Geopolitics

One of the most important influences on a state’s foreign policy behavior is its location and physical terrain. The presence of natural frontiers, for example, may profoundly guide policymakers’ choices. Consider the United States, which has prospered because vast oceans separate it from Europe and Asia. This advantage, combined with the absence of militarily powerful neighbors permitted the United States to develop into an industrial giant and at times to practice safely an isolationist foreign policy for over 150 years. Consider also mountainous Switzerland, whose topography and geostrategic position have made neutrality a compelling foreign policy posture.

Similarly, maintaining autonomy from continental politics has been an en-during theme in the foreign policy of Great Britain, an island country whose physical separation from Europe served historically as a buffer separating it from entanglement in major-power disputes on the continent. Preserving this protective shield has been a priority for Britain and helps to explain why the British government in the early 1990s resisted greater integration of its economy into the European Union.

Most countries are not insular, however; they have many states on their borders, denying them the option of noninvolvement in world affairs. Germany, which sits in the geographic centre of Europe, historically has found its domestic political system and foreign policy preferences profoundly affected by its geostrategic position. In the 20th century alone, even before the unification of East and West, Germany had "undergone five radical changes in political personality – from Wilhelm II’s empire to the Weimar Republic, from Hitler’s Reich of the Thousand Years to its two postwar successors, the Federal Republic of Germany … and the German Democratic Republic" (Joffe).

In much the same way, extended frontiers with the former Soviet Union shaped the foreign policies of China and Finland. Finland’s neutrality in the Cold War helped ensure its survival in the face of a powerful and threatening neighbour. China, on the other hand, has long regarded its relationship with the now defunct Soviet Union as unequal, and in the late 1960s the two communist giants clashed militarily as the Chinese sought to rectify past injustices. The "unequal treaties" between China and outside powers, which encapsulate these perceived injustices, resulted in part from China’s size and location, which made it an easy target for the great powers that had carved it into spheres of influence in previous centuries.

Like China, the Latin American countries have found themselves geographically near a much stronger power, the United States, whose capabilities are in part a function of geophysical resources. Latin America has long been the object of studied interest and frequent intervention by the giant to the north. South America’s economic dependence on the United States provoked a bitter response for many decades, because those countries felt they could not compete on an equal footing with the U.S. economic and military powerhouse. Their foreign policy of resistance to so-called Yankee imperialism was driven by their disadvantaged circumstances. Understandably, many other poor Global South countries without many resources also see that, given their geoeconomic condition, their foreign policy goals should be geared to opposing imperialism – what Egypt’s President Nasser defined as "the subjugation of small nations to the interests of the big ones."

History is replete with other examples of geography’s influence on states’ foreign policy goals, which is why geopolitical theories are useful.

The geopolitics school of realist thought and political geography generally stress the influence of geographic factors on state power and international conduct. Illustrative of early geopolitical thinking is Alfred Thayer Mahan’s (1890) „The Influence of Sea Power in History“, which maintained that control of the seas shaped national power. Thus states with extensive coastlines and ports enjoyed a competitive advantage. Later geopoliticians, such as Sir Halford Mackinder (1919) and Nicholas Spykman (1944), stressed that not only location but also topography, size (territory and population), climate, and distance between states are powerful determinants of the foreign policies of individual countries. The underlying principle behind the geopolitical perspective is self-evident: Leaders’ perceptions of available foreign policy options are influenced by the geopolitical circumstances that define their states’ place on the world stage.

Geopolitics is only one aspect of the global environment that may influence foreign policy. We will also discuss additional global factors. In the following unit we will comment briefly on three internal attributes of states that influence their foreign policies: military capabilities, economic characteristics, and type of government.

Exercises: