Geopolitics and political geography. Political geography
V.A. Kolosov, N.S. Mironenko
GEOPOLITICS and POLITICS
GEOGRAPHY
Approved by the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation as a textbook for students of higher educational institutions,
students in geographical specialties
ASPENT PRESS
UDC 327 BBK 66.4(0)
R e e n s e n t s:
Department of Geography of the World Economy, Lomonosov Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosov; doctor geographical sciences, prof. A. I. Alekseev;
doctor of geographical sciences, prof. Yu. G. Lipets
Kolosov V. A., Mironenko N. S.
K 61 Geopolitics and political geography: Textbook for universities. - M.: Aspect Press, 2001, - 479 p.
ISBN 5-7567-0143-5.
For the first time, the textbook presents a general picture of the development of two genetically interrelated disciplines - geopolitics and political geography. The authors analyze their problems, directions, theories, concepts, models and hypotheses, including the latest achievements of world geographical thought, almost unknown in our country. The textbook is characterized by a combination of deep theoretical analysis with rich and carefully selected historical material. The history of ideas is revealed in their manifestation in the system of international relations and the political life of many countries of the world. Special attention devoted to the problems of geopolitics and political geography of Russia.
For university students enrolled in geographic specialties
UDC 327 BBK 66.4(0)
FOREWORD
This book comes out at the very beginning of the new, XXI century. The past century was marked by brilliant scientific, technological and economic achievements, breakthroughs in the arts, widespread education and healthcare, and the expansion of citizens' participation in the management of state and local affairs on the basis of democratic principles. At the same time, the ending century went down in history with the tragedies of world wars. Appeared nuclear threat, the impact of human activity on the natural environment, which caused the need for effective international cooperation and the renunciation of states from part of the sovereignty over their territory in the name of resolving environmental problems.
The implementation of the most fantastic scientific and military projects did not guarantee security and peace to any country. There is still a risk that local armed conflicts of "low and medium intensity" will escalate into full-scale wars. Waves international terrorism threaten to shake political stability even the most prosperous states. There is a growing dramatic gap in living standards between a group of rich countries (the “golden billion”) and the majority of humanity living in the so-called developing countries. After decades" cold war» Europe again faces the danger of a political split. Thus, despite encouraging trends, political contrasts in the world as a whole are not weakening, but are only being modified and remain critically sharp in a number of regions.
Under these conditions, the international academic community seeks to redefine the concepts of "progress" and "democracy" and discusses the main features of the "post-bipolar" world geopolitical order that has taken shape after the collapse of the USSR and the world socialist system. The possibility of the emergence of non-Western civilizational models that would take into account the ecological and socio-cultural limits of the Western "civilization of consumption" is discussed.
Revolutionary changes in society and a radical transformation of the geopolitical structure of the world required the rediscovery of two disciplines - geopolitics and political geography. Against the background of many other social sciences, they already have a fairly solid, although sometimes very controversial history. The term "geopolitics" was compromised by Nazi ideologists for a long time and remained virtually banned not only in the former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries, but also in Germany itself and a number of other countries. Political geography was also associated with the expansionist pre-war geopolitics. At the same time, there was an urgent public need
Foreword
in the analysis of the correlation of political forces on a global scale and in large regions, taking into account the emerging interchange of resources, capital, goods, sociocultural contacts, internal political situation, etc. The tasks of studying the relationship between global and regional political problems, the impact of political activity on shifts in social economic geography countries and regions.
There was a need for a constructive analysis of the theoretical heritage of traditional geopolitics and political geography and the creation of a new methodology for explaining territorial and political processes. For more than a quarter of a century, these disciplines have attracted growing interest in Western countries and beyond. New academic journals are being opened, fundamental theoretical monographs and textbooks are being published, scientific associations are being created. Specialists in geopolitics and political geography act as consultants to legislative and executive bodies authorities, politicians.
IN last decade and in Russia, both disciplines have taken a prominent place in scientific and public life. Quite naturally, their teaching in the system of higher education, in particular geographical education, is expanding. The authors of this textbook began teaching a course in political geography at the Faculty of Geography of Moscow University in the early 1980s. In the 1990s, it was transformed into a course in geopolitics and political geography.
Features of this tutorial in the fact that the authors sought to give an idea not only of the origin and history of both disciplines, but also in
features about them current state in the world and Russia, the most significant theoretical ideas and concepts. In recent years in
Our country has already published several books and manuals on geopolitics. However, almost all of them characterize in detail only the concepts of the traditional “geopolitics of power”, most of which were developed before the Second World War, as if the development of geopolitical thought in the world froze in the era of H. Mackinder and K. Haushofsr. IN best case only some later theories are considered, directly or indirectly related to geopolitics, proposed by political scientists or specialists in international relations, which creates very misleading ideas about modern geopolitics. This approach is most often due to the subjective ideological positions of the authors - they are simply comfortable with the old concepts (this will be discussed below).
Political geography was somewhat less “lucky” than the now fashionable geopolitics: in the 1990s, as far as we know, only two textbooks on this discipline were published. With all the merits of these manuals, relatively little attention is also paid to the development of the theory of world political geography.
Therefore, we have tried to give as complete a critical
Foreword
cue and analytical review of foreign theoretical sources of the last twenty years - especially since since that time both geopolitics and political geography have been undergoing a period of rapid renewal. One of the authors was well-placed to solve this problem, being the chairman of the Commission of the International Geographical Union on political geography and participating in most of the scientific events organized by the Commission.
Without aiming at a specific more or less exhaustive analysis of the modern geopolitical picture of the world or political and geographical problems in foreign countries and in Russia, focusing primarily on theory as the key to understanding them, the authors nevertheless tried to “in passing” characterize many of them. In any case, we tried to illustrate the theoretical propositions with examples from the political practice of foreign countries, and especially Russia and other successor countries of the former USSR.
The specificity of this textbook also lies in the fact that it conjugately examines the theoretical foundations and content - geopolitics and political geography - genetically interconnected, fro differing in object, subject and scale of research disciplines.
The first section highlights the problems of geopolitics, its subject and main categories, outlines the historiography of classical and the state of modern geopolitical thought in the West and in Russia. The textbook develops the concept of geopolitics as geopolitics of interaction, not confrontation.
Special chapter on processes and outcomes formation of the geopolitical space of the world from the time of the Great geographical discoveries to the end of the 20th century. For the first time in our educational literature, "Theory of the Fourth World" the goal of which is to fundamentally change the political geography of the world by granting a wide range of rights to numerous small peoples living within modern states.
Theoretical problems world geopolitical cycles are revealed on materials characterizing the ups and downs of great powers.
The synthesizing part of this section is the characterization of problems the current geopolitical position of Russia. It analyzes both external and internal conditions for the formation of the country's geopolitical codes. The position of Russia in the system of Great Spaces and within the surrounding concentres (shells) and sectors is considered.
The second section is devoted political geography. In the first chapter we are talking about the stages of development of this discipline, associated with the evolution of the needs of society and changes in political map peace. Particular attention is paid to the theory of the so-called "new" political geography, emerged around the mid-1970s. At the end of the chapter,
Foreword
the concept of the territorial-political organization of society (TPOS) is being developed and a typology of directions of modern political and geographical research is given.
The following chapters focus on the essential elements of TVET at the national level, which is increasingly influenced by global and macro-regional factors.
The second chapter deals with the central problem of political geography - political and administrative boundaries. Theoretical approaches to their study are considered, the place in the study of the triad "territory - state - self-consciousness of the population", the relationship between the system of de facto (socio-cultural boundaries) and de jure (state
And political and administrative).
IN the third chapter is defined federalism, which becomes the general principle of the political and administrative structure at all territorial levels, especially at the district, substate. The distinctive features of the federal, confederal
And unitary state system, a comparison is made of the states of the world, which, according to the constitution, consider themselves federations, some specific elements of Russian federalism are shown.
The fourth chapter deals with the political and geographical problems of the local level - local self-government, municipal economy and administrative nistrative-territorial division.
The authors do not consider in the textbook the issues of electoral geography, political regionalism and territorial aspects of the formation of the party-political system, referring the reader to R.F. places, including using materials from the recent elections in Russia.
The first section was written by N. S. Mironenko, the second - by V. A. Kolosov.
S e c tio n I
GEOPOLITICS.
Models and processes of formation of the geopolitical space of the world
In troduction
O THE CONCEPT OF "GEOPOLITICS*
IN At present, in the post-socialist countries, there is an increased interest in geopolitics, which is connected, First of all,
with the need to assess new international status these states and secondly, the legalization in them of this current of scientific and social thought.
IN socialist countries it was customary to talk about geopolitics in negatively critical. In "Brief political vocabulary"(1989) one can read that geopolitics is "a direction of bourgeois political thought based on the extreme exaggeration of the role of geographical factors in the life of society", that this is the ideological justification for "aggressive foreign policy imperialism." In many publications of the post-war period, geopolitics was defined as an American fascist doctrine, which allegedly substantiated the desire of American monopolies to establish direct economic domination over the whole world through aggressive war. The definitions did not omit the revanchism of the West German imperialists. Geopolitics was associated only with negative reader associations: neo-Malthusianism
in its Marxist interpretation, racism, social Darwinism.
For the first time, the “Soviet Encyclopedic Dictionary” turned out to be more “loyal” to geopolitics in 1989, defining geopolitics as a Western political science concept, according to which “the policy of states, especially foreign policy, is mainly predetermined by various geographical factors: spatial arrangement, the presence or absence of certain natural resources, climate, population density and growth rates, etc.”
Realizing that the real world is more complicated than all the models and theories about it, including geopolitical ones, one should objectively approach and understand such an ambiguously understood phenomenon.
Section 1. Geopolitics
leniya, as geopolitics. This is all the more necessary because, as a term, this word is widely used in a popular context, in particular in the media, where it is often used arbitrarily and inappropriately to the essence of this concept. At the same time, it is necessary to understand that the subject of study of geopolitics, like many other social sciences and scientific movements, is in constant dynamics, absorbing changes in the real world.
Perestroika in the second half of the 1980s, the collapse of the bipolar world ("USA - USSR"), the collapse of the socialist
I camp and the Soviet Union, anti-socialist revolutions in the countries Central and Eastern Europe, the collapse of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, the unification of Germany - all these events, often referred to as "Yalta-2" (similar to Yalta Conference heads of government of the three allied powers in World War II in February 1945, at which the principles were determined and the plans for the post-war international security system were agreed: Europe was split into two parts, including the later (1949) split of Germany into West and East) revolutionized the structure of international relations. In connection with the listed and domestic problems in Russia, as well as in the world as a whole, there was a surge of geopolitical thought.
Etymologically, the term "geopolitics" consists of two Greek words: deo - land, politikos - everything connected with the city: state, citizen, etc.
The term "geopolitics" in the scientific sense has at least two aspects: cultural-psychological conceptual.
Cultural and psychological aspect how a geopolitical idea reflects the historical experience of the subjects of international relations, i.e. empires, nation-states, peoples, and is supported by a certain ideology as a system of views on existing world and the principles of its reconstruction. It would be more accurate to say that cultural-psychological the geopolitical stereotype (both of the people and the elite) is viable only within the framework of a certain ideology or even mysticism. This stereotype helps to unite people, maintain faith in the future, even in cases where the ideology itself is chimerical or even anti-national (as, for example, extremely simplistic
Political geography
Political geography- socio-geographical science, studying the territorial differentiation of political phenomena and processes. The author of the term "political geography" is considered to be the Frenchman Turgot, who pointed out in the middle of the 18th century the existence of links between physical and cultural-geographical factors and political processes. As an independent scientific direction, it took shape in late XIX- early XX century.
Main areas of political geography research:
1. The study of the features of the political and state system, forms of government and the administrative-territorial structure of the countries of the world;
2. Study of the formation of the state territory, its political and geographical position and borders; Considering geographic differences in social structure population (including in the national and religious composition of the population);
3. Analysis of the alignment of party-political forces;
4. Study geographical features elections to various government bodies.
Political geography is at the crossroads of different disciplines and is closely connected with many social sciences, primarily with political science, history, sociology, international and state law, which makes it quite integrated into public life. In the same time given science is included in the system of geographical sciences, since the goal is to study specific socio-economic territorial objects and the relationships between their elements.
Story
The origin of political geography lies in the origin of economic geography itself, and early practitioners were concerned mainly with the military and political implications of the relationship between physical geography, state territories, and state power. In particular, there was a close relationship with regional geography, with its emphasis on unique features areas, and environmental determinism with its emphasis on the influence of the physical environment on human activities. This association found expression in the work of the German geographer Friedrich Ratzel who, in 1897 in his book Politische Geographie, developed the concept living space(living area), which explicitly linked the country's cultural growth to territorial expansion, and which was later used to provide academic legitimization for the imperialist expansion of the German Third Reich in the 1930s.
Principal Investigators
Foreign
Political geography uses primarily geographical methods (including cartographic). An important role in the formation of its theoretical foundations was played by the works of the German geographer K. Ritter (the founder of political and geographical thought), who put forward the idea of a multilateral comparison of the history of nature and the history of mankind. Later this idea formed the basis of anthropogeography, the most prominent representative which was a follower of K. Ritter F. Ratzel.
Ratzel took an active part in discussions about Germany's place in the world. He was a founding member of the Colonial Committee and vigorously defended the idea of a German colonial empire. At the same time, Ratzel wrote a number of theoretical works in which his outstanding erudition is manifested: "The study of political space" (1895), "State and soil" (1886) and especially "Political geography. Geography of states, trade and war" (1897). In his work "Political Geography" (1887), he explained the geographical conditions of the features political structure, domestic and foreign policy different states, international relationships and conflicts. Ratzel's geographical determinism received its extreme expression in German geopolitics.
The importance for the development of political and geographical research was played by those published in the beginning. 20th century French work. geographer and sociologist A. Siegfried - the founder of the ecological approach in electoral geography. Its essence is the explanation of the political preferences of the territorial and social groups of voters by numerous natural, historical, cultural, socio-economic factors. A. Siegfried emphasized the irreducibility of the whole complex of reasons that predetermine the outcome of elections in different regions, in any one group of factors. After the Second World War, the concept of the American geographer R. Hartshorne became especially widespread, who saw the task of political geography in finding a relationship between the "centrifugal" and "centripetal" forces acting in each state, to identify that "key idea", without which, in his opinion, the state would not have been able to preserve the integrity of its territory and the loyalty of its citizens. Such a "national idea", as Hartshorne believed, could be the idea of returning previously lost territories (irredentism), national self-determination, protecting a vulnerable section of the state border, etc.
After a period of some decline in interest in political geography from the second half of the 70s. 20th century research in this area has again expanded dramatically. Political geography has gained strong prestige and is well funded. Special journals are published, including several new ones published in the 1980s, many scientific monographs, atlases, and reference books. The modern (last 30-40 years) structure of political geography includes: political regional studies, electoral geography (elections), maritime political geography, limology (state borders), political regional studies (problems of division, local self-government), geographical conflictology, geopolitics.
Domestic
Several major researchers in Soviet and Russian political geography recent years: Kolosov V.A. (Institute of Geography), Turovsky R.F. , Mironenko N.S. (geopolitician), Kalinin, Aksenov (both St. Petersburg State University). Their works show the influence of the political and geographical position of countries and regions on the resettlement of the population, the development and distribution of productive forces. The study of the political map of the world is carried out taking into account the division of the world into groups of countries: socialist, developed capitalist, developing (with the allocation of socialist orientation among the latter countries). Soviet geographers usually view political geography as an integral constituent part economic geography; some scholars consider watered. geography is an independent geographical discipline related to economic geography. Some bourgeois scholars often separate political geography from economic geography, which inevitably leads to ignoring and even distorting the social essence of geography.
For the development of the Soviet idea in watered. geography, along with the works of K. Marx and F. Engels, the works of V. I. Lenin "The Development of Capitalism in Russia" (1899), "New Data on the Laws of the Development of Capitalism in Agriculture" (1915), "Imperialism as the Highest Capitalism" (1916), "State and Revolution" (1917), etc. In the first of these works, V. I. Lenin for the first time scientifically substantiated the division of Russia into economic regions, in the second - the division of the United States into the industrial North, the colonized West and the slave-owning South . In the works of V. I. Lenin, the economic region is shown as a socio-historical category, inextricably linked with the method of production of material goods.
Of great importance for the development of political geography in the USSR were the decisions of party congresses, conferences and plenums of the Central Committee of the CPSU, containing a scientific analysis of world economic and socio-political development. In Russia, the term "political geography" was first used by V. N. Tatishchev, and M. V. Lomonosov also used it. In 1758-72, the first textbook on political geography was published, compiled by I. M. Grech and S. F. Nakovalnin. In geographical works published in the last quarter of the 18th century. and during the 19th century, questions of political geography were most reflected in Op. A. N. Radishchev, P. I. Chelishchev, K. I. Arsenyev, K. F. German and P. P. Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky.
Literature
1. F. Ratzel "Research of political space" (1895)
2. F. Ratzel F. Political geography. T. 1. - M. - 1997.
3. F. Ratzel “Earth and life. Comparative Geography" (1901-1902)
4. Tikhonravov Yu.V. Geopolitics. - M .: CJSC "Business School" "Intel-Sintez", 1998. - 368s.
5. Baburin S. Territory of the state: legal and geopolitical problems. - M .: Publishing House of Mosk.un., 1997: - 480s.
6. Turovsky R.F. Political geography: tutorial. M.-Smolensk, 1999.
7. Kolosov V.A. Political geography: problems and methods. M., 1988.
8. Ritter K. General geography. Lectures published by G. A. Daniel. - M., 1864.
9. Thomson J.O. Story ancient geography. - M., 1953.
10. Saushkin Yu.G. Economic geography: history, theory, methods, practice. - M., 1973.
11. Economic and social geography of Russia / Ed. A.T. Khrushchev. M., 2001.
12. Semevsky B. N., Political geography as an integral part of economic geography, in the book: Questions of the theory of economic geography, L., 1964
13. Kolosov V.A., Mironenko N.S. Geopolitics and political geography. Textbook for university students. - M., 2001. 14. Turovsky R.F. Political geography. M., 2006. 15. Busygina I.M. Political geography. A political map of the World. M., 2010.
see also
Links
- Research Group on Political Geography and Geopolitics MO RAPN
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010 .
See what "Political Geography" is in other dictionaries:
Description of the land from the point of view from which the land is considered as the residence of a person, taking into account the division into states, state and public relations, conditions of resettlement, etc. Complete dictionary foreign words,… … Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
- (political geography) Geography of states, federations, intrastate administrative units. The term was first taken beyond its purely descriptive meaning by Montesquieu's suggestion that there is... ... Political science. Vocabulary.
political geography- — EN political geography The study of the effects of political actions on human geography, involving the spatial analysis of political phenomena. (Source: GOOD)… … Technical Translator's Handbook
political geography- Studying the formation of the political map of the world, the interaction of political forces with the spatial organization of the economic, social, political and spiritual life of society ... Geography Dictionary
A geographical discipline that studies the relationship between the political activity of people and the geographical space in which it takes place. Political geography studies how territorially governed political systems, which… … Geographic Encyclopedia
One of the parts of geography, which serves as an addition to mathematical and physical geography. K. Ritter tried to attach importance to it as the basis of history; in fact, it has taken on the character of a combined discipline that combines data on ethnography ... encyclopedic Dictionary F. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron
Political geography- see Geopolitics ... Terminological dictionary of a librarian on socio-economic topics
US CIA (as of 2011) Political map of the world geographic map, reflection ... Wikipedia
Part of the world Europe ... Wikipedia
Part of the World Europe Region ... Wikipedia
Books
- Geography. Part two. Political geography of Africa, Asia, America and Australia. , N. I. Sokolovsky. Educational guides for military educational institutions. Fifth edition. Reproduced in the original author's spelling of the 1846 edition (publishing house St. Petersburg, Printing house of military educational ...
Topic 1. Political geography as a socio-geographical science
The subject of political geography and its structure
Political geography is a relatively "young" scientific discipline. Its origin dates back to the 18th century, when, under conditions of increasing differentiation of geographical knowledge, political geography began to stand out in classification experiments. I. Kant, who taught geography at the University of Koenigsberg, divided it into physical, commercial, moral and political geography (1755). A similar classification was used by Professor of St. Petersburg University A. Büsching (1766), dividing geography into mathematical, natural and political. The subject of political geography was determined by the study of the actual division of the world into states, the analysis of their territory and mutual location, the nature of borders, the formation of interstate unions. It arose at a time when geography was considered only a natural science, dealing with the study of the natural environment and landscapes. Nature-centrism also determined the initial methodological formation of political geography as an independent science that explains political processes by character. natural conditions and types of geographic landscapes.
With the publication at the end of the 19th century of the book of the German geographer F. Ratzel "Political Geography" (1897), the main object of study was the state as a geographical object, its internal features and external relations in interstate relations. On the initial stage development of political geography at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries greatest development received research on the natural-climatic and cultural-historical features of the state territory, its geographical position, state borders and their evolution. The state was interpreted in the spirit of social Darwinism as an organism waging a struggle for existence and striving for external territorial expansion.
Subsequently, in the first half of the twentieth century, geopolitics received the greatest development. – as an applied branch of political geography, studying the influence of geographical, historical, political and other factors on the strategic potential of the state and its participation in international relations. This was reflected in the definition of political geography by V.P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky (1915) as a science that studies the spatial relationships of the territorial power of individual states.
In subsequent years, ideas about the subject and methods of political geography have expanded significantly. In Western countries, the subject of political geography was defined as the state in terms of its genesis, resource endowment, conditionality of specific geographical forms of its development (Pounds, 1972), and the spatial aspects of political processes, their dynamics and activities to establish and maintain control over various political units. (S. Cohen, 1971).
In the context of the geopolitical confrontation between the two systems and the primacy of Marxist ideas in the countries of the former Soviet bloc, political geography was considered part of economic geography (Semevsky, 1964). A detailed interpretation of political geography in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia notes that political geography “studies the territorial arrangement and correlation of political forces both within countries and between individual countries and groups of countries in connection with their socio-economic structure, questions of the territorial formation of countries and states, their state borders, historical regions, administrative structure ”(TSB, vol. 6, p. 278). Subsequently, in 1970-1980. new concepts of “political and territorial organization of society” (Gorbatsevich, 1976; Yagya, 1982), “territorial and political systems” (Mashbits, 1989), “political and geographical space” (Aksenov, 1989), which made it possible to give a systematic interpretation of the modern essence of political geography and its subject of study (Kolosov, 1988; Kaledin, 1996; Kolosov, Mironenko, 2001). V. A. Kolosov (1988), noting the specific position of political geography at the intersection of geographical and political sciences, interprets it as “a special geographical science that studies the spatial organization of the political life of society and territorial combinations of political forces in their conditionality by specific combinations of diverse socio-economic factors ... "(p. 16). The main object of modern political geography is determined by territorial-political systems (TPS), interconnected combinations of elements of the political sphere in their interaction with each other and with geographic space, objectively on a certain territory (Kolosov, Mironenko, 2001, p. 243). The subject of political geography determines, first of all, the property territoriality, reflecting political phenomena in space (with display on a map), in a certain territory within established boundaries and taking into account differentiation from place to place. The difference between political geography and other political sciences is that it studies the political processes and functioning of the TPS in connection with geographic space, takes into account local conditions, establishes patterns of development from the geographical location of objects and provides a comparative analysis of their dynamics in different areas. She uses the geographical method, emphasizing the territoriality of political processes and phenomena and their differences from place to place (Turovsky, 1999, p. 11).
Modern political geography studies the spatial organization of the political life of society and territorial-political systems, with an analysis of their internal structure and the relationship of key elements between themselves and geographic space at all levels of the territorial hierarchy.
Being an independent geographical science, political geography (PG) has a complex internal structure in which the following stand out (Kaledin, 1991):
general (theoretical) PG, which reveals the originality of the subject area of science, its methodological and theoretical foundations, the system of scientific categories and place in the system of scientific disciplines;
industry (functional) PG considering specific functional types political activity of society and individual social groups (geopolitical, party, ethnic, military, religious, etc.);
regional PG, which studies territorial-political systems of various hierarchical levels, their formation, dynamics and typology in changing geopolitical conditions;
applied PG, which determines the main directions for the entry of this science into social practice and Information Support managerial, ideological, educational, political-cartographic and other activities.
In the modern system of geographical sciences, PG, being an integral part of socio-economic geography, synthesizes the conclusions of the geography of the economy, population, culture, and, to a certain extent, natural science branches of geography, expanding the integration functions of the entire complex of geographical sciences. Being a social geographical science, PG closely interacts with the historical and philosophical and sociological sciences (history, political science, sociology), the theory of international relations, state building and law. However, this does not give grounds to consider PG or its applied part - geopolitics, as an integral part of other sciences (for example, political science), artificially tearing it out of the family of geographical sciences. This leads to the loss of the property of territoriality of the studied political processes, the mechanism of spatial conditionality of the action of socio-economic, political and geographical factors in the functioning of territorial-political systems and their elements.
1. Describe the geopolitical position of Russia.
The geopolitical position of Russia, that is, its position on the political map in relation to various states of the world, is determined by the action of a number of factors within the country and beyond its borders. A huge positive impact on him is the nature of the transformations in the economy, in the domestic and foreign policy of the country, which have taken place in recent years. Chief among them are the transition to market relations and the openness of the economy, the rejection of the Cold War policy, military confrontation between the US and other NATO countries, and the elimination of Russia's military presence abroad. These and other factors raised the country's international prestige and changed the attitude of the world community towards it. From external factors special meaning has been formed as a result of the collapse of the USSR on the western and southern borders of the country of new border states, called " Near Abroad", the status of members of the CIS (with the exception of the Baltic countries), and the Economic and Military-Political Union created within its framework. Their formation alienated European and Middle Eastern countries from the borders of our country. Another factor affecting the current geopolitical position of Russia is the growth of economic power and the political weight in the world of states adjacent to it or close to it in the east and southeast (China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, etc.)... It is this Asian subregion plays an increasingly prominent role in the development of economic ties with Russia.In the modern world economy, the countries of Eastern and South-East Asia have the highest rates of development (an exception is Japan, which has already reached a very high level development of the economy), have a significant amount of gold and foreign exchange funds, are the largest suppliers to the world market of footwear, clothing, textiles, consumer electronic equipment, personal computers, cars and other types of high-tech and labor-intensive products.
2. Why is the problem of effective global governance still unresolved?
This is due to the fact that along with the processes of integration, there are also processes of disintegration within the world community. Conflicts generated by individual interests impede effective interaction within the framework of the world, and not the national, agenda.
3. Choose two statements that talk about geopolitics.
a) represents the theory and practice of state foreign policy based on the maximum consideration of the geographical factor. (+)
b) the science of the territorial distribution of political forces and processes, mainly within any territory (country, region, state, etc.), forms of government
c) one of the areas of this science is electoral geography
d) the term denoting this science was introduced into scientific use by the Swedish scientist R. Kjellen. (+)
4. What questions leave the sphere of interest of political geography and geopolitics?
Geopolitics - state or public affairs - the science of control over the territory, the patterns of distribution and redistribution of spheres of influence (centers of power) of various states and interstate associations. It belongs to the genus of socio-geographical sciences, being part of political geography. Political geography is a socio-geographical science that studies the territorial differentiation of political phenomena and processes. The author of the term "political geography" is considered to be the Frenchman Turgot, who pointed out in the middle of the 18th century the existence of links between physical and cultural-geographical factors and political processes. As an independent scientific direction, it took shape in the late XIX - early XX century. According to another, more substantiated version, the authorship of the term belongs to two "Russian Germans" - professors of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences Kh.N. Winzheim and G. V. Kraft (1720s).
5. What is the Eurasian idea?
Eurasianism is a philosophical and political trend in Russia, emphasizing the succession and cooperation of the culture of the Russian-speaking with the nomadic empires of the steppes of Eurasia (primarily with Mongol Empire Genghisides). It originated in an emigrant environment in the 20s. of the twentieth century and gained a second wind after the destruction of the USSR as a reaction to liberal reforms Russian government. At present, Eurasianism implies the perception of the Soviet heritage.
6. Describe the features of the current geopolitical position of Russia compared to the former Soviet Union from point of view:
1) access to the Baltic, Black and Caspian Seas and the availability of convenient harbors (ports) here
2) advancing the borders of NATO to the borders of our country
3) national security
The number of convenient harbors and ports has decreased, so the coastline has decreased and part of the ports remained in the former Soviet republics.
Remoteness from the developed countries of Western Europe complicates the development of external economic relations.
Russia did not maintain its merger in the west and south, which complicated the geopolitical situation.
The collapse of the USSR led to colossal geopolitical losses for Russia. Together with the growing lag in the Russian economy, the unfavorable demographic situation and the weakening of the military potential, this creates a number of potential geopolitical threats, which include: the growth of Islamic fundamentalism on the southern borders, the expansion of NATO and the EU from the West, the growing power of the Asia-Pacific region.
7. How, in your opinion, should Russia build its relations with the CIS countries? With which countries should it develop economic and cultural ties in the first place, and why?
The most promising are relations with countries that have the greatest economic potential. Development of mutual effective trade - priority cooperation. It is necessary to develop a more rational policy in the issue of controlling labor migration from the countries of Central Asia and the CIS.
8. Explain the causes of geopolitical instability in South Asia and the Middle East.
Islamic fundamentalism is the main cause of conflicts in these regions. Islam, as the religion of this region, is an excellent occasion for inciting religious and interethnic hatred. Also, the Middle East is a source of political conflicts over the control of the rich oil and gas resources of a number of countries.
9. Give an assessment of today's geopolitical processes in the modern world.
Geopolitical structure modern world is formed on the basis of a number of interrelated trends, the main of which are:
- globalization, which entails the integration of the world economy, the creation of world commodity and financial markets, the gradual blurring of state borders, the creation of a global information space;
- the formation of geopolitical centers of power, which, on the basis of military, geographical and other advantages, tend to capture markets and other forms of expansion.
Integration processes manifest themselves in many ways - this is a constant expansion of the geography of the UN, WTO, IAEA, regional international organizations, the growing influence of the European Union and NATO. In particular, it is indicative that the United States strives to transform NATO into the so-called League of Democracies, an organization that, in addition to the Atlantic states, also involves Asian countries. Among the top candidates are Australia, South Korea and Japan.
Geopolitical centers of power began to consolidate especially actively after the collapse of the bipolar world, the centers of which were the USA and the USSR. This process is rather contradictory: its background is the economic and financial crises, numerous local conflicts.