What is ... geopolitical theory? (Voices: the EISA Podcast)
The European International Studies Association (EISA) has recently launched a Podcast Series that features specific theoretical traditions or research programs. Vineet Thakur from Leiden University and member of the EISA Board interviewed Stefano Guzzini on two such traditions, realism and geopolitical thought.
In this episode on geopolitical thought, Guzzini takes issue with Mearsheimer’s recent analyses as a backdrop to develop the central assumptions of geopolitical thought: the interconnectedness of the world, the finiteness of the world, the neo-Malthusian assumption of a mismatch between resources and demography or human development, and finally, its Social Darwinism of the survival of the fittest. It is a most materialist and determinist tradition with the implication of essentializing nature, including national identities, and reversing Clausewitz, where politics is the mere prolongation of war with other means. The episode ends with his own analysis of the unexpected return of geopolitical thought already in the 1990s, well before 9/11, the very decade that had seen the peaceful end of the Cold War. His thesis is that the alleged determinism in geopolitics became attractive for fixing the insecurity about a country’s role in world affairs. Then, while we de-militarised our budgets in Europe, we re-militarised our way of thinking world affairs.
Publications mentioned in the podcast
Stefano Guzzini, eds. The return of geopolitics in Europe? Social mechanisms and foreign policy identity crises. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Stefano Guzzini, From the geography of politics to the politics of geography, DIIS Working Paper 2020:11, 16 pp.
