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The concept of geopolitics & geoeconomics

The concept of geopolitics is directly related to the ideas articulated by Halford Mackinder in his attempt to promote the field of geography as an aid to British diplomacy (Agnew, 1989). His concept of geopolitics was intended to show the impact of geographical factors such as the spatial disposition of the continents and oceans, and the distribution of natural and human resources. In the 1920s and 1930s, Mackinder's idea of a Eurasian "heartland" rising to global dominance was adopted by certain Nazi theorists to justify German expansionism.

Boudeville (1966) has pointed out that the concept of geoeconomics followed the concept of geopolitics as articulated by Mackinder. Boudeville maintains that geoeconomics is a concept of economic space which includes such items as investment capital, transportation networks, industry, and agricultural techniques. Boudeville sees economic and geographical conceptions of space as being to some extent in contradistinction to one another. He believes that the geographer places man in a so-called natural environment, while the economist places the environment into a toolbox of human activities. Thus, Boudeville sees geographical space as a three-dimensional area confronted with a more complex and multi-dimensional one. Economic space, therefore, becomes an application of economic variables to a geographical space.

The major concern of this essay is whether this conceptualization of the present discipline of geoeconomics helps one in developing a framework for understanding international trade, relations, and public policy. It is certainly true that the organizational logic of pre-informational society is anchored to places; just as power draws boundaries around space, exerts monetary, military, and managerial borders, and exercises a type of monopolistic sovereignty within these delimited expanses (Castells, 1989).

Certainly, the presence of sovereign states is a realm of spatial con...

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The concept of geopolitics & geoeconomics. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 10:38, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1712791.html