Geopolitics and Marginality

Abstract

Theorisation in modern geopolitics is replete with instances where certain regions have been accorded a marginal status in various schemes of global political–geographical configurations. Geopolitical ideas propounded by Halford J. Mackinder, Nicholas Spykman and Saul B. Cohen are all evidence of geopolitical visualisation and ordering which advantage certain parts of the world by geo-graphing them as strategically important. This ordering disadvantages certain other areas as less important and, therefore, marginal in the context of international politics. The study here attempts to locate the ascription of marginality in modern geopolitics.

Keywords

Marginality geopolitical imagination subaltern geopolitics postcolonial geopolitics BRICS Global South

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Barnett

Thomas.

2003. ‘The Pentagon’s New Map: It Explains We Are Going to War and We Will Keep Going to War’. Esquire, accessed from http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a1546/esq0303-mar-warprimer/ (accessed on 15 November 2013).

Browning

Christopher S.

Pertti

Joenniemi

. 2004. ‘Contending Discourses of Marginality: The Case of Kaliningrad’. Geopolitics 9 (3): 699–730.

Cohen

S.B.

2003a. ‘Geopolitical Realities and United States Foreign Policy’. Political Geography 22 (2003): 1–33.

Cohen

S.B.

2003b. Geopolitics of the World System. Lanham, MA: Rowman and Littlefield.

Dalby

Simon

. 1991. ‘Critical geopolitics: discourse, difference and dissent.’ Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 9: 261–283.

Dodds

Klaus

. 2007. Geopolitics: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press.

Dodds

Klaus

. 2009. Geopolitics. London: SAGE Publications.

Hurrell

Andrew

. 2013. ‘Narratives of Emergence: Rising Powers and the End of the Third World?’ Brazilian Journal of Political Economy 33 (2): April/June, 203–21.

Mackinder

H.J.

1904. ‘The Geographical Pivot of History’. The Geographical Journal 23 (4): April, 421–37.

10.

Mamadouh

Virginie.

2006. ‘Divided We Stand: Plural Geopolitical Visions of the West’, Paper Presented at a Seminar ‘Towards a Post-Western West? The changing heritage of “Europe” and the “West”‘ organised by Tampere Peace Research Institute (TAPRI), Tampere, Finland, 2–3 February, accessed from http://www.norface.net/upload/documents/documenten/s1-mamadouh.doc (accessed on 15 May 2013).

11.

Mignolo

Walter D.

2002. The Geopolitics of Knowledge and the Colonial Difference’. The South Atlantic Quarterly 101 (1): Winter, 57–96.

12.

Mignolo

Walter D.

Madina

V. Tlostanova

. 2006. ‘Theorising from the Borders: Shifting to Geo- and Body-Politics of Knowledge’. European Journal of Social Theory 9 (2): 205–21.

13.

Muller

Martin

. 2008. ‘Reconsidering the Concept of Discourse for the Field of Critical Geopolitics: Towards Discourse as Language and Practice’. Political Geography 27 (3): 322–338.

14.

Parker

Noel

. 2000. ‘Integrated Europe and its ‘Margins’: Action and Reaction’, in Parker

Noel

Armstrong

Bill

(eds), Margins in European Integration. UK: Palgrave Macmillan

15.

Sempa

Francis.

2006. ‘Spykman’s World’, American Diplomacy: Foreign Services Despatches and Periodic Reports on U.S. Foreign Policy, accessed from http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/item/2006/0406/semp/sempa_spykman.html (accessed on 15 August 2014).

16.

Sharp

Joanne P.

2009. Geographies of Postcolonialism. New Delhi: SAGE Publications.

17.

Sharp

Joanne P

2011. ‘Subaltern Geopolitics: Introduction’. Geoforum 42: 271–73.

18.

Sharp

Joanne P.

2013. ‘Geopolitics at the Margins? Reconsidering Genealogies of Critical Geopolitics’. Political Geography 37: November, 20–29, accessed from http://www.unice.fr/crookall-cours/iup_geopoli/docs/80637.pdf (accessed on 12 May 2014).

19.

Smith

Neil

Cowen

Deborah

2009. ‘After Geopolitics? From the Geopolitical Social to Geoeconomics’, Antipode 41 (1): 22–48.

20.

Spykman

Nicholas J.

1944. The Geography of the Peace. New York: Harcourt Brace and Company.

21.

Thakur

Ramesh.

2014. ‘Playing Geopolitics: The BRICS Development Bank’. Open Canada, accessed from http://opencanada.org/features/the-think-tank/comments/playing-geopolitics-the-brics-development-bank/ (accessed on 2 September 2014).

22.

The Hindu . 2014a. ‘BRICS Summit to Reflect New Global Political Architecture’. 13 July, accessed from http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/brics-summit-to-reflect-new-global-political-architecture/article6205045.ece?ref=relatedNews (accessed on 14 July 2014).

23.

The Hindu . 2014b. ‘Global Politics High Hon Modi’s BRICS Agenda’. 14 July, accessed from http://www.thehindu.com/news/global-politics-high-on-modis-brics-agenda/article6207448.ece (accessed on 14 July 2014).

24.

Tuathail

Gerard

. 1996. Critical Geopolitics: The Politics of Writing Global Space. London: Routledge.

25.

The Hindu . 2000. ‘The Postmodern Geopolitical Condition: States, Statecraft and Security at the Millennium’. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 90 (1): March, 166–78.

26.

Tuathail

Gearoid

Dalby

Simon

. 1998. Rethinking Geopolitics. New York: Routledge.

27.

Vanolo

Alberto

. 2010. ‘The Border between Core and Periphery: Geographical Representations of the World System’. Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie 101 (1): February, 26–36.