ABSTRACT

The “geopolitics” is regularly taken for granted and its meaning considered obvious. Publications may include the word in their titles without mentioning it or referring to in the text. Few terms are as ubiquitous and yet as loosely used in international politics as geopolitics. Geopolitics has gone through many permutations of meaning. Classical geopolitics was very much a product of great power and Cold War superpower rivalry. Land-based empires such as the Ottoman, the Mughal and the Chinese, were obliged to develop sea power to further their expansionist designs or ambitions. The legacy of classical geopolitics is its emphasis on geography as a determinant of power and how it should be wielded in the service of strategy. Geopolitics is expressed in traditional or consistent policy responses as states and communities exist within particular geographic situations that impact on their perception of events, their relationship with neighbours and the policies devised by their leaders.