Geopolitics

The dynamic process of globalization increases the importance of the country's geographical location as its natural and economic resource. Geopolitics arose in the general course of the evolution of the science of society. F. Ratzel, R. Kjellen, A. Mahan, H. Mackinder, K. Haushofer, N. Spykman and others should be mentioned among the founding fathers of geopolitics.

The introduction of the term "geopolitics" into scientific circulation is associated with the name of the Swedish researcher Rudolf Kjellen, one of the fathers of modern geopolitics and the author of this term. Kjellen studied the ways of creating a strong state, as well as its geographical foundations. Chellen called geopolitics a science that considers the state as a geographical organism, a phenomenon of space.

Kjellen introduced the word "geopolitics" into scientific circulation, but the "father of geopolitics" is called the German scientist Friedrich Ratzel - a major German geographer and the first geopolitician who laid the foundations of this science. Ratzel used the term "political geography" in his writings. Ratzel considered the globe as a whole, an integral part of which is man.

Geopolitics occupies an important place in modern international political and economic life. It is impossible to imagine the future of the country without geopolitical forecasts. In a multipolar world with open and closed societies and economies, a statesman must have a geopolitical mindset. But geopolitics is important not only for deputies, senators and presidents, it is becoming an integral part of general educational culture. Ideas about geopolitics are necessary for every person who aspires to take an active position in society.

The most brilliant definition of geopolitics was given by Karl Haushofer, a German geographer and sociologist, the founder of the German school of geopolitics. Karl considered science as the ability to use geographical knowledge to develop and justify the policy of the state, as the art of directing practical politics: "Geopolitics is the geographical mind of the state."

The emergence of geopolitics as a science at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries was determined not only by the logic of the development of scientific knowledge, but primarily by the need to comprehend new political realities. This science appeared at a time when the world as a whole was divided between the main opposing centers of power. The new division of the world is essentially a “redistribution of what has already been divided”, a transition from one owner to another. The redistribution of the world leads to the fact that the level of conflict in the world increases significantly. This circumstance prompted scientific research aimed at improving the struggle of the main political forces on the world stage. At the end of the 20th century, it was once again confirmed that the economic factor is one of the leading factors in the geopolitical balance of power. Geopolitics is the science of the relationship of the Earth and political processes. Geopolitics aims to provide the proper means for political action and to give direction to political life in general. Geopolitics is becoming an art, namely the art of directing practical politics.

Geopolitics studies political phenomena in their spatial relationship, in their influence on the Earth, on cultural factors.

Geopolitics directs the main attention to the disclosure and study of the possibilities of active use by politics of the factors of the physical environment and the impact on it in the interests of the military-political, economic and environmental security of the state. Practical geopolitics studies everything that is connected with the territorial problems of the state, its borders, with the rational use and distribution of resources, including human resources.

The synthetic nature of this discipline involves the inclusion of many additional subjects - geography, history, demography, strategy, ethnography, religious studies, ecology, military affairs, history, ideology, sociology, political science.

Practical geopolitics, serves to create geopolitical codes. Geopolitical codes (codes) are operational codes of laws, consisting of a set of political-geographical assumptions that underlie a country's foreign policy. Such codes include: the definition of public interests, the identification of external threats to these interests, the planned response to such threats, the rationale for such a response. The number of codes corresponds to the number of states. Although each code will be unique to a particular country, yet the creation of codes is dependent on one another. It is known that international relations are built hierarchically in the sense that stronger states in one way or another impose their ideas and proposals on less powerful ones.

The methodology for analyzing and evaluating the geopolitical situation assumes that, based on a number of methods and principles, the most important problems are considered in a certain sequence, giving a complete picture of this phenomenon. The leading role in the study is played by the general philosophical method - dialectics as a system of laws and categories.

The study of the geopolitical position is impossible without the use of general scientific methods of knowledge - empirical and theoretical.

Empirical methods include observation, description, study of sources.

Observation is a purposeful perception of the dependence of the state's foreign policy on geographical parameters, during which we gain knowledge about the country's policy to ensure its vital interests at a certain stage of development. Observation is always associated with description, as a result of which sensory information is transformed into schemes, drawings, graphs, diagrams, tables, convenient for further processing - systematization, generalization.

Description is divided into two types - qualitative and quantitative. Quantification is carried out using the language of mathematics and involves the study of digital parameters: the size of the territory, the length of the boundaries, the average annual climatic characteristics, the largest and smallest deviations of the relief from sea level, the length of the hydrographic network, the volume of water reserves.

Theoretical methods of knowledge include analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, analogy. Geopolitics uses different methods of studying relevant phenomena and processes. As a rule, these methods were developed in other sciences: philosophy, political geography, history, sociology, political science. These can be any methods used by science: systemic, comparative, historical, normative-value, functional, which adjoins structural-functional analysis, institutional, anthropological, general logical methods and methods of empirical research.

The comparative method involves comparing the same type of phenomena of life to highlight their common features and specifics, finding the best ways to solve problems.

The historical method studies the phenomena of life in sequential temporal development, revealing the connections of the past, present and future.

The normative-value method finds out the significance of certain facts, phenomena for the state, the individual, the assessment of these facts or phenomena for the good of the country, the individual.

behavioral method. Its essence is as follows:

- politics (and geopolitics) has a personal dimension. The actions of people, their interests are focused and expressed by a specific person. She is the main object of study;

- the main motives of behavior, actions of people are psychological motives. They may be socially conditioned, but may have a specific individual nature;

The institutional method focuses on the study of the activities of institutions through which political activity is carried out - the functioning of the state, parties, organizations and associations.

anthropological method. In the first place in importance, the anthropological method puts not social factors, but the nature of a person who has a large set of needs, primarily material ones. Man is perceived as a biological, social and rational being, initially possessing freedom. The human race is one regardless of racial, geographical, social and other differences, all people are equal. It allows you to identify, study irrational, instinctive motives of behavior, determined by human nature.

Geopolitics has come a thorny path. It was born, compromised, forgotten and reborn. This science is directed to the future. The lives of our children tomorrow depend on today's decisions. The study of geopolitics requires great knowledge at the boundaries of geography, history, economics, ethnology and other sciences, necessary for a professional analyst not only for a qualified analysis of spatial phenomena, but also for the development of forecasts, scenarios and trends in the development of events and possible strategies. At the same time, it is necessary to have a high general educational culture and, most importantly, to be a generator of new ideas.

Political culture, combined with intellect, is able to overcome the mythological chaos in society and identify a strategic resource for development. When establishing statehood, one cannot rely only on a “good” president or the most advanced science, industry or trade, free economic zones or foreign investment, or the stock market. It is necessary to search for a social form, where everything should be in correlation and proportion.