Geopolitical Traditions

Book excerpt: Condemned as an intellectul poison by the late American geographer Richard Hartshbornem geopolitics has confounded its critics. Today it remains a popular and important intellectul field despite the persistent allegations that geopolitics helped to legitimate Hitler's policies of spatial expansionism and the domination of place. Using insights from critical geopolitics and cultural history, the contributoirs focus on how geopolitics has been created, negotiated and contested within a variety of intellectual and popular contexts. Geopolitical Traditions argues that geopolitics has to take responsibility for the past whilst at the same time reconceptualising geopolitics in a manner which accounts for the dramatic changes in the late twentieth century. The book is divided into three sections: firstly Rehtinking Geopolitical Histories concentrates on how geopolitical conversations between European scholars and the wider world unfolded; secondly Geopolitics, Nationa and Spirituality considers how geopolitical writings have been strongly influenced by religions, iconography adn doctrine with examples drawn from Catholicicsm, Judaism and Hinduism; and thirdly Reclaiming and Refocusing Geopolitics contemplates how geopolitics has been reformulated in the post-war period with illustrations from France and the United States. Geopolitical Traditions brings together scholars working in a variety of disciplines and locations in order to explore a hundred years of geopolitical thought. Sanjay Chaturedi Punjab University, India. Paul Claval, Eaubonne, France . Michael J. Heffernan Notingham University, UK, Les Hepple University of Bristol.