ay in a merger of European
industrial strength and the manpower and resources of Russia. ì
Nazi Germany's drive to the East in 1941-1942 nearly succeeded in
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union was able for four
decades to become one of the two superpowers. Despite its
achievement of nuclear parity with the United States and the
discipline imposed by state (communist party)-directed growth in
its infrastructure, its military and its heavy industry, the
Soviet Union lacked the type of economic system needed to
sustain its global aspirations. Even though it possessed ample
mineral and energy resources, the Soviet system proved unable
to compete effectively in the the global economy which developed ì
after 1945 and ultimately collapsed under the burden of
A number of political geographers such as Nicholas
Spykman and geopolitical thinkers and practitioners such as
George Kennan developed different versions of the Heartland/
Rimland thesis which served as justification for the American
policy of containment of the Soviet Union. The Cold War was in
part a contest for control over the industrialized areas of the
world, principally West Germany and Japan, which Kennan
identified as the areas of principal strategic interest to the
West,3 together with the oil-rich Middle East. Later, East-West
rivalry spread to peripheral areas in South Asia, Latin America
and Africa. Today, the Russian Heartland is in economic and
political disorder, a condition which is not likely to improve in
èthe near future. The principal centers of world power in the
forseeable future lie outside the Heartland.
The Contributions of the Long-Cycle Theorists
The breakup of the Soviet Union illustrated the tendency,
according to Paul Kennedy, of "all great powers to overstretch
themselves militarily . . . and economic decline sets in."4
With th...