A return of geopolitics in Europe? Social mechanisms and foreign policy identity crises

The end of the Cold War demonstrated the historical possibility of peaceful change and seemingly showed the superiority of non-realist approaches in International Relations. Yet in the post-Cold-War period many European countries have experienced a resurgence of a distinctively realist tradition: geopolitics. Geopolitics is an approach which emphasizes the relationship between politics and power, on the one hand, and territory, location and environment, on the other. This comparative study shows how the revival of geopolitics came not despite of, but because of, the end of the Cold War. Disoriented in their self-understandings and conception of external roles by the events of 1989, many European foreign policy actors used the determinism of geopolitical thought to find their place in world politics quickly. The book develops a constructivist methodology to study causal mechanisms, and its comparative
approach allows for a broad assessment of some of the fundamental dynamics of European security.

‘A must-read for students of International Relations theory, International Security, and European Studies, The Return of Geopolitics in Europe? by Stefano Guzzini and collaborators combines theory making, methodological innovation and comparative empirical analysis to deliver an outstanding and important book. This is not only because of the book’s compelling answer to the puzzle of why a geopolitical school of thought began thriving in parts of Europe after the Cold War’s peaceful end, but also as an exemplar of how excellent and rigorous constructivist theoretical and empirical research can and should be done.’
Emanuel Adler
Andrea and Charles Bronfman Chair of Israeli Studies
and Professor of Political Science, University of Toronto

‘The revival of explicit geopolitical thinking in Europe (and elsewhere) in the aftermath of the Cold War has not received much scholarly attention. Rather
than just providing case studies, this book offers an innovative way of thinking about why such ideas arose more strongly in some European countries than in others and consequently provides an original sociological account of how the revival happened the way it did. It will be of wide interest to scholars in constructivist international studies, political sociology, and political geography.’
John Agnew
UCLA, and author of Geopolitics: Re-Visioning World Politics

‘Guzzini has put together a tightly argued study of how and why 1989 triggered a revival of geopolitical thinking in some European countries but not others. This book combines novel empirical cases with theoretical developments in constructivist process-tracing, and will be of particular interest both to those
Interested in comparative foreign policy analysis and those engaged with the impact of 1989.’
Barry Buzan
Emeritus Professor of International Relations, LSE

‘Stefano Guzzini and collaborators have produced a first-rate book that delivers on multiple fronts. Students of European politics will find thoughtful – and thought-provoking – analysis of the return of geopolitical thought in post-Cold-War Europe. International relations theorists will gain new insights on how foreign policy starts at home. These substantive and analytic findings are then used to push constructivism in exciting directions – to new understandings and applications of methods (process tracing) and concepts (mechanisms) that for too long have been neglected by interpretivists. In sum, Guzzini’s book delivers substantively, theoretically and methodologically – an all-too-rare trilogy in our profession!’
Jeffrey T. Checkel
Simons Chair in International Law and Human Security, Simon Fraser University, and Research Professor, Peace Research Institute Oslo


Table of Contents
Introduction.
The argument: geopolitics for fixing the coordinates of foreign policy identity - Stefano Guzzini

Part I. The Analytical Framework
1. Which puzzle? An expected return of geopolitical thought in Europe? Stefano Guzzini
2. Which geopolitics? Stefano Guzzini
3. The framework of analysis: geopolitics meets foreign policy identity crises Stefano Guzzini

Part II. Case Studies
4. Czech geopolitics: struggling for survival - Petr Drulák
5. The theme that dare not speak its name: Geopolitik, geopolitics and German foreign policy since unification - Andreas Behnke
6. Geopolitics 'in the land of the prince': a passe-partout to (global) power politics? Elisabetta Brighi and Fabio Petito
7. Turkey's 'geopolitics dogma' - Pinar Bilgin
8. Banal Huntingtonianism: civilisational geopolitics in Estonia - Merje Kuus
9. Russia: geopolitics from the heartland - Alexander Astrov and Natalia Morozova

Part III. Empirical and Theoretical Conclusions
10. The mixed revival of geopolitics in Europe - Stefano Guzzini
11. Social mechanisms as micro-dynamics in constructivist analysis - Stefano Guzzini