Geopolitics in the Twenty-First Century

The brilliant geopolitical thinker and strategist James Burnham began his book, Suicide of the West, by reflecting on the immense value of an historical atlas to his craft. “Leafing through an historical atlas,” he explained, “we see history as if through a multiple polarizing glass that reduces the infinite human variety to a single rigorous dimension: effective political control over acreage.” ¹ Geopolitics is very much about “effective political control over acreage.” International politics takes place within a geographic context. Nation-states and empires occupy specific geographic areas that we call countries, and they interact with other nation-states or empires within geographic regions, all of which are located on the same globe.