ABSTRACT
From the vantage of a stable orbit in outer space, the Earth is seen in rich fullness, an aspect that was only available conceptually before the first images taken from manned space missions. In these stills, the Earth is a solitary, delicate sphere, hovering vulnerably in the empty vastness of space. This grandest of all human outlooks affirms one of the many great achievements of Sir Halford Mackinder and the modern geopolitical theorists: recognition that the study of politics and history could not be nationally isolationist in its perspective. For them, the whole of the Earth was a conceptual unity, and upon it they envisioned a single political arena. Each national unit was an integral part of the whole. The actions of one state could influence many, if not all other states, and the original state was in turn influenced by the actions and reactions of those others. This holistic approach was revolutionary, and pushed the politico–geographic paradigm to lofty new heights.
