membership application already being rejected on a geographical basis by the EC in 1987, showed clearly. However, beyond geography, there are other sets of conditions called the Copenhagen Criteria which are applied to the acceding countries in terms of whether or not they conform to the political, economic and legal norms and standards of the EU. On this basis, some European political leaders claim that even Israel can be a prospective EU member despite not being in Europe geographically.
The Copenhagen Criteria:
Political criteria: democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities;
Economic criteria: the existence of a functioning market economy as well as the capacity to cope with competitive pressure and market forces within the Union;
The adoption of the EU acquis: the ability to take on the obligations of membership.

Therefore, the correct option is C.

The aim of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP): “…strengthening stability, security and well-being for European Union member states and neighbouring countries, and preventing the emergence of new dividing lines between the enlarged Union and its neighbours”. Therefore, the correct option is

EU’s privileged relationship with its neighbors under the ENP “…will build on mutual commitment to common values principally within the fields of the rule of law, good governance, the respect for human rights, including minority rights, the promotion of good neighbourly relations, and the principles of market economy and sustainable development”.

Partners in EU’s Neighborhood Policy: ten Mediterranean countries (Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestinian Authority, Syria and Tunisia) and six Eastern countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine). Therefore, the correct option is D.