Geopolitics in the 21st Century

3 units

In this course we undertake a conceptual history of geopolitics. The term geopolitics emerged near the end of the 19th century in relation to new forms of nationalism and imperialist competition in Europe and beyond. During the Cold War, geopolitics was used to denote a global struggle between the capitalist Western bloc and the Soviet Eastern bloc, which finally ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Today, geopolitics is more relevant than ever as new global power struggles characterize the post-post-Cold War world. The realm of geopolitics has expanded in the 21st century to include issues and questions previously ignored during the Cold War: civilizational clashes, global warming, social movement struggles, global finance, and transnational communication networks. Geopolitics now implicates global environmental degradation and ethnonationalism. We will examine the history, concepts, policies, and practices of geopolitics from the late 19th century to the present. We will also critically investigate the new geopolitics of an emerging multipolarity, the return to Great Power politics, and the renewed interest in geopolitical narratives of the 21st century.