ABSTRACT
A "new" geopolitics—one offering fresh perspectives on the relationship between geography and politics—is important to the development of realistic paradigms and the spatial conceptual basis for the new world map. The "old" geopolitics appealed to its American practitioners because it simplified the world map. In American geopolitics, geography was simplified and distorted to serve political ends. By analyzing the interdependence of economic, cultural, social, and political process within changing spatial milieus, the new geopolitics can influence military strategic considerations and place economic competition on the same plane as military competition. Nigeria, not the United States, has led peacemaking efforts in Liberia and Sierra Leone conflicts and is now in a position to exercise regional military control over the oil-rich coastal waters of the Gulf of Guinea. The Central America and Caribbean subregion is under America's military strategic and tactical sway and was so even during the period of Soviet penetration into Cuba.
