Geopolitics Outline

							AP Human Geography
Copeland
Unit 4
Use the provided packet to assist you with your notes

Geopolitics (define)-

     •    Considers the strategic value of land and sea area in the context of national economic and
          military power and ambitions
              – power relationships: past, present, and future
     •    Manifest Destiny, Monroe Doctrine, “Greater East-Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere”

Geopolitics – German School

Ratzel’s Organic Theory

     a)
     b)
     c)
     d)

Geopolitics – British/American School

Sir Halford Mackinder Heartland Theory

a)

b)

          What is the World Island?

     •    The Heartland is
     •    Resource rich
     •    Provided a base for world conquest
              • “Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland”
              • “Who rules the Heartland commands the World Island”
              • “Who rules the World Island commands the World”

Nicholas Spykman - Rimland Theory

     •    Who is he?
     •    What did he argue?
     •    Fragmented zone
     •    Divided rimland key to balance of world power. How?
     •    Dense population, abundant resources, controlling access to both the sea and the interior
     •    “Who controls the Rimland controls Eurasia”
     •    “Who rules Eurasia controls the destiny of the world”
Recent Geopolitical Developments Bipolar World

   •    Post WWII – Heartland =U.S.S.R
   •    U.S. practiced Containment (Define)-
   •    Confining the U.S.S.R by means of alliances with Rimland NATO, CENTO, SEATO
   •    Military intervention
   •    Domino Theory (Define)-

Geopolitics Today

   •    Current world events have rendered older geopolitical ideas obsolete. How?
   •    End of the Cold War, Nuclear Technology, and Japan, China, W. Europe becoming world powers
   •    Unilateralism – United Sates dominance
   •    Will this last???

2 Main Forms of Competition

   1.
   2.
           •   Western, Confucian, Japanese, Islamic, Hindu, Slavic, Latin America, African
           •   Differences are antagonistic
           •   Enduring differences in history, language, culture, and religion