iiii~il fill! !i!i ii ~i¸ ! i iili !~iii ~i~¸¸ i i ii!!i~ ~¸ i!!~iii¸ i,iii~iii!ili~i~i~il ~!~ ~ !!!i!i!i~!iiil¸ !iiiiiii!i!!!iii'i~ii~!!~!iiiiiiii!!iiii!ii!!i!i ¸¸ !~i~iiiii~iii~, ¸¸¸~¸¸ !i~i~!iii~ii~i~!,ii!iil' ~i~!i~~!iii!ili i~!i!i,!i ii!i i~ iiiii!i~i "~ Cover photograph courtesy of The London School of Economics and Political Science Cover design by Karina Braszo Democratic Ideals and Reality DEMOCRATIC IDEALS AND REALITY A Study in the Politics of Reconstruction by the RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR HALFORD J. MACKINDER Privy Counsellor; lately Chairman of the Imperial Shipping Committee; formerly Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science and Professor of Geography in the University of London; and at one time Reader in Geography in the University. of Oxford. Author of"Britain and the British Seas." NDU Press Defense Classic Edition With a New Introduction by STEPHEN V. MLADINEO NATIONAL DEFENSE UNIVERSITY PRESS Washington, DC National Defense University Press Publications To increase general knowledge and inform discussion, the Institute for National Strategic Studies, through its publication arm the NDU Press, publishes McNair Papers; proceedings of University-and Institute-sponsored symposia; books relating to U.S. national security, especially to issues of joint, combined, or coalition warfare, peacekeeping operations, and national strategy; and a variety of briefer works designed to circulate contemporary comment and offer alterna- tives to current policy. The Press occasionally publishes out-of-print defense classics, historical works, and other especially timely or distinguished writing on national security. Opinions, conclusions, and recommendations expressed or implied within are solely those of the authors, and do not necessarily represent thc views of the National Defense University, the Deparmaent of Defense, or any other U.S Government agency. Cleared for public release: distribution un- limited. Except for the Introduction, this text is copyright © 1942, Constable Publishers, London. Used by permission. NDU Press publications are sold by the U.S. Government Printing Office. For ordering information, call (202) 512-1800 or write to the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Mackinder, Halford John, Sir, 1861-1947 Democratic ideals and reality : a study in the politics of reconstruction / by Sir Halford J. Mackinder ; [edited by and] with a new introduction by Stephen V. Mladineo. -- NDU Press defense classic ed. p. m Includes index. 1. Reconstruction (1914-1939) 2. Geopolitics. 3. World politics--- 1919-1932. 1. Mladineo, Stephen V. II. Title. D655.M18 1996 940.5'1---dc20 96-23385 CIP vi Publisher's Note: About This Edition This National Defense University Press "Defense Classic" is a reprint of the Right Honourable Sir Halford J. Mackinder's Democratic Ideals and Reality: A Study in the Politics of Reconstruction. First published in 1919 by Henry Holt and Company, Inc., Mackind- er's work went largely unnoticed until World War II revived interest in his theories. Holt re-issued the book in 1942, with an introduction by Edward Meade Earle. In 1962, W.W. Norton published the work with an introduction by Anthony J. Pearce and with the three additional, previously published Mackinder articles included with this volume. The last publication was in 1981 by Greenwood Press, who reproduced the 1962 edition. The text for the NDU Press edition was typeset from the text of the 1942 Mackinder volume without editing, except for the correction of a few typographical errors. The index is the same, except for the adjustment of page numbers to conform to the NDU edition, as are the illustrations. We have not included introductions to the earlier editions but have added a new introduction that places Mackinder's ideas within a post-Cold War context. This text is copyright © 1942, Constable Publishers, London, and is used by permission. vii CONTENTS Foreword ........................................................................................... xv Introduction by Stephen V. Mladineo .......................................... xvii Preface .......................................................................................... xxiii Chapter One PERSPECTIVE ........................................................................................... 1 The future and peace; causes of past wan; growth of opposing interests; danger of merely juridical conceptions of the League of Nations; the possibility of world-tyranny; the problem stated. Chapter Two SOCIAL MOMENTUM ............................................................................. 5 Democratic idealism, its successive tragedies, and its relation to reality; the economic reality of the Going Concern; the organizers of Going Concerns; the emergence of organizers from revolution; the organizer and social discipline; the great organizer is the great realist; democratic prejudice against experts; the organizer thinks strategically; his "ways and means" mind; Napoleon; Bismarck; the strategical mentality of Prussia; "Kultur" and strategy; the German war map; strategical thought in economics; but democracy thinks ethically; "No annexations, no indemnities"; refuses to think strategically unless compelled to do so for defense; must fail unless it reckons with both geographical and economic reality. Chapter Three THE SEAMAN'S POINT OF VIEW ..................................................... 21 The unity of the ocean, the first geographical reality; the conse- quences not yet fully accepted; therefore necessary to take a histori- cal view; contending river-powers in Egypt; the Nile "closed" ix by land-power; contending sea-powers in the Mediterranean; the Mediterranean "closed" by land-power; the Latin Peninsula as a sea-base; the encompassing of the world-promontory by sea-power from the Latin peninsular base; division within the Latin European Peninsula; hence the opportunity for sea-power from the lesser but insular sea-base of Britain; of sea-bases in general; of sea-power in the Great War; the World-Island; the ultimate base of sea-power. Chapter Four THE LANDSMAN'S POINT OF VIEW ............................................... 53 The World-Island seen from within; the Heartland physically defined; the other natural regions; the Arabian Centerland; the mo- bile riders and the plowmen; the Arab bid for world-empire; the Steppes-Belt; the Tartar invasions and their consequences; the Ti- betan Heights and the northwest entries to China and India; the open access from the Heartland to Arabia and to Europe; the Heartland strategically defined; the Black Sea basin included; the Baltic basin included; the Heartland as real a physical fact as the World-Island; the ultimate citadel of land-power. Chapter Five THE RIVALRY OF EMPIRES ............................................................... 83 The Cossack advance over the Heartland; the Russian homeland sharply delimited; the real Europe; divided into East and West Europe; their fundamental opposition; their essential difference; German and Slav in East Europe; Trafalgar seemed to split the stream of history in two for a century; Britain and the Not-Europe; but East Europe is really within the Heartland, and there were no two streams; British and French policy agreed in the nineteenth century; the Great War caused by German attempt to control East Europe and the Heartland; the economic reality of organized man- power--the Going Concern; political economy and national econ- omy; the great economic change of 1878; the German policy was to stimulate growth of man-power and then use it to occupy the Heartland; but laissez-faire also a policy of empire; clash of the two policies; inevitable from the fact that they were two Going Concerns. Chapter Six THE FREEDOM OF NATIONS .......................................................... 105 We have won the war, but were nearly defeated; had Germany won, if only on land, you would have had to reckon with a Heartland empire; the Heartland the persistent geographical threat to world liberty; how came Germany to make the mistake of offensive on West front; Hamburg and the man-power policy; we must now divide up East Europe and the Heartland; it must be a division into three, not two, state-systems; the peoples of the Middle Tier; feasibility of League of Nations, if this done; but there must be no predominant partner; yet you will have to reckon with Going Concerns; a reasonable equality of power needed among a consider- able number of members of your League; of certain strategical positions of world importance; the Going Concern in the future, and the unequal growth of nations; the ideal is the independent nation of balanced economic development; tragedies of the Going Concern; the policy of truly free nations which makes for peace. Chapter Seven THE FREEDOM OF MEN .................................................................. 129 Whether men and women will be more free in such free nations; the need of basing organization within the nation on localities; the alternative organization is based on nation-wide classes and inter- ests; this leads inevitably to international war of classes; therefore the ideal is balanced provinces within balanced nations; such organi- zation gives greatest opportunity to greatest number of men; cause of nationality movement; opposed to undue centralization; fraternal nations must be balanced economically, and formed of fraternal provinces;