ABSTRACT
All concepts have histories and geographies and the term “geopolitics” is no exception. Coined originally in 1899 by a Swedish political scientist named Rudolf Kjellen, the word “geopolitics” has had a long and varied history in the twentieth century, moving well beyond its original meaning in Kjellen’s work to signify a general concern with geography and politics (geo-politics). Coming up with a specific definition of geopolitics is notoriously difficult, for the meaning of concepts like geopolitics tends to change as historical periods and structures of world order change. Geopolitics is best understood in its historical and discursive context of use. Back in the early years of the twentieth century, Kjellen and other imperialist thinkers understood geopolitics as that part of Western imperial knowledge that dealt with the relationship between the physical earth and politics. Associated later with the notorious Nazi foreign policy goal of Lebensraum (the pursuit of more “living space” for the German nation), the term fell out of favor with many writers and commentators after World War II (O’Loughlin, 1994). During the later years of the Cold War, geopolitics was used to describe the global contest between the Soviet Union and the United States for influence and control over the states and strategic resources of the world. Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger almost single-handedly helped to revive the term in the 1970s by using it as a synonym for the superpower game of balance-of-power politics played out across the global political map (Hepple, 1986).
