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Global Geostrategy www.ebook3000.com GLOBAL GEOSTRATEGY One hundred years ago Mackinder was more than a century ahead of his time, which is why we are still talking and writing about what he said before London’s Royal Geographical Society that snowy winter night in 1904 when he read his paper, ‘The Geographical Pivot of History’. His geographical assessments of means and motivations in the geostrategic competition for world domination yielded a debate that continues to this day. This appropriately timed volume assesses Mackinder’s forecasts in the light of present-day geopolitics and proves that they have lost none of their relevance. H.J. de Blij Probably no other geographer has had the same impact as that achieved by Halford Mackinder. For over a hundred years his originality of thought and immense energy have been fundamental in determining the nature of the discipline and in influencing those outside it. Mackinder’s ‘Pivot’ paper remains essential reading. Andrew Goudie This book examines Mackinder’s global geostrategic view, from the perspective of geography, diplomatic history, political science, international relations, imperial history and the space age. Brian W. Blouet teaches at the College of William and Mary, Virginia. He is the author of a biography of Mackinder and other books, including Geopolitics and Globalization (2001). www.ebook3000.com GEOPOLITICAL THEORY SERIES General Editors: Geoffrey Sloan and Mackubbin Owens GLOBAL GEOSTRATEGY Mackinder and the defence of the West Brian W. Blouet (ed.) THE GEOPOLITICS OF GREAT POWER POLITICS IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY The return of multipolarity Dale Walton GEOPOLITICS, STRATEGY AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF CIVILISATIONS Leonard Hochberg www.ebook3000.com GLOBAL GEOSTRATEGY Mackinder and the defence of the West Edited by Brian W. Blouet FRANK CASS LONDON AND NEW YORK www.ebook3000.com First published 2005 by Frank Cass, an imprint of Taylor & Francis 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Frank Cass 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Frank Cass is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group Transferred to Digital Printing 2005 Selection and editorial matter © 2005 Brian W. Blouet; individual chapters: the contributors Typeset in Times by HWA Text and Data Management, Tunbridge Wells All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. The publisher makes no reprsentation, express or implied, with regard to the accuracry of the information cntained in this book and cannot accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions that may be made. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Blouet, Brian W., 1936– Global geostrategy : Mackinder and the defence of the West / Brian W. Blouet. p. cm. “Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routlegde.” Includes bibliographical references. 1. Geopolitics. 2. Geopolitics–Europe. 3. World politics–20th century. 4. Mackinder, Halford John, Sir, 1861–1947. I. Title JC319. B585 2005 327. 1’01–dc22 ISBN 0–7146–5700–X (hardback) ISBN 0–7146–8575–5 (paperback) www.ebook3000.com CONTENTS CONTENTS List of figures vii List of contributors ix Preface xi 1 Halford Mackinder and the Pivotal Heartland 1 BRIAN W. BLOUET 2 In defence of the Heartland: Sir Halford Mackinder and his critics a hundred years on 17 COLIN S. GRAY 3 The Pivot and imperial defence policy 36 ROBIN A. BUTLIN 4 The diplomatic context: Britain and international relations in 1904 55 PASCAL VENIER 5 The Heartland in Russian history 64 PAUL COONES 6 Halford Mackinder, the ‘Geographical Pivot’, and British perceptions of Central Asia 90 SARAH O’HARA, MICHAEL HEFFERNAN AND GEORGINA ENDFIELD 7 Trading states, territorial states, and technology: Mackinder’s contribution to the discourse on states and polities 107 PETER J. HUGILL 8 Ireland in Britain and the British Seas 125 GEOFFREY R. SLOAN v www.ebook3000.com CONTENTS 9 Halford Mackinder and the geographical pivot of history: A brief assessment 137 KLAUS DODDS 10 The geographical pivot of outer space 142 EVERETT CARL DOLMAN 11 The Heartland – then and now 165 DAVID HOOSON Select bibliography 173 Index 176 vi www.ebook3000.com LIST OF FIGURES FIGURES Sir Halford Mackinder xii 1.1 Internal and Arctic drainage in the geographical pivot of history 2 1.2 The natural seats of power 2 6.1 Cartoon: ‘Russia advancing upon Afghanistan, England retiring from it’ 91 8.1 The linguistic frontier between the Teutonic and Romance peoples 128 8.2 Mackinder’s divisions of Atlantic Britain 130 10.1 Mackinder’s world view 145 10.2 Earth–moon space 145 10.3 Sun–Jovian space showing asteroid belt distribution 151 10.4 Near-Earth space showing radiation and magnetic belts 151 10.5 Earth–moon (cislunar) space showing gravitational terrain 152 10.6 Hohmann transfer orbit 153 10.7 Typical near-Earth orbits 155 10.8 Sun–Earth space libration points 157 10.9 Near solar space 157 10.10 Solar system 159 vii www.ebook3000.com LIST OF FIGURES viii www.ebook3000.com LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS Brian W. Blouet is the Huby Professor of Geography and International Education at the College of William and Mary in Virginia. He is the author of Halford Mackinder: A Biography (Texas A&M University Press 1987 (still in print)), Geopolitics and Globalization (Reaktion Books, 2001), and the entry on Sir Halford Mackinder in the New Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004). Robin A. Butlin, is Emeritus Professor of Geography at the University of Leeds. His recent publications include: Historical Atlas of North Yorkshire (Westbury Press, Otley, 2003) and ‘British geographical representations of imperialism and colonial development in the early and mid-twentieth century, in D. Gilbert et al. Geographies of British Modernity (Blackwell, 2003). Professor Butlin was awarded the OBE for services to geography in the 2004 New Year Honour’s List. Paul Coones is Lecturer in Geography and Fellow of Hertford College, University of Oxford. His research interests include geopolitics, historical geography, landscape studies and geographical thought in Britain and Russia; amongst his publications in the field of Mackinder studies are Mackinder’s ‘Scope and Methods of Geography’ After a Hundred Years (Oxford, 1987) and ‘The centenary of the Mackinder Readership at Oxford’, Geographical Journal, 155 (1989), 13–23. Klaus Dodds is Reader in Geography, and Dean of the Graduate School at Royal Holloway, University of London. Publications include Pink Ice: Britain and the South Atlantic Empire (I.B. Tauris, 2003). He is co-editor, with David Atkinson, of Geopolitical Traditions (Routledge, 2000) and edited, with James Sidaway, an issue of Geographical Journal (December 2004) on ‘Halford Mackinder and the Geographical Pivot of History. Everett Carl Dolman is Associate Professor of Comparative Military Studies at the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies, Air University, Maxwell AFB, Alabama. His publications include Astropolitik: Classical Geopolitics in the Space Age (Frank Cass, 2002) and The Warrior State: How Military Organization Structures Politics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004). ix www.ebook3000.com LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS Georgina Endfield is Senior Lecturer in the School of Geography, University of Nottingham. Dr Enfield holds degrees from the universities of Liverpool and Sheffield and has published widely on environmental change. Colin S. Gray is Professor of International Politics and Strategic Studies at the University of Reading, UK. His recent books include Modern Strategy (1999), Strategy for Chaos: Revolutions in Military Affairs and the Evidence of History (2002), and The Sheriff: America’s Defense of the New World Order (2004). Michael Heffernan is Head of the School of Geography at the University of Nottingham. His publications include The Meaning of Europe: Geography and Geopolitics (Arnold, 1998). David Hooson of the Department of Geography at the University of California Berkeley, has written extensively on Halford Mackinder and on the Soviet Union. His A New Soviet Heartland? (1964) is a classic work in the literature. Peter J. Hugill is Professor in the Department of Geography and the Bush School International Affairs Program at Texas A&M University. His books include World Trade Since 1431: Geography, Technology, and Capitalism (Johns Hopkins University, 1993) and Global Communications since 1844: Geopolitics and Technology (Johns Hopkins University, 1999). Sarah O’Hara is Professor of Geography at the University of Nottingham. Her doctoral degree is from the University of Oxford, where she studied at the School of Geography established by Mackinder in 1899. Dr O’Hara is an authority on the water resources of Central Asia. Publications include ‘Great Game or grubby game: the struggle for control of the Caspian’, Geopolitics, Vol. 9, 2004. Geoffrey R. Sloan is Head of the Department of Strategic Studies and International Affairs at the Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. He is the author of The Geopolitics of Anglo-Irish Relations in the Twentieth Century (Leicester University Press, 1997) and is co-editor, with Colin Gray, of Geopolitics, Geography and Strategy (Frank Cass, 1999). Pascal Venier, an historian, teaches in the European Studies Research Institute at the University of Salford. He has published widely on the Entente Cordiale and the pre-World War I diplomatic scene. x PREFACE PREFACE This volume examines Halford Mackinder’s ‘The geographical pivot of history’ (1904) and his Heartland concept. Mackinder predicted that the Heartland – the core of Euro-Asia – would be contested territory in the struggle for global dominance in the twentieth century. The struggle for control of the Heartland only came to an end, for the present time, with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
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