POLITICAL HISTORY

and GEOPOLITICS OF
THE WORLD
MICHAEL C. JAMILLON

Department of Political Science

College of Arts and Sciences
Ifugao State University - Lamut
POLITICAL HISTORY AND
GEOPOLITICS OF THE
WORLD

Prepared by:

MICHAEL C. JAMILLON, MAPolSci

Chair, Department of Political Science

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 UNIT I

THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF

GEOPOLITICS

Learning Objectives

At the end of the unit, you should be able to:

1. Identify the objectives nature and coverage of the course

2. Explain the importance of the course in general to the overall study of Political Science
3. Underscore the relevance of the course to the understanding of international relations and
domestic affairs of states and non-state actors.
4. Describe the concepts of place and scale

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 PRE-TEST

Before we proceed with the formal introduction of the subject, we determine first your basic
knowledge of, and about the world. This course necessitates and expects that you possess some
basic knowledge and understanding about the countries or states in the world, the world leaders of
each of the free states and so on. THIS ACTIVITY WILL BE RECORDED.

1. ____________________ 11. ____________________

2. ____________________ 12. ____________________

3. ____________________ 13. ____________________

4. ____________________ 14. ____________________

5. ____________________ 15. ____________________

6. ____________________ 16. ____________________

7. ____________________ 17. ____________________

8. ____________________ 18. ____________________

9. ____________________ 19. ____________________

10. ____________________ 20. ____________________

DIRECTION: Write on the spaces provided the countries, continents or territories marked with numbers.

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 DIRECTION: These are some of the world leaders today. The study of geopolitics requires you to be familiar
with these global leaders as they make or break decisions based on current socio-political situations and
geographical factors. Write their names and the countries they lead on the spaces provided. Clues are
provided for each photo.

___________________1. He is the current Prime Minister of the country that

colonized India in the past,
___________________2.The first Black leader of a country formerly colonized by
the Dutch.
___________________3. The so-called leader of the smallest country in the world.
___________________4. From the world’s largest democracy.
___________________5. The country he leads used be part of Malaysia.
___________________6. He was born in Indonesia and grew up in Hawaii.
___________________7. He married his former teacher!
___________________8. He banned Winnie the Pooh in his own country.
__________________ 9. He was partly responsible for the burning of the world’s
largest remaining rainforest.
___________________10. She has a PhD in Physics!
___________________11. He is the President of his country since 2012.
___________________12. Well…
___________________13. She is from the ’Middle Earth’.
___________________14. His wife is a full-time teacher and has a PhD.
___________________15. He was banned in Twitter, Facebook and Spotify.
___________________16. He is a graduate of Forestry and was a former furniture-
maker.
___________________17. His country sounds like a bird cooked and served during

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 Thanksgiving in the USA.
___________________18. He succeeded the longest-serving prime minister of his
country.
___________________19. He leads the country where the current Wonder Woman
is originally from.
___________________20. He loves his submarines and rockets.

DIRECTION: Write on the spaces provided the countries (based on their flags). These are marked with
numbers.

1. 5. 9. 13. 17.

6. 10. 14. 18.

2.
7. 11. 15. 19.
3.
8. 12. 16. 20.
4.

1. 5. 9. 13. 17.

2. 6. 10. 14. 18.

3. 7. 11. 15. 19.

4. 8. 12. 16. 20.

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 MODULE I
WHAT IS GEOPOLITICS?
Geopolitics is the study of the effects of Earth's geography (human and physical) on politics and
international relations. While geopolitics usually refers to countries and relations between them, it
may also focus on two other kinds of states: de facto independent states with limited international
recognition and relations between sub-national geopolitical entities, such as the federated states
that make up a federation, confederation or a quasi-federal system.

Geopolitics focuses on political power linked to geographic space. In particular, territorial waters
and land territory in correlation with diplomatic history. Topics of geopolitics include relations
between the interests of international political actors focused within an area, a space, or a
geographical element, relations which create a geopolitical system.

The word geopolitics was originally coined by the Swedish political

scientist Rudolf Kjellén about the turn of the 20th century, and its
use spread throughout Europe in the period between World Wars I
and II (1918–39) and came into worldwide use during the latter. In
contemporary discourse, geopolitics has been widely employed as a
loose synonym for international politics.

This is Rudolf Kjellén – the Father of Geopolitics. He is the reason why you
are studying this subject.

Now, let us look at these maps and determine what they tell us: can you guess?

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IN ORDER FOR US TO UNDERSTAND BETTER, LET US DISSECT AND DEFINE THE

DIFFERENT COMPONENTS OF THE WORD GEOPOLITICS:

Geography, like geopolitics, contains the prefix:

GEO meaning WORLD and was derived from the Greek name or word GAIA which is the
goddess of the Earth in Greek mythology.

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GRAPHY, on the other hand, is derived from another Greek word GRAPHIKA which means
writing.

GEOGRAPHY then means WRITING ABOUT THE EARTH/WORLD.

GEOGRAPHERS then study the nature of the Earth or the physical space of the Earth.

GEO + POLITICS =
THE POLITICS OF/IN THE EARTH.

But wait, how about POLITICS?

Politics is derived from the word POLITIKA which basically means the art of governing the polis.
POLIS means the STATE. Politika is likewise the name of Aristotle’s book which was considered
as the first book on Political Theory.

POLIS ultimate means the POLITY

POLITY then means a politically-organized unit characterized by organization in the society and
the distribution of scarce resources.

Ultimately, POLITICS means WHO GETS WHAT, WHERE, WHEN AND HOW.

AND SO…

GEO + POLITICS =
WHO GETS WHAT, WHERE, WHEN AND HOW OF THE EARTH OR THE PHYSICAL SPACE
OF THE EARTH.

This is the PHYSICAL space of the Earth. This is the POLITICAL space of the Earth.

ALWAYS REMEMBER THIS QUOTE:

”Presidents and Ministers

come and go, even dictators
die, but mountain ranges stand
unperturbed.”

Nicholas Spykman

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Here are various definitions of geopolitics according to different sources:

"Geopolitics is "a study of the influence of such factors as geography,

economics, and demography on the politics and especially the foreign policy of a
state" – Merriam Webster (online)

“Geopolitics is the new national science of the state, a doctrine on the spatial
determinism of all political processes, based on the broad foundations of
geography, especially of political geography.” – Karl Haushofer

“…geopolitics is discourse about world politics, with a particular emphasis on

state competition and the geographical dimensions of power.” - Gerard Toal
(Gearóid Ó Tuathail)

"Geopolitics is traditionally the study of how political power is reinforced or

undermined by geographical arrangements (boundaries, coalitions, spatial
networks, natural resources, etc.- International Encyclopedia of Human
Geography, 2009

"Geopolitics is the study of political phenomena in their spatial relationship and in

their relationship with dependence upon and influence on, earth as well as on all
those cultural factors, which constitute the subject matter of human geography
broadly defined". - Ladis K.D. Kristo

"Geopolitics combines pertinent facts of history, geography and politics in an

explanation and prediction of "the behavior of nations within their own
boundaries and among other nations". – US War Department

"The study of how place impacts financial, economic, cultural, political and
military developments". – Peter Zeihan

IMPORTANT CONCEPTS TO REMEMBER

The study of the physical features of the earth and its atmosphere,
and of human activity as it affects and is affected by these, including
the distribution of populations and resources, land use, and
industries.

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 The set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or
other forms of power relations between individuals, such as the distribution of
resources or status.

Concerned with the study of both the spatially uneven outcomes of political
processes and the ways in which political processes are themselves
affected by spatial structures.

What are being studied in GEOPOLITICS/POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY?

 How and why states are organized into regional groupings, both formally (e.g. the ASEAN) and
informally (e.g. the Third World)
 The relationship between states and former colonies, and how these are propagated over time,
for example through neo-colonialism
 The relationship between a government and its people
 The relationships between states including international trades and treaties
 The functions, demarcations and policing of boundaries
 How imagined geographies have political implications
 The influence of political power on geographical space
 The political implications of modern media (e.g. radio, TV, ICT, Internet, social networks)
 The study of election results (electoral geography)

Two important overarching ideas will be covered in this SUBJECT:

A. CONTESTATION: places, regions, and territories are always contested (fought over). The very
nature of their socially-constructed existence is based upon political frameworks that determine
who belongs (or is included) and who does not belong (or is excluded) from a particular place.

B. CONTEXT: simply put context matters. Political events occur in a particular location with
specific socio-cultural, economic, linguistic, ecological, physical, geographic, and historical
settings. These factors at least partially define what happens and what possibilities for peace and
resolution are available within a geopolitical context.

TWO MAIN OBJECTIVES OF GEOPOLITICAL COMPETITION

A. POWER = the capability and privilege of having as much as you can. This may also refer to the
capacity of an individual or a state to influence the actions, beliefs, or conduct (behaviour) of
others or other states.

B. SECURITY = about protection of what you own and have. Specifically, this is the protection of
human and physical resources or absence of crisis or threats to. human dignity, all of which
facilitate development and progress of any human society.

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 POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE WORLD

Defined as the history of the various political entities created by the human race throughout their
existence and the way these states define their borders. Throughout history, political entities have
expanded from basic systems of self-governance and monarchy to the complex democratic and
totalitarian systems that exist today. In parallel, political systems have expanded from vaguely
defined frontier-type boundaries, to the national definite boundaries existing today.

1. PREHISTORIC ERA

The first forms of human social organization were families living in band societies as hunter-
gatherers.

After the invention of agriculture around the same time (7,000-8,000 BCE) across various parts of
the world, human societies started transitioning to tribal forms of organization.

There is evidence of diplomacy between different tribes, but also of endemic or local warfare. This
could have been caused by theft of livestock or crops, abduction of women, or resource and status
competition.

2. ANCIENT HISTORY

The early distribution of political power was determined by the availability of fresh water, fertile
soil, and temperate climate of different locations. These were all necessary for the development of
highly organized societies. The first empires were those of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.
Smaller kingdoms existed in North China Plain, Indo-Gangetic Plain, Central Asia, Anatolia,
Eastern Mediterranean, and Central America, while the rest of humanity continued to live in small
tribes. Both Egypt and Mesopotamia had been able to take advantage of their large rivers with
irrigation systems, enabling higher productivity in agriculture and thereby sustaining surpluses and
population growth.

A. Middle East and the Mediterranean

The first states of sorts were those of early dynastic Sumer and early dynastic Egypt, which arose
from the Uruk period and Predynastic Egypt respectively at approximately 3000BCE. Early
dynastic Egypt was based around the Nile River in the north-east of Africa, the kingdom's
boundaries being based around the Nile and stretching to areas where oases existed. Upper and
Lower Egypt were unified around 3150 BCE by Pharaoh Menes. Nevertheless, political
competition continued within the country between centers of power such as Memphis and Thebes.
The geopolitical environment of the Egyptians had them surrounded by Nubia in the smaller
southern oases of the Nile unreachable by boat, as well as by Libyan warlords operating from the
oases around modern-day Benghazi, and finally by raiders across the Sinai and the sea.

B. Mesopotamian dominance

Mesopotamia is situated between the major rivers of Tigris and Euphrates, and the first political
power in the region was the Akkadian Empire starting around 2300 BCE. They were later followed
by Sumer, Babylon, and Assyria. They faced competition from the mountainous areas to the north,
strategically positioned above the Mesopotamian plains, with kingdoms such as Mitanni, Urartu,
Elam, and Medes. The Mesopotamians also innovated in governance by writing the first laws.
Mesopotamia is known today as IRAQ.

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 This is the map of
the Near East (that
includes Middle
East the countries
surrounding the
Mediterranean
Sea.

C. Persian Dominance

By 650, the Assyrians were now replaced by the Median empire as the main power of the region
following the Battle of Carchemish (605) and the Battle of the Eclipse (585). The Medians served
as the launching pad for the rise of the Persian Empire. The empire was divided into provinces
ruled by satraps, who collected taxes and were typically local power brokers. The empire
controlled about a third of the world's farm land and a quarter of its population. In 522, after King
Cambyses II's death, Darius the Great took over power. Persia is now known as IRAN.

This map
represents the
extent/coverage of
the Persian Empire
at its height.

D. Greek Dominance

As the population of Ancient Greece grew, they began a colonization of the Mediterranean region.
This encouraged trade, which in turn caused political changes in the city-states with old elites
being overthrown in Corinth
in 657 and in Athens in 632,
for example.

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E. Roman dominance

Rome became dominant in the Mediterranean in the 3rd century BC after defeating the Samnites,
the Gauls and the Etruscans for control of the Italian Peninsula. In 264, it challenged its main rival
Carthage to a fight for Sicily, starting the Punic Wars. A truce was signed in 241, with Rome
gaining Corsica and Sardinia in addition to Sicily. In 218, the Carthaginian general Hannibal
marched out of Spain towards Italy, crossing the Alps with his war elephants. After 15 years of
fighting, the Romans beat him and then sent troops against Carthage itself, defeating it in 202.
The Second Punic War alone cost Rome 100,000 casualties. In 146, Carthage was finally
destroyed completely.

F. The Indus Valley Civilization

Build around the Indus River, by 2500 BCE the Indus Valley Civilization, located in modern-day
India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, had formed. The civilization's boundaries extended to 600 km
from the Arabian Sea. After its cities Mohenjo-daro and Harappa were abandoned around 1900
BCE, no political power replaced it.

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G. Ancient China

In the North China Plain, the Yellow River allowed the rise of states such as Wei and Qi. This area
was first unified by the Shang dynasty around 1600 BCE, and replaced by the Zhou dynasty in the
Battle of Muye in 1046 BCE. In 221, the Qin dynasty was established with a population of about 40
million, with a capital of 350,000 in Linzi. Under the leadership of Qin Shi Huang, the dynasty
initiated reforms such as establishing territorial administrative units, infrastructure projects
(including the Great Wall of China) and uniform Chinese characters.

Qin Shi Huang was the

founder of the Qin dynasty
and the first emperor of a
unified China.

H. Pre-Columbia Era/Mesoamerican Era

The Olmecs were the first major Indigenous

American culture, with some smaller ones such
as the Chavín culture amongst mainly hunter-
gatherers. The Olmecs were limited by the
dense forests and the long rainy season, as
well as the lack of horses. Like the ancient
civilizations of the Old World, those in the New
World were characterized by kingdoms and
empires, great monuments and cities, and
refinements in the arts, metallurgy, and writing;
the ancient civilizations of the Americas also
display in their histories similar cyclical patterns
of growth and decline, unity and disunity.

I. The Mongol Empire

The Mongol Empire emerged from the

unification of several nomadic tribes in the
Mongol homeland under the leadership of Genghis Khan (c. 1162–1227), whom a council
proclaimed as the ruler of all Mongols in 1206. The empire grew rapidly under his rule and that of
his descendants, who sent out invading armies in every direction. The vast transcontinental
empire connected the East with the West, the Pacific to the Mediterranean, in an enforced Pax

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Mongolica, allowing the dissemination and exchange of trade, technologies, commodities and
ideologies across Eurasia.

J. The Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire, or Byzantium, was the
continuation of the Roman Empire in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle
Ages, when its capital city was Constantinople. It survived the fragmentation and fall of the
Western Roman Empire
in the 5th century AD and
continued to exist for an
additional thousand years
until it fell to the Ottoman
Empire in 1453.

K. The Ottoman Empire

This was a state that controlled much of

Southeastern Europe, Western Asia, and
Northern Africa between the 14th and early
20th centuries. It was founded at the end of the
13th century in northwestern Anatolia in the
town of Söğüt (modern-day Bilecik Province)
by the Turkoman tribal leader Osman I. After
1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe and
with the conquest of the Balkans, the Ottoman
beylik was transformed into a transcontinental
empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine
Empire with the 1453 conquest of
Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror.

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L. Modern History

THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD began around 1500 and ended around 1815. Notable historical
milestones included the continued European Renaissance (whose start is dated variously between
1200 and 1401), the Age of Exploration, the Islamic gunpowder empires, the Protestant
Reformation, and the American Revolution.

With the Scientific Revolution, new information about the world was discovered via empirical
observation and the scientific method, by contrast with the earlier emphasis on reason and "innate
knowledge". The Scientific Revolution received impetus from Johannes Gutenberg's introduction
to Europe of printing, using movable type, and from the invention of the telescope and microscope.
Globalization was fuelled by international trade and colonization.

THE LATE MODERN PERIOD began sometime around 1750–1815, as Europe experienced the
Industrial Revolution and the military-political turbulence of the French Revolution and the
Napoleonic Wars, which were followed by the Pax Britannica. The late modern period continues
either to the end of World War II, in 1945, or to the present. Other notable historical milestones
included the Great Divergence and the Russian Revolution.

CONTEMPORARY HISTORY (a period also dubbed Pax Americana in geopolitics) includes

historic events from approximately 1945 that are closely relevant to the present time. Major
developments include the Cold War, continual hot wars and proxy wars, the Jet Age, the DNA
revolution, the Green Revolution,[b] artificial satellites and global positioning systems (GPS),
development of the supranational European Union, the Information Age, rapid economic
development in India and China, increasing terrorism, and a daunting array of global ecological
crises headed by the imminent existential threat of runaway global warming.

EMPIRES (British, French, Spanish, Belgian,

Portuguese, Dutch, Japanese etc)

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 LEARNING ACTIVITY No. 1
I. Majority of the class is from Ifugao. And so then, it is presumed that all are familiar with the fact
that IFUGAO is a landlocked province in the Cordillera Administrative Region. Its capital is Lagawe
and it borders Benguet to the west, Mountain Province to the north, Isabela to the east, and Nueva
Vizcaya to the south. Ifugao is characterized by rugged terrain, river valleys, and massive forests,
as can be seen in the screenshot below of Ifugao grabbed from Google Earth.

LAGAWE

IBULAO RIVER
KIANGAN

LAMUT

Ifugao is in fact 70% mountainous and so the people adapted to this geographical challenge by
building the world-famous rice terraces for them to plant their crops. LOOKING AT THE MAP, you
can trace there the Ibulao River, the longest river in the province. The river figures prominently in
the Hudhud chants and one of the oldest Ifugao civilizations have been excavated in Barangay
Munggayang in the Old Kiyyangan site along the banks of the Ibulao River. QUESTION IS: WHY
DO YOU THINK THAT MAJORITY OF THE WORLDS CIVILIZATION HAVE BEEN BUILT
ALONG OR NEAR A BODY OF WATER, SUCH AS A RIVER? DISCUSS YOUR ANSWER,
RELATING GEOGRAPHY WITH THAT OF THE POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT OF A
CIVILIZATION.

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II. Please go back to Page 8, what do you think is the difference between the physical space of the
Earth and the political space of the Earth? Or the difference between a physical map to a political
map. Discuss your answer.

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III. What do you think is the relevance of studying Geopolitics? Why is it important to study
geopolitics? Discuss your answers.

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 MODULE II
LANDFORM

- a natural or artificial feature of the solid surface of the Earth or other planetary body.
Landforms together make up a given terrain, and their arrangement in the landscape is
known as topography.

LIST OF LANDFORMS

1. Archipelago – A group of islands

2. Atoll – Ring-shaped coral reef
3. Bay - a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of
water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay.

Bay of Bengal, Indian

Ocean

4. Channel - a type of landform consisting of the outline of a path of relatively shallow and
narrow body of fluid, most commonly the confine of a river, river delta or strait.

The English Channel,

between France and
the UK

5. Cape - a headland or a promontory of large size extending into a body of water, usually the
sea. A cape usually represents a marked change in trend of the coastline which makes
them prone to natural forms of erosion, mainly tidal actions.

Cape Cod (Massachusetts,

USA)

6. Continental Shelf - portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively

shallow water known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves have been exposed during
glacial periods and interglacial periods.

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7. Estuary - a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or
streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea.

Amazon River Estuary,

Brazil

8. Fjord – A long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by glacial activity.

9. Gulf - a large inlet from the ocean into the landmass, typically with a narrower opening than
a bay. Many gulfs are major shipping areas, such as the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Mexico, and
Gulf of Aden.

10. Isthmus - a narrow piece of land connecting two larger areas across an expanse of water
by which they are otherwise separated.

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11. Mid-ocean ridge (MOR) - a seafloor mountain system formed by plate tectonics. It typically
has a depth of ~ 2,600 meters (8,500 ft) and rises about two kilometers above the deepest
portion of an ocean basin.

12. Peninsula - a landform surrounded by water on the

majority of its border while being connected to a mainland from
which it extends.
The Korean Peninsula

13. Strait - a naturally formed, narrow, typically navigable

waterway that connects two larger bodies of water. Most
commonly it is a channel of water that lies between two land
masses.

The Strait of Gibraltar, in

the Atlantic Ocean.

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 WATER FORMS

14. Cove - a small type of bay or coastal inlet. Coves usually have narrow, restricted entrances,
are often circular or oval, and are often situated within a larger bay. Small, narrow,
sheltered bays, inlets, creeks, or recesses in a coast are often considered coves.

McWay Cove, California,

United States

15. Delta - created by deposition of sediment that is

carried by a river as the flow leaves its mouth and
enters slower-moving or stagnant water. This
occurs where a river enters an ocean, sea, estuary,
lake, reservoir, or (more rarely) another river that
cannot carry away the supplied sediment.
The Ganges Delta in India
and Bangladesh is the
largest delta in the world.
and one of the most
16. Drainage basin - is any area of land where
precipitation collects and drains off into a common
outlet, such as into a river, bay, or other body of water.

17. Harbor - a sheltered body of water where ships,

boats, and barges can be docked. The term
harbor is often used interchangeably with port,
which is a man-made facility built for loading and
unloading vessels and dropping off and picking up
passengers.

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18. Lagoon – a body of comparatively shallow salt or
brackish water separated from the deeper sea by a
shallow or exposed sandbank, coral reef, or similar
feature.

Garabogaz-Göl lagoon in
Turkmenistan.

19. Lake - an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, apart from any
river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake.

The Caspian Sea is either

the world's largest lake or
a full-fledged sea.

20. River - a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater,

flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some
cases a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the
end of its course without reaching another body of water.

21. Sea - The sea is the interconnected system of all the Earth's oceanic waters, including the
Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Southern and Arctic Oceans. However, the word "sea" can also be
used for many specific, much smaller bodies of seawater, such as the North Sea or the Red
Sea. There is no sharp distinction between seas and oceans, though generally seas are
smaller, and are often partly (as marginal seas) or wholly (as inland seas) bordered by land.
However, the Sargasso Sea has no coastline and lies within a circular current, the North
Atlantic Gyre. Seas are generally larger than lakes and contain salt water, but the Sea of

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Galilee is a freshwater lake. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea states
that all of the ocean is "sea".

Here are the world’s major seas and oceans: since the 19th century, the term has been taken
to include seven oceanic bodies of water: the Arctic Ocean, the North Atlantic Ocean, the
South Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the North Pacific Ocean, the South Pacific Ocean, the
Southern (or Antarctic) Ocean.

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 LEARNING ACTIVITY No. 2
I. Identify the different types of waterforms and landforms, based on the following photo collage.

1 4 7 10 13 16

2 5 8 11 14 17

3 6 9 12 15 18

1. 4. 7. 10. 13. 16.

2. 5. 8. 11. 14. 17.

3. 6. 9. 12. 15. 18.

II. About 71 percent of the Earth's surface is water-covered, and the oceans hold about 96.5
percent of all Earth's water. Now, what is the significance of oceans and seas in the development
of a state, for example, the Philippines?

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 UNIT II

HOW DOES GEOPOLITICS HELP US

UNDERSTAND THE WORLD?

Learning Objectives

At the end of the unit, you should be able to:

1. Examine how geopolitical discourses have shaped understanding of the political ordering of
the planet at the largest scales.
2. Look into the history of geopolitical reasoning, and then investigate a range of
contemporary geopolitical issues.
3. Consider how commonly taken for granted concepts work to shape geopolitical reasoning in
the age of globalization.
4. Become familiar with socio-economic, political, and environmental processes in
contemporary global political issues;
5. Manifest human relations that build social, economic and political aspects of human life.

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 MODULE III
SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT and THEORIES IN GEOPOLITICS
Let us start off with a definition of geopolitics as:

“Geopolitics is the interplay among geography, power, politics, and international relations.
Geopolitics brings locational considerations, environmental contexts, territorial
perspectives, and spatial assumptions to the fore.” – de Blij 262

From there, we provide the usual four (4) overlapping aspects of the study of both geography and
politics, as:

1) Space. Political geographers study the spatial distribution of human activities and institutions of
all kinds and their causes and effects. They are also interested in the influence of spatial
organization on social, political, economic and cultural processes.

(2) Place. Political Geography involves the study of place: the character of places, the relationship
between people and their places, and the role of places and the difference between them in
human activities.

(3) Landscape. Political Geography focuses on the development of landscapes and the meaning
and significance of landscapes for people.

(4) Environment. Political Geographers are interested in the relationship between people and
their environments, including their understandings of environments and their use of environmental
resources of all kinds.

Now, remember these four (4) overlapping aspects of the study of both geography and politics as
we proceed with the schools of the study of geopolitics:

SCHOOLS OF GEOPOLITICS
GERMAN SCHOOL

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