Mackinder S Scope And Methods Of Geography After A Hundred Years

The Scope and Methods of Geography was a manifesto for the New Geography, in which he viewed physical geography and human geography as a single discipline.

In this book, Mark R. Polelle presents an overview of the evolution of geopolitical thought in three national contexts--the United States, Britain, and Germany--from 1870 to the present. Polelle examines in particular the rise of the defense intellectual and shows how the measurement of national power has changed. Geopolitics early in the century assumed the centrality of space and territory, but we close the century with despacialized concerns over geo-economic conflicts (e.g., that between Japan and the United States). Polelle explains this shift by putting it into historical context. His use of both historical and geographical methods makes Raising Cartographic Consciousness a valuable book for historians, geographers, and political scientists.

This volume examines geopolitics by looking at the interaction between geography, strategy and history. This book addresses three interrelated questions: why does the geographical scope of political objectives and subsequent strategy of states change? How do these changes occur? Over what period of time do these changes occur? The theories of Sir Halford Mackinder and Nicholas Spykman are examined in order to provide an analytical narrative for five case studies, four historical and one contemporary. Taken together they offer the prospect of converting descriptions of historical change into analytic explanations, thereby highlighting the importance of a number of commonly overlooked variables. In addition, the case studies will illuminate the challenges that states face when attempting to change the scope of their foreign policy and geo-strategy in response to shifts in the geopolitical reality. This book breaks new ground in seeking to provide a way to understand why and how the geographical scope of political objectives and subsequent strategy both expands and contracts. This book will be of much interest to students of geopolitics, strategic studies, military history, and international relations.

In this paper, Mackinder advanced his so-called Heartland Theory, whereby the interior Asia and eastern Europe ("the Heartland") had become the strategic center of the world as a result of the relative decline of sea power against land power and of the economic and industrial development of southern Siberia.

Includes section "Reviews" and other bibliographical material.