ABSTRACT
Mackinder's geopolitics expresses a perspective on international security that transcends the challenges of a particular period. It is essential that geopolitical theory should not give the impression that it is waging an unsuccessful rearguard action against the effects of technological and political progress. The theory and practice of geopolitics attracts the charge that it produces self-fulfilling prophecies. Geopolitics is tainted with the brush of conflict and, generally, with an association with the problems of yesterday. Geopolitical analysis in the classical mode can give the appearance of being on the defensive today against those who argue that new technology has squeezed the significance of spatial relationships into near insignificance. Geopolitics treats the world as it is and tends to scepticism over the prospects for progress towards lasting peace. It is a tribute to the reach and coherence of Mackinder's geopolitical theorising that after a hundred years his worldview is judged worth debating.
