GEOPOLITICS OF LAND, SEA, AIR AND SPACE

Basic source of information of political map

Geopolitics is associated to territories = art. 4 different areas: - Land = most important - Sea (78% of the earth) - Air = important since WWI (i.e. military activities) - Space, since 1950’s (i.e. Cold War)

History, geography, economy, demography and social characteristics (language, religion) are very important geopolitics. This term was used the 1st time by a Swedish professor, Rudolf KJELLEN (19th century) concerning the German process of unification (i.e. 1866 and 1870), then Frederic RATZEL (i.e. 1897 Political Geography book). 2 important schools: - The Anglo-Saxon one - The German one (i.e. Haus HOFER and his theory of Lebensraum)

Development of this new science after the WWI even if it had a bad reputation after its using during the WWII by the IIId Reich. Real impact of attraction from the 1970s. But geopolitics is not geostrategy: geostrategy is a political direction of state foreign policies.

In geopolitics, there are 2 areas:
Tellurokratic one = land
Thallassokratic one = sea, air and space
The 1st one is connected with areas in order to define a portion of areas (i.e. the EU fortress about immigration. The 2d one is a phenomenon of power projection.

Geopolitics appeared in 1648 with the Westphalia treaty that created the idea of modern state in Europe. 1918, 1945 and 1991 had important impact on geopolitics.
Nowadays, almost 200 states/territories, last one accepted = Eastern Timor in 2000 but problems of recognition for several else: Kosovo, Abkhazia … There are 3 different types of states: - Post modern states (i.e. European Union one) - Modern states (the majority) - Failed/post colonial states

Geopolitics appeared really with the 1756-1763 war = the 1st global war, when something happened in Europe was visible in different parts of the world