MASTERING SPACE For over two hundred years the domination of some countries by others has been intrinsic to international relations, with national economic and political strength viewed as essential to a nation’s survival and global position. Mastering Space identifies the essential features of this ‘state-centredness’ and suggests an optimistic alternative more in keeping with the contemporary post-Cold War climate. Drawing on recent geopolitical thinking, the authors claim that the dynamism of the international political economy has been obscured through excessive attention to the state as an unchanging actor. Dealing with such topical issues as Japan’s rise to economic dominance and America’s perceived decline, as well as the global impact of continued geographical change, the book discusses the role of geographical organization in the global political economy, and the impact of increasing economic globalization and political fragmentation in future international relations. The authors identify the present time as crucial to the global political economy, and explore the possibilities of moving the world from mastering space to real reciprocity between peoples and places. John Agnew is a Professor of Geography at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University. Stuart Corbridge is a Lecturer in Geography at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College. MASTERING SPACE Hegemony, territory and international political economy John Agnew and Stuart Corbridge London and New York First published 1995 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003. Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 © 1995 John Agnew and Stuart Corbridge All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized 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. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data Agnew, John A. Mastering space: hegemony, territory and international political economy/John Agnew and Stuart Corbridge. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Geopolitics. 2. World politics. 3. International relations. 4. International economic relations. I. Corbridge, Stuart. II. Title. JCCC319.A45 320.1'2–dc20 94–22292 ISBN 0-203-42238-4 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-73062-3 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-415-09433-X (hbk) ISBN 0-415-09434-8 (pbk) CONTENTS List of figures vii List of tables viii Preface ix Acknowledgements xiii 1 INTRODUCTION 1 International relations and international political economy 2 Space and geopolitics 3 The organization of the book 7 Part I Mastering space 2 GEOPOLITICAL ORDER 13 Spatial ontology 13 The concept of geopolitical order 15 The three geopolitical orders 19 Two alternative schemes 24 The Concert of Europe—British Geopolitical Order (1815–75) 26 The Geopolitical Order of Inter-Imperial Rivalry (1875–1945) 31 The Cold War Geopolitical Order (1945–90) 37 Conclusion 44 3 GEOPOLITICAL DISCOURSE 46 Geopolitical discourse 46 The origins and continuity of modern geopolitical discourse 49 Civilizational geopolitics 52 Naturalized geopolitics 56 Ideological geopolitics 65 Conclusion 76 4 THE TERRITORIAL TRAP 78 Space and spatiality in social science 79 The territorial state and international relations theory 80 v CONTENTS Emerging spatial forms 95 Conclusion 100 Part II Hegemony/territory/globalization: the geopolitics of international political economy 5 ‘HEGEMONIC’ INSTABILITY AND THE RELATIVE DECLINE OF THE UNITED STATES 103 Hegemonic succession and hegemonic stability 103 The relative decline of the United States 106 Continuing American leadership 113 American hegemony versus the US territorial economy 118 Conclusion 127 6 ‘HEGEMONIC PRETENDERS’ 130 The pursuit of primacy 130 The Soviet collapse and Russia as a Great Power 135 The Chinese challenge 140 The Japanese enigma 145 Germany, again? 151 Trading blocs 155 Conclusion 163 7 TRANSNATIONAL LIBERALISM 164 Internationalization and globalization 165 ‘Glocalization’ and the internationalization of state activities 188 Conclusion 205 Part III The elements of a new geopolitical discourse 8 MASTERING SPACE OR EMPOWERING COMMUNITIES? 211 Mastering space 212 Globalization and real multilateralism 214 Globalization, identity and representation 216 Globalization, citizenship and historical consciousness 219 Globalization, the market and ‘market socialism’ 221 Conclusion: discourse counts 227 References 228 Index 250 vi FIGURES 2.1 The nature of US-Soviet relations, 1948–91 42 2.2 The zone of most serious US-Soviet indirect conflict, A 1948–68; B 1969–88 43 3.1 Europe as a ‘Queen’ 53 3.2 The pan-regions of Nazi geopolitics 59 3.3 Mackinder’s ‘heartland model’ 64 3.4 How far is it to the Gulf? Trends in US and Soviet access to airfields or airspace 69 3.5 The semiotics of the ‘three worlds’ 71 5.1 Potential causal relationships involved in long-waves of leading sector development 107 5.2 Gross federal debt as a percentage of US GNP, 1950–90 112 5.3 US export volume (1986–91), relative productivity gains (1979–89) and business fixed investment (1980–91) 115 5.4 US defence spending, fiscal years 1890–2000 122 5.5 US current account, 1950–88 123 5.6 Regional per capita incomes as a percentage of US average, 1982–7 125 5.7 Japan’s investment imbalance, fiscal years 1985–93 127 6.1 The nuclear weapons of the former Soviet Union 141 6.2 The circuits of world trade in the late 1970s 158 6.3 The downward trend of EC GDP, 1961–92 160 7.1 World distribution of offshore financial centres 175 7.2 Global shrinkage: the effect of changing transport technologies on real distance 184 7.3 Inflation in the 1970s 189 7.4 The reshaping of hegemony after the Cold War 206 vii TABLES 1.1 Leading states and types of power resources, fifteenth to twentieth centuries 4 2.1 A framework for the analysis of a geopolitical order 21 2.2 Wallerstein’s cycles of hegemony 25 2.3 Modelski’s long-cycles of world leadership 25 2.4 The geographical development of the world economy in the nineteenth century 28 2.5 World trade, 1876–1937 34 2.6 Threats to US security in three eras according to Art (1991) 38 2.7 Three phases of US hegemony 41 3.1 The dance of the dinosaurs: US and Soviet procurement of major weapons systems, 1977–86 67 4.1 Conventional and ‘ownership-based’ trade balances, US (1986) and Japan (1983) 91 5.1 Relative decline arguments 106 5.2 The US, Japan and the European Community in information technologies 108 6.1 South Korea (1970) and China (1991), comparison of output per capita 142 6.2 Which ‘bloc’ is number one? 157 7.1 The world’s top twenty corporations, 1992 (by market value) and selected countries, 1991 (by GDP) 170 7.2 International telephone traffic, selected countries, 1990 180 7.3 Leading information service companies in the world, 1986 and 1989 182 viii PREFACE In my opinion, the rights of man consist in the authorisation to take possession of all that is unoccupied and to defend all that has been so acquired (Moser 1790, in Meinecke, Historism: The Rise of a New Historical Outlook 1972, 285) the earth is in effect one world, in which empty, uninhabited spaces virtually do not exist. Just as none of us is outside or beyond geography, none of us is completely free from the struggle over geography. That struggle is complex and interesting because it is not only about soldiers and cannons but also about ideas, about forms, about images and imaginings (Said, Culture and Imperialism 1993, 7) Nately could scarcely believe his ears. He had never heard such shocking blasphemies before, and he wondered with instinctive logic why G- men did not appear to lock the traitorous old man up. ‘America is not going to be destroyed!’ he shouted passionately. ‘Never?’ prodded the old man softly. ‘Well…’ Nately faltered. The old man laughed indulgently, holding in check a deeper, more explosive delight. His goading remained gentle. ‘Rome was destroyed, Greece was destroyed, Persia was destroyed, Spain was destroyed. All great countries are destroyed. Why not yours? How much longer do you think your own country will last? Forever? Keep in mind that the earth itself is destined to be destroyed by the sun in twenty-five million years or so.’ Nately squirmed uncomfortably. ‘Well, forever is a long time, I guess’ (Heller, Catch 22 1962 [19773 edn, 259]) News and history are written in the context of a dominant discourse—a narrative drama that sets the terms in which events are judged. Following the ix PREFACE death of President Richard M.Nixon in April 1994, his foreign policy achievements were widely praised. Yet most eulogies missed one of the most enduring of Nixon’s actions: the decision to abrogate the Bretton Woods monetary system in 1971. The reason lies in the fact that the Big Story in which Nixon’s presidency was set was the Cold War; in this context what mattered most about Nixon’s period in office was the American opening to China and US détente with the former Soviet Union. International economics was secondary. With the end of the Cold War the discourse emerging into dominance is one about a world that is becoming more and more economically interdependent. Whatever his other successes and failures, President Clinton’s lobbying for NAFTA (the trade agreement with Mexico and Canada), and on behalf of global trade in the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade), will loom large in any future account of his presidency.