7/28/2019 Critical Geopolitics I

1/18

Critical Geopolitics I: the German Case

7/28/2019 Critical Geopolitics I

2/18

outline

1) Classical: Haushofer

2) Critical: Keywords

3) Critical: Representations

4) Critical: Applications

5) Critical: Questions

6) Critical: Nazi Germany

7) Critical: Cartographies

8) Critical: Emigres

7/28/2019 Critical Geopolitics I

3/18

5 Key Questions in Critical Geopolitics

1) How is global space imagined and represented?

2) How is global space divided into essential blocs/zones of identity or difference?

3) How is global power conceptualized?

4) How are global threats spatialized and strategies of response conceptualized?

5) How are the major actors shaping geopolitics identified and conceptualized?

7/28/2019 Critical Geopolitics I

4/18

Geostrategy Organic State

Regionalist School

Globalists

(US) Mahan (~1890)

(UK) Mackinder (1904, 1919)

(US) Spykman (1940-1944)

(US) Kennan (1946-1950)

(US) Saul Cohen (1973 - )

(GER) Ratzel (~1880)

(GER) Kjellen (~ 1899)

(GER) Haushofer (1923-1939)

(US) Ray Cline (1980 - )

(US) Barnett (2003 -)

Classical Geopolitics: a family tree model

7/28/2019 Critical Geopolitics I

5/18

Major General Professor Doktor

1) Land vs. Sea Powers

2) Geographic Determinism

3) State as Organism

4) Social Darwinism

5) Cultural Nationalism

6) Lebensraum

7) Pan-regions

7/28/2019 Critical Geopolitics I

6/18

Pan regions

1) Autarkic: each with 3 economic zonesa) Core- industrial areasb) Peripheral- agricultural areasc) Undeveloped territories- resource reserves

2) Defensible: easy to defend + non-competitive

3) Cohesive: Held together by dominant culture

7/28/2019 Critical Geopolitics I

7/18

Haushofers Foreign Policy Prescriptions

1) Germans must understand global spaceas aid to statecraft:

* equipment for political action

* geographical conscience of state*earth-boundedness of political processes and institutions

2) Germany should form continental-maritime bloc with Russia + Japan

* Anti-Comintern Pact, 1936 (Ger-Jap alliance)

3) Alliance between Germany + Russia

*Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, 1939*Lasted until Operation Barbarossa, 1941

7/28/2019 Critical Geopolitics I

8/18

Haushofer + Nazis

Same

1) Reject Versailles

2) Hostile to UK/US

3) Greater Germany for Germans

4) Overpopulation and lebensraum

Different

1) Spatial vs. racial determinism

2) Cooperation vs. war with USSR

3) Haushofer never a Nazi

4) Albrechts assassination attempt

5) Conservative-aristocrat vs. fascist

7/28/2019 Critical Geopolitics I

9/18

classicalvs. critical

1) Neutral Science2) of statecraft

3) Geopolitics: Natural

4) Great Power Practioners

5) Plural Prescriptions6) Cartesian gaze

7) Organic States

8) vs. Geostrategies

9) Regionalists

10) vs. Globalists

1) Academic studies2) of geo-knowledge

3) Geopolitics: Historical

4) Agents/Actors/Advisors

5) Arguments/Advice

6) Constructed view

7) Formal-practical-popular

8) High-middle-low brow9) Text, image, storyline

10) Public opinion

7/28/2019 Critical Geopolitics I

10/18

Critical geopolitics: structures + representations

Geopolitical Code: operating code of governments foreign policy that evaluatesplaces beyond its borders

Geopolitical World order: more or less stable set of intl power relationsdominated by agenda set by major powers (e.g. the Cold War)

Geopolitical Culture: dominant ideology of a society; can be multiple

Geopolitical Imaginations: Boundary drawing practices between inside/outside;them/us; self/foreign; other

7/28/2019 Critical Geopolitics I

11/18

American Applications

7/28/2019 Critical Geopolitics I

12/18

Critical Geopolitics + Data: Practical Statements, Public Opinions

http://stateoftheunion.onetwothree.net/ http://www.wvsevsdb.com/wvs/WVSAnalizeStudy.jsp

7/28/2019 Critical Geopolitics I

13/18

Ideological Contests in 20th c. Germany (I): Lebensraum

Germany should expand into new territories in Central and Eastern Europe

7/28/2019 Critical Geopolitics I

14/18

Ideological Contests in 20th c. Germany (II): Weltpolitik

Germany should acquire colonies like Britain, France, for trade, development, and raw materials; imperialist mentality

7/28/2019 Critical Geopolitics I

15/18

Ideological Contests in 20th c. U.S.: Isolationism? Internationalism?

7/28/2019 Critical Geopolitics I

16/18

geopolitische kartographie

7/28/2019 Critical Geopolitics I

17/18

7/28/2019 Critical Geopolitics I

18/18

East European migrs