ABSTRACT
The ending of the Cold War in the late 1980s with the Eastern European democratic transitions and the fragmentation of the Soviet Union has provided political geographers with an opportunity for a ‘refocusing’ of their research activities. The globalising processes of the post-Cold War period have created the need for a movement from a centring of research on Europe and the USA towards a global perspective on power and space. This refocusing process has also been prompted by profound changes in the South. Increasing political and socio-economic turbulence has challenged the centripetal forces of European wars and the Cold War in terms of academic attention within the North.
