Problematizing geopolitics: survey, statesmanship and strategy

Author: O Tuathail G.

Source: Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Volume 19, Number 3, September 1994 , pp. 259-272(14)

Publisher: Royal Geographical Society

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Abstract:

'Geopolitics' is a polysemous term that exceeds all attempts to delimit it as a singular presence. It is better approached by critically investigating how the concept is made to carry certain meanings in political discourse. This paper considers three different ways in which geopolitics is used to make meaning in global politics: (i) as survey, (ii) as a philosophy of statesmanship and (iii) as grand strategy. In documenting this performative range of geopolitics, the paper problematizes the conditions of possibility which enable the production of geopolitics as knowledge generally. The key problematic it identifies is a Cartesian perspectivism which operates through assumptions about the faculty of sight to produce the siting and citing of global politics.

Keywords: critical geopolitics; survey; navigate; strategy; egopolitics

Language: English

Document Type: Research article

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