Geopolitical Trends

For over forty years, global geopolitics was dominated by Soviet-Western antagonism. With the former Soviet Union's recent demise, the world order must inevitably change. Although new patterns have yet to emerge, the 21st century may be greatly influenced by economic considerations. Past ideologies such as Marxism-Leninism could be replaced by nationalism. However, even nationalistic tendencies could eventually succumb to economic realities. The post-Cold War world will not involve hegemony or imperialism. With widespread democratic reform, nations will become increasingly pluralistic. Agreements on trade, environmental concerns, and human rights may subdivide the globe into economic blocks. These may include the following: the Americas, the Pacific Rim, Russia/Europe, Mideast, and Africa. By promoting both political and economic reforms, the United States might influence the development of such trends.

During the first half of the 20th century, the laws of Friedrich Ratzel (1896) provided inspiration for German imperialism. Following World War I, Karl Haushofer and his followers defined global "panregions." They envisioned each panregion as "a large functional area linking core states to resource peripheries and cutting across latitudinally distributed environmental zones (O'Loughlin & Wusten 1-18)." To Germany, such global subdivisions provided a means by which imperialistic powers could exploit the raw materials of coloni

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Category: Foreign - G