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Journal of Geographical Sciences >

2017 , Vol. 27 >Issue 4: 497 - 512

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11442-016-1389-1

Review Article

Progress in international geopolitical research from 1996 to 2015

  • SONG Tao , 1, 2 ,
  • LU Dadao 1, 2 ,
  • LIANG Yi 1, 3 ,
  • WANG Qian 1, 3 ,
  • LIN Jing 1, 3
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  • 1. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resource Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China
  • 2. The Collaborative Innovation Center of the Geographical Environment and Frontier Development in Southwest China, Kunming 650500, China
  • 3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China

Author: Song Tao (1983-), PhD, specialized in geopolitics and regional sustainable development. E-mail:

Received date: 2016-03-28

  Accepted date: 2016-05-30

  Online published: 2017-04-20

Supported by

National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.41530634, No.41530751

Copyright

Journal of Geographical Sciences, All Rights Reserved
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Abstract

Focusing on international relations from the perspective of geography, geopolitics exerts powerful influences on the course of economic and political development in the world. In the tide of globalization and information technology, geopolitics has become an important subject for global pattern interpretation and policy making. It is essentially important to have a scientific and systematic review on international geopolitics to promote its development. Based on the bibliometric statistics, the paper reviews the research development of geopolitics on the Web of Science from 1996 to 2015. The history, journals, papers and key research areas of geopolitics have been revealed in the paper. By the analysis of bibliometric statistics, the number of papers recently published in the journals of political geography and related geography journals continues to increase. The key areas of geopolitical papers which are globally highly cited include geopolitical interpretation of the countries and borders, critical geopolitics, emotional geopolitics, feminist geopolitics and other topics. Before the year of 2000, the state and borders were hot topics of the geopolitical research. Yet since 2000, it has been the trend that the geopolitics is increasingly set in the context of geographical implications. At the same time, critical geopolitics appears to be the main area of geopolitical research, especially transitioning from traditional geopolitics towards the humanism-embeddedness (such as emotional geopolitics, feminist geopolitics). The paper then systematically reviews the branch trends of geopolitical research, including the borders and the territory, global geo-culture and geo-economics, Chinese models of geopolitics, resource conflicts and ecological politics, as well as emotional geopolitics. Finally, it puts forward the implication that Chinese geopolitical studies should reinforce the importance of geographical space and scale, use the process of description and multiple methods, as well as integrate humanistic thoughts, in order to further enrich the theories and practices of geopolitical research.

Key words： geopolitics; discipline development; scientometrics; international research progress

Cite this article

SONG Tao , LU Dadao , LIANG Yi , WANG Qian , LIN Jing . Progress in international geopolitical research from 1996 to 2015[J]. Journal of Geographical Sciences, 2017 , 27(4) : 497 -512 . DOI: 10.1007/s11442-016-1389-1

1 Introduction

Geopolitics is a discipline which has made great contributions to national prosperity and safety (Du et al., 2015), whose research focuses on the process and trend of the relationship between different countries, regions, or nations by analyzing the formation of political and military alliance, union (political and military groups), political confrontation and containment, even war, based on the geographic location, space and historical-geographical factors (Lu and Du, 2013). During the period of great powers’ early rising, Ratzel, Mahan and Kjellen were famous political geographers. During the period of imperial wars, Mackinder, Haushofer and Spykman became the master of the national geopolitical strategy. After that (the Cold War and the post Cold War Era), geopolitics was still a powerful and dynamic theoretical foundation for the development of great powers (Agnew et al., 2003). John Mearsheimer, Morgenthau, Cohen, Kaplan, Huntington, Henry Kissinger, Parker, Joseph Nye, Francis Fukuyama, Zbigniew Brzezinski and other modern geopolitical scholars, followed the idea of studying the global geopolitical pattern from the geographical space, but emphasized the impact of regions on the global geo-pattern in the context of realism, as well as the deep impacts of geo-economy and geo-culture on the global geo-structure.

2 General situation of geopolitical research

2.1 Data and methods

This paper analyzes the data from Web of Science, with the application of Histcite scientific measurement software. Histcite is a citation-analysis software, developed by the founder of the Science Citation Index - Garfield, which reviews the development history of a field by identifying key documents and graphs (Liu et al., 2014). In March 2015, 1001 papers in English since 1996 to 2015 were collected in Web of Science by defining “Geography” as the research direction, “Geopolitics” as the key subject word. By classifying and summarizing the titles, abstracts and key words of the articles, a systematic reflection on the latest research progress of the international geopolitics is displayed.

2.2 Main journals

On the whole, the number of geopolitical-related articles published in the journals of geography is increasing, as shown in Figure 1. Especially after the financial crisis in 2008, geographers have been paying more attention to the importance of geopolitical factors in the context of globalization. Papers were mainly published in Political Geography, Geopolitics, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Progress in Human Geography, Environment and Planning-D, Eurasian Geography and Economics, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Antipode, Geoforum, Area and other journals, as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 1 Number of geopolitical articles published in the international journals from 1996 to 2015
Figure 2 The top 10 journals with most geopolitical articles from 1996 to 2015

2.3 Papers highly cited

It is found that top 10 articles cited in the international journals from 1996 to 2015 focus on national geopolitical interpretation, border area development, critical geopolitics, emotional geopolitics, feminist geopolitics and other themes (see Table 1). When studying the literatures in different periods, the results are as follows: Before 2000, nations and borders were the core topics of geopolitical research. After 2000, the importance of geography has gradually further emphasized on geopolitics, which also turns to critical geopolitics, especially by reflection on the shift from traditional geopolitics towards more humanism-embeddedness (emotional geopolitics, feminist geopolitics, etc).
Table 1 Top 10 geopolitical articles cited in the international journals from 1996 to 2015
Author Year Journal Citation frequency Theme Title Reference
Newman
and Paasi		 1998 Progress in Human Geography 180 Border Fences and neighbours in the postmodern world: Boundary
narratives in political geography		 (Newman and Paasi, 1998)
Pile 2010 Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 136 Emotional geopolitics Emotions and affect in recent human geography (Pile, 2010)
Sparke 1998 Annals of the
Association of American
Geographers		 95 Countries A map that roared and an original atlas: Canada, cartography, and the narration of nation (Sparke, 1998)
Sidaway 2000 Progress in Human Geography 82 Critical
geopolitics		 Postcolonial geographies: An exploratory essay (Sidaway, 2000)
Hyndman 2004 Political Geography 80 Feminist
geopolitics		 Mind the gap: Bridging feminist and political geography through geopolitics (Hyndman, 2004)
While 2004 International
Journal of Urban and Regional
Research		 79 Regional
Governance		 The environment and the entrepreneurial city: Searching for the urban ‘sustainability fix’ in Manchester and Leeds (Aidan et al., 2004)
Coleman 2007 Antipode 73 Border Immigration geopolitics beyond the Mexico-US border (Coleman, 2007)
Pain 2009 Progress in Human Geography 69 Emotional geopolitics Globalized fear?
Towards an emotional geopolitics		 (Pain, 2009)
Hyndman 2001 Canadian
Geographer		 68 Feminist
geopolitics		 Towards a feminist
geopolitics		 (Hyndman, 2001)
Roberts 2003 Antipode 62 Neoliberal geopolitics Neoliberal geopolitics (Roberts et al., 2003)

3 The research fields of geopolitics

According to the top 10 geopolitical papers highly cited each year since 1996, this paper summarized the trend of the international geopolitical research, as shown in Table 2. Proportion refers to the percentage of papers on each specific research field in all geopolitical journals since 1996. The research fields include border and territory, globalization and geo-culture, geo-economy, geopolitical hotspot areas and Chinese model, resource conflicts and ecological politics, as well as the value, emotion and cultural geography.
Table 2 Research fields in international geopolitics
Research direction Research tendency Proportion (%)
Border and territory Border security, the development of border areas, cross-border cooperation, geopolitical narrative of territory, discourse of the territory, environmental determinism, map and drawing 16.7
Globalization and geo-culture, geo-economy Geo-economy, geo-culture, globalization and population migration, geo-effect of information technology, popular geopolitics, foreign investment, network, regional integration, ocean shipping 14.5
Geopolitical hot spot areas and Chinese model European Union, Southeast Asia, Afghanistan, Russia, Iran, foreign policy, India, Arctic, North Korea, China threat theory, Central Asia 21.1
Resource conflicts and ecological politics Petroleum, natural gas, cross-boundary river governance, dams, fisheries, international negotiations, global climate change, environmental geopolitics 19.9
Value, emotion and cultural geography Critical geopolitics, feminism of geopolitics, religion, narrative mode, geopolitical environment, ethnicity, cultural geography, Confucianism, identity, popular culture 18.9
Others Liberal geopolitics, the marginal zone, the third world, the Eurasian hinterland, governance, radical geopolitics, the fault zone, the state-owned enterprises 8.9

3.1 Border and territory

Border is the interactive space of the territory. It covers a wide range of topics, mainly including: 1) the “disappearance” of boundaries and deconstruction of the territory in the context of globalization; 2) the role of the border in the construction of social identity; 3) characterization, narrative and construction of the border at different spatial scales. Under the influence of globalization, the border has become an important node of cross-border cooperation. The cheap land and available labor will facilitate cross-border cooperation in the border towns of less developed countries (Sit, 1998). However, due to the different interests of cross-border countries, the process of such cooperation often does not go well. The differences of institutional and cultural backgrounds increase the difficulties of cross-border cooperation (Paul, 2006). Due to the lack of bottom-up cooperation mechanisms, cities in growth triangle of Asia tend to develop independently rather than cooperate in an integrated way (Ishima et al., 1999), thus making them far lagging behind Europe and North America in terms of cross-border integration (Bunnell et al., 2006).
Border region is a place of cultural communication, in which the social identities of the border residents will be constructed. In border cities, twin cities are those cities characterized by locations across the border between the two countries, with shared urban hinterland and residents’ senses of belongingness (Ehlers and Buursink, 2000). Research on twin cities emphasized on the integration of two cross-border cities in the economic, institutional and social aspects (Perkmann, 2003). The integration is composed of four gradations: the integration of the built-up area, the integration of behavior, the integration of organization, and the integration of politics and management (Buursink, 1996). This model might serve as a tool to analyze the characteristics of integration of the cross-border cities (Shen, 2013). As for the development stages of twin cities: Hong Kong and Shenzhen, it is revealed that economic integration prevails in the Hong Kong-Shenzhen integrated region. Economic integration has necessitated the institutional integration which in turn attempts to facilitate economic integration. However, it is still difficult to achieve the social and governance integration (Shen, 2014). In order to promote the free trade, the real demand for cross-border transnational governance is particularly prominent in twin cities (Sparke, 1998).
There are three kinds of interdependent and interactive spaces in border regions: conceived, perceived and lived spaces (Dean, 2005). In the case of Sino-Burmese border space, conceived space comprises the normative forms of spatial knowledge - the mental images promoted by territorial power. Perceived space is formed by the cross-border trade. Lived space is based on the cross-border marriage and cultural communication. The discordance among these three kinds of spaces makes the border region trapped in the challenging modernist dualism. Ethnographic participant observation could be used to address these problems in border research. This is demonstrated by a case study of the impact of the partial closure in 1999-2000 of the Uzbekistane Kyrgyzstan border in the Fergana Basin (Buursink, 1996). Research on the ethnic space of this border region informs a critique of state violence that is parallel to textual analyses informed by a critical border theory.

3.2 Globalization and geo-culture, geo-economy

Globalization is the process of deterritory, with national sovereignty deeply embedded in the neoliberal environment (Woodward, 2004). However, globalization has not prevailed over geography. Instead, based on the geographical environment, globalization adjusts itself and changes the environment accordingly. Flows of capital and manufacturing outsourcing factories flow into all parts of the world unequally. Their direction of movement is towards coastal countries and regions which are the main markets on a global scale with plenty of skilled labor force with learning capacity yet at inexpensive cost. With the injection of capital and information flows, concerns on border conflicts have been weakened, due to the fact that border land grows to the new core area of capital markets and business activities (Ohmae, 1995).
In the context of globalization, the new media technology, with great geopolitical significance, is recasting geo-cultural and geo-economic industries. This makes the structural relationship between the geopolitics and new media transit radically from the visual representation of the social sphere to social reconstruction and remodeling of geopolitical vision transition (Campbell, 2007). Worldwide trends in the information age will lead to a new paradigm of contemporary geopolitical transition, which is a paradigm for dialogues between different civilizations and different countries. Mutual development of globalization and regionalization will further strengthen the dialogue among civilizations, and gradually build up a global super civilization (Lilov, 2007). As Samuel Huntington (1993) proposed, people’s cultural and religious identities will be the primary source of conflict in the post-Cold War world (Huntington, 1993). The population explosion in Muslim countries and the economic rise of East Asia are changing global politics. These developments challenge Western dominance, promote opposition to supposedly “universal” Western ideals, and intensify inter-civilization conflicts over such issues as nuclear proliferation, immigration, human rights, and democracy. People respond to the clash of civilizations by a variety of reactions, including novelty, indignation and confusion, published in the “Conflict and World Order of Civilizations and the Remaking” (Huntington, 2010). Besides the geo-culture, the geo-economics is a hot topic in geopolitics. State power will be re-interpreted, not only in the strategic and security as the only content, but also in the “connotation of geo-economics”. Geo-economics is the study of spatial cultural and strategic aspects of resources, with the aim of gaining a sustainable competitive advantage, including geo-economic defense, geo-economic offensive and geo-economic diplomacy intelligence (Luttwak, 1993).

3.3 Geopolitical hot spot areas and Chinese model

Research on global hot spot areas by classical geopolitical theory is also an important part of geopolitical studies. In the process of European integration, such crises exist as trade and currency between the United Kingdom and the European Union, NATO’s enlargement, the Greek debt, TTIP, Russia - Ukraine, etc. Kuus (2004) explained the geopolitical significance of EU and NATO’s enlargement in the perspective of the dichotomy between Europe and Eastern Europe. Solovyev (2004) discussed the new post-Soviet Eurasian doctrine and geopolitical revisionist tendencies in Russia. Traditionalism is inspired by old European and Russian geopolitical theories. The revisionist school, on the other hand, adopts a considerably broader definition of what constitutes geopolitics by proposing to study various forms of organizing spaces on a global scale. Due to deep divisions among peoples and the sovereignty of countries, while heavily influenced by Great Power Politics, Shattered areas in the Middle East have long been geopolitical research hotspots, such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and other countries. Scholvin (2011) deconstructs the ideological transition from a geopolitical perspective by the history of Iraq from the First World War to the 1958 revolution, including the Ottoman Empire, Arab nationalism, British imperialism, as well as the national autonomy. Hot geopolitical issues related to America include the US-Canada border Free Trade Zone (FTZ), the United States-Mexico border, etc. As the major core regions wrestling around the world, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia and Central Asian countries are becoming key areas of current geopolitical thinking. The level of economic development of these countries varies, with fragmented political systems and different ideologies. In such geopolitical core areas, India-Pakistan conflict (Aidan et al., 2004), cross-border development (Eilenberg, 2012), national division (Glassman, 2005), South China Sea issues, unrests in northern Myanmar, geo-energy issues (Pandian, 2005) are focus of the global geopolitics.
From a critical geopolitical perspective, China is regarded as a long-term rising global power (Kennedy, 1988), which is a sovereign territory within the boundaries, also a “geo-body” with no boundaries (Callahan, 2009). China has a unique historical process - the feudal imperial dynasty in history, and communism worldwide with rejection of capitalism, which shaped China’s unique culture among the world’s major powers (Keith, 2009). With a huge population, China has been subjected to humiliation in history, rather than conquest. These elements affect Chinese diplomatic policies and perceptions on China from the outside world. Chinese intellectuals learned a lot from American pluralistic diplomatic strategies, by transiting from neoliberal (rational actors who want to maximize the relative benefits of national action) to new realism (depending on the benefits from zero-sum game). According to Deng Xiaoping’s “Theory of Chinese Characteristics”, China will protect its sovereignty, take the principle of peaceful coexistence with other countries, as well as solve geopolitical problems by Chinese philosophy, language and expression. In the geopolitical relations with neighboring countries, the concept of “benevolent” in the Confucianism is the key principle to resolve the conflicts, instead of relying on the force. Interests rather than morality, is the base for geopolitical cooperation between different countries.

3.4 Resource conflicts and ecological politics

The exploitation of strategic resources, such as oil, water, etc. which are highly related to people’s livelihood, is the hot topic in geopolitical studies. The production and consumption of global energy, affected by reserves, mining technology and other factors, are the competing interests of geopolitical game between countries. From the geopolitical perspective, nuclear energy in North Africa is likely to be seen with international skepticism, especially for energy exporting countries such as Algeria, Libya, and Egypt. Given their current political power structures and geopolitical constellations, such as the presence of non-democratic regimes and the Arab-Israeli conflict, the adoption of nuclear energy production technologies has the potential to cement the prevailing regime fundamentals. Energy importers such as Morocco and Tunisia enjoy greater credibility if they opt for the use of nuclear energy as a source of economic development (Marktanner and Salman, 2011). Verma (2007) analyzed the importance of Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline for India in geopolitical energy security and economic sustainable development (Verma, 2007).
Ecological degradation is one of the key challenges for geopolitics in the new millennium, especially in dealing with tension between the exploitation of natural resources and political regulation on ecological protection under the sustainable development goal (Beier, 1998). As an important strategic ecological resource, water plays an important role in the international geopolitical pattern. For the cross-border co-governance on water resources, hot issues discussed include the improvement of international hydro-graphic cooperation efficiency (Wolf, 1999), geopolitical strategies of international basin (Brichieri-Colombi and Bradnock, 2003), adaptive mechanism of multilateral basin (Shmueli, 1999), as well as multinational governance on international water conflicts (Feitelson, 2002). Taking the Mekong River as an example, the Mekong River is a “commercial corridor”, instead of a geopolitical “frontier” during the Cold War times. Six countries along the Mekong River have endeavored to integrate economic, infrastructure and social development by multilateral and bilateral donors, loans, and other ways.

3.5 Value, emotion and cultural geography

Critical geopolitics is different from classic geopolitics, such as Mackinder’s heartland theory (Mackinder, 2004), which focuses on how natural geographical factors influence the political decision-making. Critical geopolitics foregrounds the substantial work on intellectuals of statecraft, popular geopolitics, feminist geopolitics, and resistance or anti-geopolitics. As Taylor (2000) mentioned, geopolitical decoding referred to the perceived value of geopolitical dependencies among different areas. Self-recognitions of different cross- border groups are being marginalized in the globalization process, but still important in the local politics “from below” (Fluri, 2009). The term “from below” is applied to illustrate a dialogue platform beyond the power, domination and control in the public sphere, in which marginalized groups can have impacts on the decision making progress in civil society (Snyder, 2008). Drawing empirically from Central Europe and especially Estonia, intellectuals are central to the production of a particular ‘cultural’ concept of geopolitics - the notion that foreign policy expresses the state’s and the nation’s identity. Beyond Central Europe, it is underscored that the political and cultural milieu of geopolitical claims and the specific structures of legitimacy are from classic intellectuals (Kuus, 2007).
Cultures of fear, humiliation and hope are reshaping our world (Moysey, 2010). The terrorist attacks and local wars suffered by Western world in this century triggered a new round of geopolitical fears (Pain, 2009). In the traditional realist geopolitical strategy, to seek maximum security interests of the country, the emotion of fear caused by international conflicts is manipulated by politicians (Bleiker and Leet, 2006). Research on the fears is embedded in the geopolitical cultural, economic, social and spatial study. Early research on geopolitical fear focused on portray of prevailing shared fears in community citizens. After 2000, the critical geopolitical research on feminist and other structuralism is increasingly important, shifting from personal emotions to emotions embedded in the complex social and political background (Lee, 2008). One of the contributions to the critical geopolitical research in the feminist geopolitics is to explore the space within the geopolitical dimension, including formal and informal political action (Secor, 2001), and should take into account the impact of gender politics and power (Hyndman, 2007). Feminist researchers emphasize the female daily impacts on the existing hierarchy of power. For example, the reproductive rights are an important component of geopolitical power (Martin, 2004).

4 General research transformation of geopolitics

Based on the specific research fields of geopolitics, this article systematically summarizes the macroscopic research interests of geopolitics after Cold War: (1) the establishment of the new world order in the post-Cold War era, (2) an emphasis on the spatial cognition, and (3) the rise of critical geopolitics which reviews conventional classical theories of geopolitics critically.

4.1 Establishment of the new world order in the post-Cold War era

From 1989 to 1991, the drastic changes in Eastern Europe, German reunification and collapse of the Soviet Union marked the end of Cold War. Consequently, geopolitics stepped into the post-Cold War era (Cohen, 2011). Geopolitics has gone through five phases of development since Ratzel presented the National Organism Theory: the struggle of empires, German geopolitics, geopolitics of the United States, the period of Cold War and the post-Cold War era (as shown in Table 3). The struggle of empires was a period in which Europe was the geopolitical center before the two world wars. In this phase, significant theories including National Organism, World Island, Heartland and Sea Power, reflected influences of Social Darwinism and the nation-state. With the support of Nazi Germany, Pan-continentalism became the core of geo-strategy in German geopolitics in which representative scholar was Haushofer. In US geopolitics field, Spykman’s Rimland Theory guided the spatial arrangement of the US military and diplomatic strategy. The balance of powers and containment to opponents were advocated by realistic geopolitics during the period of Cold War (Wang, 2003) when numerous scholars proposed putting western forces into Central and Eastern Europe so as to weaken the geopolitical advantages of heartland in Russia’s west. They also proposed permeating the Caucasus and Central Asia, and provoking China against Russia.
Table 3 Evolutionary phases of modern geopolitics
Phase one Phase two Phase three Phase four Phase five
Phases Struggle of
empires		 German geopolitics Geopolitics of the United States Geopolitics during Cold War Post-Cold War era
Representative scholars Ratzel, Mackinder, Kjellen, Bowman, Mahan Haushofer, Maul, Banser Spykman, George Reina, Seversky Kennan, Kissinger, Brzezinski, Taylor Fukuyama, Kaplan, Brzezinski, Nye, Huntington, Cohen
Representative viewpoints National Organism, World Island, Heartland, Sea Power
Theory		 Pan-continentalism Rimland Theory Containment strategy, balance of power, overall views Universalistic geopolitics, Critical geopolitics, State-centrism, Clash of civilizations
Geopolitical background German Empire under the leadership of Bismarck, World War I Rise of Germany after World War I Rise of US during and after World War II US-Soviet confrontation Iraq War, the war in Afghanistan, counter-terrorism

Reference: Cohen, 2011

In the post-Cold-War era, geopolitics follows two research trends as the following: state-centrism-political and universalism-geographical paradigm. Geo-strategists such as Kissinger and Brzezinski, regarded the end of Cold War as establishment of the “new world order” and geopolitical pattern of the US-led global hegemony. After the Cold War, the political and economic pattern of unipolar world and unilateralism were entirely changed by the rise of emerging Third World countries such as China, the enlargement of European Union, as well as economic globalization and global climate change since the mid-1990s (Mao, 2014). The world pattern of “one superpower and multi-great powers” is developing (Hu et al., 2013; Wang et al., 2012; Wang et al., 2014). “Vacuum” or “vulnerable” multipolar zones, including Central Asia, Asia-Pacific and the Arctic, are hot spot areas of geopolitical research (Du et al., 2015). Brzezinski, former assistant to the president of the United States for national security, proposed controlling three strategic areas in the grand Eurasian chessboard-Western Europe, the Middle East and East Asia for the US global domination in 1997. Samuel Huntington attributed geopolitical conflicts to “the clash of civilizations” (Huntington, 2010). Universal application of western liberalism and the fade of Marxism-Leninism indicate the coming appearance of a universal, homogeneous state system. Under this idealized worldview, geopolitical cooperation is the primary trend of geopolitics (Fukuyama, 1993). As economic globalization develops in depth, geopolitics exerts influences generally via geo-economics (Wang, 2003).

4.2 Return of spatial significance in geopolitics

With the innovation of science and technology continuously shortening the spatial distance, the significance of geography was once questioned by numerous scholars, but space has always been an essential factor (Kaplan, 2009). In the geopolitical conflicts occurring in “conventionally geopolitical shattered areas”, such as the wars in Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan, contemporary information technology has been applied to ensure spatial and territorial integrity since the 1990s. Space and territory are yet regarded as significant, essentially crucial factors in foreign and military policy of the US (Ek, 2000). The significance of geography is not only reflected in military and political significance of strategy and tactics, territorial significance from the perspective of culture, but also spatial control and investigation of resources, population and material systems (Mao, 2014). The control of military affairs, politics, civilization, communications and population needs to be changed to respond to technical innovation and spatial reform in the context of globalization (Cohen, 1991). Geographic geopolitics emphasizes the analysis and interpretation of localization rather than globalization. The locality is complex, multiple and heterogeneous space, as well as aggregation of economics, society and environment, thus the “specificity” of localization demonstrating the significance of geography in geopolitics (Pleshakov, 1994). The key of pragmatically geopolitical research is to excavate the development conditions, structure and power of localization so as to mediate and resolve the international conflicts (Tuathail, 2010). The geopolitical research and practice which emphasize space and localization, are reflected in four levels: national geo-strategy formulated by state leaders and diplomats, geo-strategy proposed by numerous strategic research institutes including think-tanks and academia, differentiated geographic spaces of production, distribution and consumption presented by popular geopolitics, which is connected simultaneously through common geo-cultural areas (such as districts, states), as well as structural geopolitics which focuses on how progress, trends and contradictions of globalization affect contemporary geopolitical conditions and geopolitical practice (Kearns, 2010). In practice, the four types of geopolitics merge mutually (Tuathail, 1998), and jointly propel the return of spatial significance in geopolitics.

4.3 Turning to critical geopolitics

The major ideological trend of geopolitical research has been turning to “critical geopolitics” since the 1990s (Figure 3). “Critical” means the suspicion towards state-centrism, and “geopolitics” is closely associated with the alternation of power. Global contemporary politics is increasingly driven by such non-state actors as credit rating agencies, NGO and transnational corporations, so the definition of “critical geopolitics” is not only criticism towards state-centrism but also criticizing the traditional power-centered geopolitics. Critical geopolitics constitutes geopolitical cognition via associating visual images (especially maps) and words (political speeches, analogies and metaphors) with political manifestations (economic and political practice, such as currency and military deployment), so as to guide official foreign policy and facilitate adjustments of various organizations’ strategic policies (Tuathail, 1999).
Figure 3 Trends of international research on geopolitics for the last 20 years
Different from conventional geopolitics which focuses on the key role of geography in political rights, critical geopolitics applies social-scientific critical thinking to inquire how power works and how it may be challenged (Agnew, 2001). Using inter-disciplinary theories and methods of sociology, GIS, culturology and semantics for references, critical geopolitics analyzes and emphasizes that class, race, gender and other hierarchy of capitalism continue to be the reality and need to be rebuilt in the changing geopolitical context (Agnew and John, 2003), which is reflected through discourse, rhetoric, metaphor and symbolism. Critical geopolitics analyzes geography of social movements which is related to feminism, radicalism and participatory democracy from the perspective of national security (Amin and Thrift, 2005). It is also expounded that geopolitical issues via analyzing processes of non-political development and cooperation, by emphasizing discourse rights and participation processes of NGO, community and individual in geopolitical issues, such as Asian Development Bank and community residents in the Mekong sub-regional cooperation (Painter, 1995) .
In the geopolitical world under the influence of globalism, power will decentralize more universally and hierarchy will be weakened (Cohen, 2011). Global geopolitical maps and panoramic institutionalized strategic viewpoints will yet be the central issues of geopolitics. Under the influence of multiple factors including climate change, nation-states, NGO and religious relations, global geopolitical pattern will differ from the conventionally geopolitical perspectives characterized by the rivalry of powers and global demarcation of powers. Strategic balance of global powers and its approaches to implementation will be the latest trend of geo-strategic research (Wang et al., 2015). Critical thinking of geopolitics (Hu et al., 2015) has become a novel perspective of multiple research subjects including geopolitical processes and discourse rights, thus it is now making great strides forward to a promising tide of geopolitical research.

5 Conclusion and outlook

In the tide of globalization and informatization, the new profile of international arena begins to form, and geopolitics becomes a significant means for interpreting global pattern and formulating policy. Through systematically analyzing the research trends based on geopolitical articles in Web of Science from 1996 to 2015, this article concludes that: in the recent round of geopolitical research, the number of published geopolitical papers increases gradually. The main research perspective is a critical review of conventionally geopolitical theories, with the emphasis on the significance of geographic space, integration of inter-disciplinary research methods and humanistic factors. The discussion also covers such research fields as borders and territory, geo-economics, conflicts of resources and ecology, value and emotion. International research on geopolitics enlightens the revival of Chinese geopolitics:
(1) Research on China’s geo-strategy after Cold War. In the era of “one superpower and multiple great powers” and under the premise of homeland security, communication and cooperation of geo-economics and geo-culture are the key themes. One of the primary missions of China’s geographic research in the future is to innovate and apply geopolitical and geo-economic theories with Chinese characteristics on the basis of western geopolitical and geo-economic theories and the need of China’s national security and peaceful rise during the new period (Mao, 2014).
(2) Intensification of space and scales. Although geographers’ research on geopolitics experienced the revolutionary transformation of cognition on the relationship between human beings and geographical environment that human beings become “participants” of environment from being its “masters” (Sneddon and Fox, 2006), the significance of geospatial dimensions is strengthened in the latest geopolitical tide, in which space is yet the central carrier of military, economic and cultural development. Under diverse scales of globe, state, region and border, the spatial rationalization of geostrategic relationships deserves further consideration from geopoliticians, and the multilateral participation of governments, enterprises and academia ought to be emphasized.
(3) Narration, processes and multiple methods. Geopolitics, a significant sub-discipline of geography, needs to enhance cooperation with numerous disciplines including other branches of human geography, physical geography, GIS, international relations, sociology and politics. Methodologies of geopolitics ought to not only remain in the narration and discussion of physical geographic space, but also integrate multiple research methods such as spatial analysis of geography, semantics, symbolic imaginations and ethnology.
(4) The infusion of humanism. A major research trend of international geopolitics is the infusion of humanistic concepts and category. Chinese geopolitics needs to macroscopically explore geo-strategy from top to bottom and thoroughly analyze multiple subjects including residents, NGO and females from the bottom up. Research on humanistic background behind geopolitical phenomena should be paid more attention.

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

References

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[1]
Agnew J, 1998. Geopolitics: Re-visioning World Politics. London and New York: Routledge.

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[2]
Agnew J A, 2001. Disputing the nature of the international in political geography: The Hettner-Lecture in Human Geography.Geographische Zeitschrift, 89(1): 1-16.Political geography has paid scant attention to theorizing the 'international.' Indeed, systematic thinking about geographical scale is very recent in geography as whole. But the changing nature of power, as manifested today in the rise of non-state actors and transnational flows, challenges a continuing focus on the international as the scale par excellence of world politics. In their research, political geographers tend to reproduce either realist or constructionist conceptions that do precisely that. The former characterizes spatial geopolitics (exemplified here in a 1986 paper of J. O'Loughlin) and the latter critical geopolitics (represented here by a 1994 paper of G. 07 Tuathail). Though frequently opposed to one another as theoretical alternatives, in fact they share common metaphysical roots in privileging epistemology (how is something known?) over ontology (what exists?). What both lack is a focus on the historical sociology of action. After critically reviewing the two positions and the two papers, an alternative historical geopolitics is proposed in which the international is construed as historically contingent and emergent rather than a fixed feature of world politics. Die Politische Geographie hat bisher den theoretischen Aspekten des Begriffs "international" wenig Beachtung geschenkt. Systematische 05berlegungen über den geographischen Ma08stab sind in der Geographie noch sehr neu. Aber die sich ver01ndernde Natur der Macht, wie sie sich heute in nicht-staatlichen Akteuren und transnationalen Str02men zeigt, fordert eine st01ndige Betonung des Internationalen als der wichtigsten Ma08stabsebene der Weltpolitik heraus. Politische Geographen tendieren dazu, in ihren Forschungen entweder realistische oder konstruktivistische Konzepte zu reproduzieren, welche genau dies tun. Der erste Ansatz charakterisiert eine r01umliche Geopolitik (hier am Beispiel einer 1986 von J. O'Loughlin publizierten Arbeit) und der zweite eine kritische Geopolitik (hier am Beispiel einer Arbeit von 07 Tuathail aus dem Jahr 1994). Obwohl die beiden Ans01tze als theoretische Alternativen h01ufig in einem Gegensatz zueinander stehen, teilen sie in Wirklichkeit mehrere gemeinsame metaphysische Wurzeln, indem sie die Epistemologie (wie kann etwas gewu08t werden?) gegenüber der Ontologie (was existiert?) bevorzugen. Was beiden fehlt, ist ein Fokus auf die historische Soziologie des Handelns. Nach einer kritischen Diskussion der beiden Positionen und Publikationen wird ein alternativer Ansatz einer historischen Geopolitik vorgeschlagen, in welcher das Internationale eher als ein historisch bedingtes und entstehendes als ein feststehendes Merkmal der Weltpolitik konstruiert wird.

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[3]
Agnew J, 2010. Emerging China and critical geopolitics: Between world politics and Chinese particularity.Eurasian Geography and Economics, 51(5): 569-582.A prominent political and human geographer assesses the rise of contemporary China through the lens of critical geopolitics. In doing so he challenges both (a) conventional world political views of China as merely the most recent world power to emerge through a natural process of linear succession ("the linear narrative") and (b) conceptions of the country as a completely unique phenomenon shaped by a distinct historical experience and cultural particularity ("Sino-centrism"). The paper develops the argument that China's rise rather is shaped by a contradictory amalgam of Western-style nationalism and a traditional totalistic conception of world order that is reactive to and dependent on current world politics.

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[4]
Agnew J, Mitchell K, Toal G, et al., 2003. A Companion to Political Geography. Oxford: Blackwell.

[5]
Akiner S, 2004. Geopolitics of hydrocarbons in Central and Western Asia. In: Akiner S (ed.). The Caspian: Politics, Energy and Security. London: Routledge Curzon.

[6]
Amin A, Thrift N, 2005. What’s left? Just the future.Antipode, 37(2): 220-238.First page of article

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[7]
Bakker K, 1999. The politics of hydropower: Developing the Mekong.Political Geography, 18(2): 209-232.With renewed economic interest in the Southeast Asian region following the `peace dividend' of the early 1990s, numerous hydrodevelopment plans have been initiated in the Mekong basin. The river-as-resource, in a glibly bioregional metaphor, has been transformed from a Cold War `front line' into a `corridor of commerce', drawing six riparian states together in the pursuit of sustainable development through economic and infrastructural integration and cooperation, promoted by multi- and bilateral donors and lending institutions. Through a brief examination of the discursive framing of Mekong hydrodevelopment, this paper uncovers some of the implications of an emerging regional geopolitical imagination centred on the naturalising metaphor of the watershed. Through a discussion of the increasing involvement of private capital, and the politicisation of resource use, the implications of hydrodevelopment for Laos, an upstream state currently undergoing major hydrodevelopment, and Cambodia, a downstream state, are explored.

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[8]
Barter P, 2006. Multiple dimensions in negotiating the cross-border transport links that connect and divide Singapore and Johor, Malaysia.Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 47(2): 287-303.Abstract Abstract: Despite recent literature pointing to the need for a multidimensional approach to border processes, transport links across borders are usually uncritically associated with cross-border ‘integration’. This paper focuses on examining the roles played by transport facilities in border processes. It uses case studies of three key transport links at the border between Singapore and Johor, Malaysia. As would conventionally be expected, enhancing these links was often seen in terms of the economic opportunities expected to arise from the easing of bottlenecks. However, the findings also reveal multiple roles for the transport links at this border, many of which cannot be enlisted in any simple conception of cross-border integration, even when clear enhancement of the links is involved. These roles include: as ‘filters’ (or ‘valves’) used to encourage or discourage certain flows; as ‘gateways’ asserting territoriality; and as ‘bargaining chips’ in the bilateral relationship. A role as ‘collision points’ between policy regimes was also surprisingly important. However, contrary to usual expectations none of the transport links examined appear in the guise of ‘bridges’, contributing towards integrated governance. These findings highlight the complexity of border processes, and underline the contingent interactions between different dimensions of cross-border processes sometimes simplistically conflated as ‘integration’.

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[9]
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[10]
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[11]
Bleiker R, Leet M, 2006. From the sublime to the subliminal: Fear, awe and wonder in international politics.Journal of International Studies, 34(3): 713-737.Key events in international politics, such as terrorist attacks, can be characterised as sublime: our minds clash with phenomena that supersede our cognitive abilities, triggering a range of powerful emotions, such as pain, fear and awe. Encounters with the sublime allow us an important glimpse into the contingent and often manipulative nature of representation. For centuries, philosophers have sought to learn from these experiences, but in political practice the ensuing insights are all too quickly suppressed and forgotten. The prevailing tendency is to react to the elements of fear and awe by reimposing control and order. We emphasise an alternative reaction to the sublime, one that explores new moral and political opportunities in the face of disorientation. But we also stress that we do not need to be dislocated by dramatic events to begin to wonder about the world. Moving from the sublime to the subliminal, we explore how it is possible to acquire the same type of insight into questions of representation and contingency by engaging more everyday practices of politics.

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[12]
Brichieri-Colombi S, Bradnock R W, 2003. Geopolitics, water and development in South Asia: Cooperative development in the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta.The Geographical Journal, 169: 43-64.Abstract In light of the new cooperative water development agreements in South Asia since 1996 and, in particular, the 1996 Ganges Waters Treaty between India and Bangladesh, this paper explores the geopolitical obstacles to cooperation between states in the joint development of large-scale river systems and current opportunities for successful development. The general problems of cooperation faced by the riparian states which share successive rivers are examined with reference to the geopolitical obstacles to cooperation in the Bengal delta since the Partition of the Indian subcontinent through which India and Pakistan gained Independence as separate states in 1947. Against the background of repeated attempts to resolve water-sharing issues between India and East Pakistan and its successor state, Bangladesh, this paper concludes that for cooperation to succeed contemporary large-scale river development has to meet a wide range of criteria which go beyond conventional engineering or economic cost-benefit analyses to include geopolitical criteria. These range from global-scale environmental concerns to micro-scale issues of mutual regional benefit. This paper proposes a major new development on the Brahmaputra and Ganges which the authors argue could break the log-jam of a zero-sum game approach to surface water development in the Bengal delta. Unlike most large-scale dam-building proposals, the barrage construction outlined would cause negligible population displacement, and making maximum use of existing river channels would minimize the environmental impacts associated with the large canal or dam construction envisaged in earlier Ganges rahmaputra eghna (GBM) schemes. Yet the paper also recognizes that while such a proposal could bring economic, environmental and political advantages to all users in the GBM basin, new thinking on the management of international rivers is less in favour of supply-side solutions, and the case would need to be substantiated by detailed evaluation.

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[13]
Bunnell T, Muzaini H, Sidaway J D, 2006. Global city frontiers: Singapore’s hinterland and the contested socio-political geographies of Bintan, Indonesia.International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 31(1): 3-22.Abstract During the 1980s, Singapore's policy-makers perceived that the continued expansion of the Singapore economy required more spaces and workers beyond the 680-square-kilometre territorial limits of the city-state. While planning to extend these limits through further land reclamation, Singapore also began to foster economic cooperation with regional neighbours, most famously in the form of a so-called Growth Triangle incorporating proximate areas of Malaysia and Indonesia. The empirical focus of this article is on the tourist enclave developed on the Indonesian island of Bintan, a 45-minute ferry ride from Singapore. This enclave embodies complex re-territorializations. We specify how, despite a decade of re-fashioning zones of Bintan into quasi-enclaves and the literal and metaphorical cultivation of a tourist haven, other claims on these transfrontier zones resurfaced in the form of resistances and struggles over the terms of access to land and resources. It is argued that the trajectory of Bintan is symptomatic of wider transformations and epitomizes new configurations of sovereignty, urbanity and ‘gated globalism’.

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[14]
Buursink J, 1996. Becoming Twin Citizens in Minneapolis and St Paul: A Case of Territorial Integration // Davies R J. Contemporary City Structuring. Society of South African Geographers. Cape Town: IGU Commission on Urban Development and Urban Life.

[15]
Callahan W A, 2009. The cartography of national humiliation and the emergence of China’s geobody.Public Culture, 21(1): 141-173.Abstract Maps are an important site of the production and consumption of the national image. This essay examines modern Chinese maps to show how the very material borders between foreign and domestic space are the outgrowth of the symbolic workings of historical geography and the conventions of Chinese cartography. These maps do much more than celebrate the extent of Chinese sovereignty; they also mourn the loss of national territories through a cartography of national humiliation. The goal of this essay is to shift our attention from the diplomatic issues of international borders to examine what Chinese maps of China can tell us about the Chinese people's hopes and fears, not only in the past or present, but for the future. This essay has two general aims: to demonstrate how China's current national maps have emerged through the creative tension of unbounded imperial domain and bounded sovereign territory, and to show how the cartography of national humiliation informs the biopolitics of the geobody. China's often unique experience, the essay concludes, can show us how cartography is an important site of struggle for other peoples as well.

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[16]
Campbell D, 2007. Geopolitics and visuality: Sighting the Darfur conflict.Political Geography, 26(4): 357-382.In the many considerations of visual culture in geography, there are few works concerned with the visual culture of contemporary geopolitics. In seeking to rectify this lacuna, this paper outlines elements of a research project to consider the way visuality is a pivotal assemblage in the production of contemporary geopolitics. Signalling the need for a conceptual exploration of the importance of vision and visuality to all forms of knowledge (rather than just those associated with or manifested in specific visual artefacts like pictures), the paper argues that understanding the significance of visuality for geopolitics involves recasting visual culture as visual economy. This enables the constitutive relations of geopolitics and visuality to shift from the social construction of the visual field to the visual performance of the social field. This argument is illustrated through an examination of some of the documentary photography and photojournalism covering the most recent outbreak of war in Darfur, Sudan, beginning in the summer of 2003. Exploring the tension in these pictures between the established disaster iconography of frica and the desire to image genocidal violence and war crimes, considering in particular the way photography captures identity, the argument concludes with reflections on the way the visual performance of the social field that is Darfur structures our encounters with others.

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[17]
Cohen S B, 1991. Presidential address: Global geopolitical change in the post-cold era.Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 81(4): 551-580.Evolution of the world geopolitical system follows organismic developmental principles. The system is complex. It is characterized by a flexibly hierarchical, specialized and integrated spatial structure. Global imbalance is a function of changes among and between geostrategic realms and their geopolitical regions. The imbalance especially reflects differences in entropic levels of major national states, particularly first- and second-order powers. As power becomes more diffused across the evolving world system, the system is better equipped to cope with the shock of change. The evolution of the system depends upon such change. An evolving system is reflected in the multiplication of its parts. The system becomes more integrated as these parts become more specialized. A novel example of specialization is the Gateway region. Eastern Europe is emerging as the Gateway that will link the Maritime and Continental Geostrategic realms. Ultimately the Middle Eastern Shatterbelt may also acquire Gateway status. In addition, in the coming decades, nearly thirty Gateway states are likely to emerge. These are small exchange states with qualified sovereignty that will spin off from existing national entities to help link the world system. Such gateways serve the dynamic system as structures of accommodation. American foreign policy needs to adapt to current geopolitical realities. The global system is increasingly becoming a seamless web whose salient characteristic is dynamic equilibrium, not rigidly imposed order. United States leadership cannot impose a PAX AMERICANA on the global system. It can, however, further its development through a carefully constructed series of policy moves that will strengthen global interdependence through partnerships of interest.

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[18]
Cohen S B, 2011. Geopolitics: The Geography of International Relations. 2nd ed. Shanghai: Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Press.

[19]
Coleman M, 2007. Immigration geopolitics beyond the Mexico-US border.Antipode, 39(1): 54-76.Abstract Despite the centrality of Mexico–US border policing to pre- and post-9/11 US immigration geopolitics, perhaps the most significant yet largely ignored immigration-related fallout of the so-called war on terrorism has been the extension of interior immigration policing practices away from the southwest border. As I outline in this paper, these interior spaces of immigration geopolitics—nominally said to be about fighting terrorism, but in practice concerned with undocumented labor migration across the Mexico–US border—have not emerged accidentally. Rather, the recent criminalization of immigration law, the sequestering of immigration enforcement from court oversight and the enrollment of proxy immigration officers at sub-state scales have been actively pursued so as to make interior enforcement newly central to US immigration geopolitics. I argue here that these embryonic spaces of localized immigration geopolitics shed new light on the spatiality of US immigration governance, which has typically been thought of by geographers as active predominantly at the territorial margins of the state. I conclude the paper with some thoughts as to how geographers might rethink the what and where of contemporary US immigration geopolitics.

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[20]
Dean K, 2005. Spaces and territorialities on the Sino-Burmese boundary: China, Burmna and the Kachin.Political Geography, 24(7): 808-830.The discordance between the conceptual de jure delimitation of the world space and the lived territorialities at the sites of the international boundaries is widely accepted in political geography. However, viewing the de facto phenomena as challenging, defying and ignoring the boundaries, or vice versa, is trapped in the modernist dualism. The paper follows Soja's call for expanding the scope of geographical imagination into three interdependent and interreactive moments of space – conceived, perceived and lived – and through this tri-cameral lens examines the little known spaces on the Sino–Burmese boundary and the territorialities of the Kachin nation delimited into Burma and China. The paper accounts how the power of the ‘conceptual’ controls the perceived moment of space – explicit in the creative adjustments to the boundary by the local actors – while many Kachin spatial practices continue unchanged in the alternative lived space.

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[21]
Du Debin, Duan Dezhong, Liu Chengliang, et al., 2015. Progress of geopolitics of Chinese geography since 1990.Geographical Research, 34(2): 199-212. (in Chinese)The world is undergoing profound changes and restructuring. Resulted from the rise of China, the shifting of world power center and the restructuring of the international order are bound to put forward a new theoretic demand for geopolitical research in China, and bring new opportunities for the development of China's geography. Geopolitics is born from political geography, thus geographers can play a fundamental role in Chinese geopolitical studies and national geopolitical strategies. Having experienced two stages of development from importing the western theories to self-reflection since the founding of P. R. China, studies on Chinese geopolitics are entering the stage of indigenous innovation recently. This paper summarized the achievements and analyzed the deficiencies of Chinese geographers in the fields of geopolitics in the past half a century. Chinese geopolitics has made great progress in team building and academic achievements and some breakthroughs in some aspects recently. However, some problems still exist in Chinese geopolitical research. Firstly, the theoretical system is not yet complete and the academic community is disunited. Secondly, the disciplinary position is not clear,resulting in limited academic development potential. Thirdly, compared with other subjects,Chinese geography, the basic subjects of geopolitics and geo-economic study, is in an obvious weak position. So there is a serious shortage of outstanding achievements. Fourthly, the current research mainly focuses on the phenomenon description, and the mechanism examination is insufficient. Lastly, China's geographers have excessively relied on western thinking, and are lack of independent value judgments. On the basis of the above points, the authors suggest an action plan of strengthening Chinese geopolitical research, including the studies of geopolitical philosophy and methodology, geopolitics basic theory, global geopolitical situation and the major geostrategic powers, and the analysis of China's surrounding geopolitical environment.

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[22]
Ehlers N, Buursink J, 2000. Binational Cities: Peoples, Institutions, and Structures//M van der Velde, H van Houtum. Borders Regions and People. London: Pion, 182-201.

[23]
Eilenberg M, 2012. The confessions of a timber baron: patterns of patronage on the Indonesian-Malaysia border Identities.Global Studies in Culture and Power, 19(2): 149-167.This article explores the socio-economic significance of patronage at the edge of the Indonesian state. It argues that marginal borders and adjacent borderlands where state institutions are often weak, and state power continuously waxes and wanes, encourage the growth of non-state forms of authority based on long-standing patron lient relationships. These complex interdependencies become especially potent because of traditionally rooted patterns of respect, charismatic leadership and a heightened sense of autonomy among borderland populations. The article contends that an examination of these informal arrangements is imperative for understanding the rationale behind border people's often fluid loyalties and illicit cross-border practices, strained relationships with their nation states and divergent views of legality and illegality. The article contributes to recent anthropological studies of borders and believes that these studies could gain important insight by re-examining the concept of patronage as an analytical tool in uncovering circuits of licit and illicit exchange in borderlands.

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[24]
Ek R, 2000. A revolution in military geopolitics?Political Geography, 19(7): 841-874.This paper looks into the recent discussions within the US military community of a coming or current ‘revolution in military affairs’ (RMA) which is said to imply fundamental changes in military geopolitical imaginations and practices (military geopolitics). In a first step, an account of the rhetorical and the conceptual part of the discourse of the RMA is conducted. In a second step, the proclaimed RMA is situated within a wider cumulative technological and organizational development in warfare after the Second World War. In a third step, special attention is given to geopolitical incongruities or contradictions apparent within the discourse of the RMA, and between the rhetorical part of the RMA and more conventional geopolitical practices and imaginations. In a conclusion, the promise of an actor–network approach in further investigations of contemporary techno-geopolitical discourses and practices is spoken for.

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[25]
Feitelson E, 2002. Implications of shifts in the Israeli water discourse for Israeli-Palestinian water negotiations.Political Geography, 21(3): 293-318.Most studies analyzing the Israeli–Arab and Israeli–Palestinian water issues focus on the international level, looking at countries as singular entities, and on the physical features of these issues. However, the outcome of negotiations is likely to be determined, to a significant extent, by the ability of negotiators to meet the expectations of different internal constituencies. The win-sets available to negotiators are molded by the sanctioned discourse within societies. Hence, the potential for reaching agreements should not be analyzed without due regard to internal discourses. This paper analyzes the shifts in the internal Israeli water discourse. It argues that despite the seemingly immutable water policy scene within Israel, the previous unison discourse has fragmented in the last decade as a result of structural changes in the Israeli society and economy. These changes have the potential to increase the win-sets available to negotiators. However, the specific implications for the negotiations will be effected by the relative power of the different discourse coalitions identified in the paper, and their ability to sanction their story lines.

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[26]
Fluri J L, 2009. Geopolitics of gender and violence ‘from below’.Political Geography, 28(4): 259-265.

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[27]
Fukuyama F, 1992. The End of History and the Last Man? New York: Free Press, 199-208.

[28]
Glassman J, 2005. On the borders of Southeast Asia: Cold War geography and the construction of the other.Political Geography, 24(7): 784-807.Themes developed in US Cold War propaganda campaigns during the 1950s to promote the development of the South East Asia Treaty Organization also appeared within the work of Southeast Asianist geographers—particularly in their construction of Southeast Asia as an entity with a distinctive and unified character that distinguished it from China. This Cold War construction of a Southeast Asian “we-self” by both geo-politicians and scholars tended to efface “internal” Southeast Asian differences in the name of unity of interest, especially differences of interest based on class and related social group identities. I show this by looking at two different types of Cold War approaches to Southeast Asian geography: an essentialist and environmental determinist Cold War approach exemplified by Fisher's work, and a social constructivist or pragmatist Cold War geography exemplified by Donald Fryer's work. Further, I argue that similarly functioning “imaginative geographies” are now being forged to legitimize the US “war on terror” in Southeast Asia.

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[29]
Grundy-Warr C, Peachey K, Perry M, 1999. Fragmented integration in the Singapore Indonesian border zone: Southeast Asia’s “growth triangle” against the global economy.International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 23(2): 304-328.Singapore-Indonesian investment cooperation in the Riau islands forms the key part of an initiative in cross-border cooperation including Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Four flagship projects – Batamindo Industrial Park, Bintan Industrial Estate, Bintan Beach International Resort, and the Karimun marine and industrial complex – are a key test of the effectiveness of a development strategy that seeks to 'fast track' development by creating enclaves of investment, protected from the diseconomies and constraints of their surrounding environment. This paper evaluates the progress of the flagship investments and their interaction with their surrounding communities. It shows the constraints on securing enclaves of investment opportunity in the midst of poverty and high population growth. Lessons from the development experience are linked to the political processes affecting cross-border cooperation in Southeast Asia. This discussion reveals the retention of interstate processes predicated on the continued existence of strong nation-states, rather than trans-state processes which permit the weakening of national sovereignty. The negotiating pitfalls and development dilemmas emerging in this political context are identified. — La coopération des investissements entre Singapour et l'Indonésie dans les 06les de Riau forme la partie centrale d'une initiative de coopération trans-frontalière qui comprend l'Indonésie, la Malaisie et Singapour. Quatre projets vedettes – Batamindo Industrial Park, Bintan Industrial Estate, Bintan Beach International Resort and the centre marin et industriel de Karimun – sont autant de tests de l'efficacité de la stratégie qui veut accélérer le développement en créant des enclaves d'investissement protégées des diséconomies et des contraintes de leur environnement proche. Cet article évalue le progrès des investissements vedettes et leur action mutuelle avec les communautés environnantes. Il démontre les difficultés que l'on rencontre pour obtenir des enclaves d'opportunités pour les investissements au coeur de la pauvreté et avec l'augmentation rapide de la population. Les le0008ons tirées de cette expérience de développement sont liées aux processus politiques qui affectent la coopération trans-frontalière en Asie du sud-est. Cette discussion révèle une conservation des processus entre états organisés á partir de puissants états-nations, plut00t que des processus entre états qui permettent un affaiblisement de la souveraineté nationale. Les pièges de la négociation et les problèmes de développement qui apparaissent dans ce contexte politique sont identifiés.

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[30]
Hu Zhiding, Cao Yuan, Liu Yuli, Ge Yuanjing, 2013. A new development of political geography research in China: Geo-setting.Human Geography, 133(5): 123-128. (in Chinese)In China, the study of political geography has a long history. However, compared with the development of economic geography, urban geography, tourism geography and other branches of geography, political geography has not been well developed. Political geography of this situation in China does not meet the important international status and the diplomatic mission of "maintenance of rights, maintenance of stability,cooperation and development", special in the rise of China in the 21st century. This paper will define the concepts associated with geo-setting based on the review of the history of political geography, early geo-environment points and the two discussions at geo-setting conferences recently. Also, this study will pay attention to the concepts, component, classification, scale of geo-setting and research content of geo-setting. Geosetting is completely different with geographical environment, the geographical environment is an integral part of the geo-setting. In addition, geo-setting also includes geo-relationship, and the structure constituted by the geo-relationship. Geo-relationship is constituted of geopolitical military relations, geo-economic relations and geo-social relations. Currently, geo-setting study should focus on four areas:(1) the comparison of different scale geo- setting spatial differentiation, which is one of the important content of geo- setting;(2)evaluation of the simple and comprehensive geo- setting security in different scales, geo- setting has four scales and different security has different factors.(3) geo-setting theory summary and promotion, geo-setting research expands its research content, equates other security with military security, it will lead to a new theory of geopolitics;(4) geo-setting and international political interaction. We hope it can play a valuable feedback results, and can promote the development of political geography in China.

[31]
Hu Zhiding, Lu Dadao, 2015. The re-interpretation of the classical geopolitical theories from a critical geopolitical perspective.Acta Geographica Sinica, 70(6): 851-863. (in Chinese)Struggling for supremacy between great powers and the rise or fall and regime change of great powers are all subject to the Geopolitical Law. Geographers should keep in step with the times, accurately grasp the national interests, and seize the opportunity to contribute to the great rejuvenation of our nation. However, due to lack of criticism on the history and philosophy of geopolitics, we can neither accurately understand the geopolitical theory, nor effectively put the geopolitical theory into practice. This paper introduces the development of critical geopolitics, summarizes the three characteristics of critical geopolitics, and interprets the four classical geopolitical theories accordingly. In order to simplify the interpretation process, this paper firstly presents an analytical framework for interpretation of four classical geopolitical theories; secondly, focuses on interpretation of “The Geographical Pivot of History” put forward by Mackinder according to the analytical framework; finally, critically summarizes the four classical geopolitical theories. Through the critical interpretation, this paper draws a conclusion that there are the scientific, hypothetical and conceptual classical geopolitical theories. The construction of classical geopolitical theories is based on the international geopolitical structure, spatial distribution of national interests and inter-state spatial conflict, in order to show the identity of theoretical constructor, so as to reflect the historicality, sociality, situationality and geographical knowledge–power structure of geopolitical theories.

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[32]
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[33]
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Hyndman J, 2001. Towards a feminist geopolitics.Canadian Geographer, 45(2): 210-222.

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[35]
Hyndman J, 2004. Mind the gap: Bridging feminist and political geography through geopolitics.Political Geography, 23(3): 307-322.The intersections and conversations between feminist geography and political geography have been surprisingly few. Feminist geographers forays into geopolitics and international relations within political geography have been relatively rare compared to their presence and influence in social, cultural, and economic geography. Likewise, only a few political geographers concerned with IR and geopolitics have engaged with scholarship in feminist geography. In an attempt to traverse this gap, the notion of a feminist geopolitics is elaborated; it aims to bridge scholarship in feminist and political geography by creating a theoretical and political space in which geopolitics becomes a more gendered and racialized project, one that is epistemologically situated and embodied in its conception of security. Building upon scholarship in critical geopolitics, feminist international relations, and transnational feminist studies, a theoretical framework for feminist geopolitics is sketched in the first part of the paper. Feminist geopolitics represents more accountable and embodied political responses to international relations at multiple scales. Its application to pressing issues of security and mobility is illustrated in the second half of the article.

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[36]
Hyndman J, 2007. Feminist geopolitics revisited: Body counts in Iraq.Professional Geographer, 59(1): 35-46.Abstract Feminist geography and political geography still represent two solitudes within the discipline. While increased traffic between these different parts of the discipline points to a degree of intellectual engagement, there remains a paucity of feminist thought in political geography. This article examines recent scholarship on feminist political geography, with a view to applying its insights to the struggles to protest and end political violence. The concept of feminist geopolitics is employed and recast, both as a bridging concept between feminist and political geography and as an analytical approach that has political valence in the context of the war in Iraq. Feminist geopolitics is revisited in this article, but remains a critical analytic in relation to body counts and other casualties in war zones.

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[37]
Kaplan R D, 2009. The revenge of geography.Foreign Policy, 5: 1-9.Abstract Top of page Abstract The Origins and Characteristics of Preemption in the Bush Doctrine The Strategic Objectives of Preemption/Prevention in the Bush Doctrine Preemption as Demonstrative Compellence Conclusion References This article argues that the elevation of preemption to a cardinal status in the Bush Doctrine following September 11, 2001 resulted from a larger strategic consideration—to convince rogue states to discontinue their weapons of mass destruction programs and their sponsorship of terrorism. Dismantling the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq as a demonstration of preemptive action was seen as necessary to ensure the forceful and credible conveyance of this message to other rogue states, especially Iran and North Korea. I call this strategic logic behind publicizing preemption, “demonstrative compellence.” Because the logic of preemption in the Bush Doctrine relied heavily on the Iraq war and its demonstrative force, it has little relevance to the future conduct of U.S. foreign policy and should not be described as revolutionary.

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[38]
Kearns G, 2010. Geography, geopolitics and Empire.Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 35(2):187-203.

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[39]
Keith R C, 2009. China from the Inside Out: Fitting the People’s Republic into the World. London: Pluto.Many books claiming to aid our understanding of china are based on the assumption that it is destined to follow the US model of war, hegemony and unilateralism. This book underplays the importance of China's domestic politics, which are essential to shaping the country's role in the world. Highlighting the development of China's own perception of itself, the book examines domestic understandings of the struggle between socialism and capitalism, conflicts over law and human rights, and attempts to create democratic reform.

[40]
Kennedy P, 1986. The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. New York: Basic Books.

[41]
Kuus M, 2004. Europe’s eastern expansion and the reinscription of otherness in East-Central Europe.Progress in Human Geography, 28(4): 472-489.This article examines how EU and NATO enlargement is framed by the dichotomy of Europe versus Eastern Europe, and how the enlargement process simultaneously transforms that dichotomy. I argue that the double enlargement is underpinned by a broadly orientalist discourse that assumes essential difference between Europe and Eastern Europe and frames difference from Western Europe as a distance from and a lack of Europeanness. I suggest that in order to expose and undercut this reinscription of otherness, research on East-Central Europe should engage with postcolonial theory in a more direct and sustained fashion.

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[42]
Kuus M, 2007. Intellectuals and geopolitics: The ‘cultural politicians’ of Central Europe.Geoforum, 38(2): 241-251.Beyond Central Europe, the paper underscores the political and cultural milieu of geopolitical claims and the specific structures of legitimacy through which these claims are justified and normalized. A nuanced understanding of the role of ‘culture’ in geopolitical discourses requires that we closely examine the cultural and moral capital of intellectuals. This would also enable us to better delineate human agency in the production of geopolitics.

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[43]
Lee M, 2007. Inventing Fear of Crime: Criminology and the Politics of Anxiety. Cullompton: Willan Publishing.

[44]
Lilov A, 2007. The Dialogue of Civilizations: The World Geopolitical Trends. Beijing: Social Sciences Academic Press. (in Chinese)

[45]
Liu Zhigao, Wang Chen, Li Erling et al., 2014. Research progress of economic geography in China.Acta Geographica Sinica, 69(10): 1449-1458. (in Chinese)Economic geography, as one of the most important branches of human geography, is a discipline of studying the space of economic activities. Entering the 21st century, economic geographers in various countries reviewed the developments of domestic economic geography, and forecasted the future research. China's economic geography has been driven by real-world questions, and practice-oriented studies, and is becoming internationalized. It is timely to reflect on achievements, the development processes and characteristics of China's economic geography, which is a precondition to further promote its development. After discussing academic function and social function of economic geography research, this article depicted the developments of economic geography research in China since 1994 from the terms of research teams, research focus and research directions, and revealed the basic drivers of the evolution of China's economic geography. The keywords co- occurrence analysis showed that China's economic geography research was problem- solving oriented, and promptly responded to the policy needs of the development of Chinese regions. The collaboration network of the most productive authors indicated that economic geography research and urban geography research have influenced and learned from each other, and several loosely linked research teams emerged. The analysis on the SSCI- listed economic geography articles written by overseas and indigenous scholars revealed that although the highly cited papers were dominated by overseas Chinese, indigenous scholars also made important contributions to theoretical development of this research field. Based on the quantitative analysis and expert consultation, the article summarized the development trends of the branches of China's economic geography research, including regional differences, industrial agglomeration, spatial link, location theory and industrial layout, transportation geography, producer services, functional zoning, typical area planning, energy and carbon emissions, international trade and FDI, information technology and the Internet. Finally, this paper strongly argued that four relations need to be properly handled in the future for the promotion of economic geography in China.

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[46]
Lu Dadao, Du Debin, 2013. Some thoughts on the strengthening of geopolitical and geo-economic studies.Acta Geographica Sinica, 68(6): 723-727. (in Chinese)The rise and fall of the great powers undoubtedly is not dominated by geo-political and geo-economic rules. Since the end of the Cold War, with the rapid economic development of China and other emerging countries, the international power structure is undergoing profound restructuring and the world is entering the new geo-political and geo-economic era. At present, China's geopolitical environment has become increasingly complex and its peaceful development urgently needs geopolitical and geo-economic theoretical support. Based on analysis of the current world geopolitical and geo-economic development trend, this paper discusses the ideological origins on the fundamental role of geography in the development of geopolitics and geo-economics; analyzes the deficiencies of the Chinese geographers in the field of geopolitics and geo-economics; and then puts forward some suggestions how to strengthen the geopolitical geo-economic studies.

[47]
Luttwak E N, 1993. The coming global war for economic power: There are no nice guys on the battlefield of geoeconomics.The International Economy, 7(5): 18-67.

[48]
Mackinder H J, 1904. The geographical pivot of history.Geographical Journal, 23(4): 422.Cohousing schemes were evolved as alternative housing to reduce housework for working women, and to reduce loneliness of elderly people by promoting active mutual relationship with community residents in northern European countries. This article discusses how residents manage their life in senior cohousing projects in Sweden and Denmark. The purpose of this study is to investigate residents' life satisfaction connected with demographic characteristics of residents, physical environment and common activities in the senior cohousing communities, so that it could offer usable information for the establishment of new senior cohousing projects in other countries as well as an empirical evaluation of the existing projects in Scandinavian countries themselves. important variables influential to residents' life satisfaction are also discussed in order to improve senior citizens' quality of life. The methods used for the study are literature review, interviews, field trips and questionnaire. Wine hundred and thirty-five postal questionnares were sent to 28 senior cohousing communities throughout Denmark and Sweden. Of those 536 replies were collected and analysed by SPSS program using frequency, mean and Chi-square test. As a result, it was found out that most of the respondents are healthy, 70-year-olds, and satisfied with their current living in the community. The majority of them also would like to strongly recommend others to move to senior cohousing schemes to improve quality of life in their later years. Residents' intensive concern about building location and design is a noteworthy reminder for designers and architects as well as for professionals and decision-makers who work in the elderly welfare sector.

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[49]
Mao Hanying, 2014. Geopolitical and geoeconomic situation in the surrounding areas and China’s strategies.Progress in Geography. 33(3): 289-302. (in Chinese)

[50]
Marktanner M, Salman L, 2011. Economic and geopolitical dimensions of renewable vs. nuclear energy in North Africa.Energy Policy, 39(8): 4479-4489.Addressing issues of renewable energy in North Africa must incorporate concerns regarding the compatibility of energy mixes with the nature of political regimes, their geopolitical relevance, and their socio-economic effects, in addition to economic cost-benefit deliberations. One important and under-researched aspect of nuclear energy refers to the trade-off between socio-economic development and political power conservation. Competing interests in North Africa's energy market as well as aspects of regional cooperation capacity are important when assessing the choice between renewable and nuclear energy. Therefore, the future course of meeting North Africa's energy needs is subject to a complex political and economic interplay between domestic and geopolitical development interests. The objective of this paper is to explore this complexity in more detail. We argue that the identification of any energy alternative as superior is hardly convincing unless certain standards of inclusive governance are met. We also find that it is important to highlight political conomic differences between energy importers like Morocco and Tunisia and energy exporters like Algeria, Libya, and Egypt.Research highlights? North Africa confronted with severe energy supply challenges in near future. ? Trade-off between socio-economic development and political power conservation matters. ? Economic and geopolitical dimensions of trade-off heterogeneous across North Africa.

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[51]
Martin P M, 2004. Contextualizing feminist political theory. In: Staeheli L, Kofman E, Peake L (ed.). Mapping Women, Making Politics: Feminist Perspectives on Political Geography. New York: Routledge.

[52]
Megoran N, 2006. For ethnography in political geography: Experiencing and re-imagining Ferghana Valley boundary closures.Political Geography, 25(6): 622-640.Political geographers have produced extensive and valuable bodies of knowledge on both international boundaries and geopolitics. However, an emphasis on discourse study means that these literatures are in danger of becoming both repetitious and lopsided, relegating or even erasing people's experiences and everyday understandings of the phenomena under question. This article suggests that ethnographic participant observation, a method largely neglected by political geographers, could be used to address these imbalances and open new research directions. This argument is demonstrated by a study of the impact of the partial closure in 1999–2000 of the Uzbekistan–Kyrgyzstan Ferghana Valley boundary. Post-Soviet time was hyper-accelerated by the belated imposition of the logic of nation–states onto the existing social geographies of kinship practice. The legal–constitutional division of the Valley in 1991 only ‘caught up’ with the lived experiences of borderland dwellers in 1999. The sudden collapse of this ‘political geographical time-lag’ forced upon them the traumatic realisation that Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan really were two separate countries. In this context, using ethnography to highlight discrepancies between elite and everyday political geographical imaginations informs a critique of state violence that is parallel to, but not a replacement of, textual analyses informed by critical social theory.

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[53]
Moysey D, 2010. The Geopolitics of emotion. Beijing: Xinhua Press. (in Chinese)

[54]
Newman D, Paasi A, 1998. Fences and neighbours in the postmodern world: Boundary narratives in political geography.Progress in Human Geography, 22(2): 186-207.State boundaries have constituted a major topic in the tradition of political geography. Boundary analysis has focused on the international scale, since international boundaries provide perhaps the most explicit manifestation of the large-scale connection between politics and geography. The past decade has witnessed a renewed interest in boundaries, both within geography and from the wider field of social theory. Geographers have sought to place the notions of boundary within other social theoretical constructs, while other social scientists have attempted to understand the role of space and, in some cases, territory in their understanding of personal, group, and national boundaries and identities. Recent studies include analyses of the postmodern ideas of territoriality and the `disappearance' of borders, the construction of sociospatial identities, socialization narratives in which boundaries are responsible for creating the `us' and the `Other', and the different scale dimensions of boundary research. These can be brought together within a multidimensional, multidisciplinary framework for the future study of boundary phenomena.

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[55]
Ohmae K, 1995. China’s 600,000 Avon ladies.New Perspectives Quarterly, 21(1): 14-20.

[56]
Pain R, 2009. Globalized fear? Towards an emotional geopolitics.Progress in Human Geography, 33(4): 466-486.This paper questions the recent recasting of fear within critical geopolitics. It identifies a widespread metanarrative, `globalized fear', analysis of which lacks grounding and is remote, disembodied and curiously unemotional. A hierarchical scaling of emotions, politics and place overlooks agency, resistance and action. Drawing on feminist scholarship, I call for an emotional geopolitics of fear which connects political processes and everyday emotional topographies in a less hierarchical, more enabling relationship. I employ conscientization as a tool to inform the reconceptualization of global fears within critical geopolitics, and to move forward epistemological practice and our relationship as scholars with social change.

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[57]
Painter J, 1995. Politics, Geography and Political Geography: A Critical Approach. London: Arnold.

[58]
Pandian S G, 2005. Energy trade as a confidence-building measure between India and Pakistan: A study of the Indo-Iran trans-Pakistan pipeline project.Contemporary South Asia, 14(3): 307-320.To date, there has been no confidence-building measure capable of locking India and Pakistan into an irreversible relationship and acting as a powerful catalyst for bilateral development, prosperity and regional stability. In the absence of mutual trust, confidence and cooperation between these two countries, it becomes imperative to identify potential areas of cooperation to reduce threat perceptions in the region. Although the economic relationship alone does not play a pivotal role in strengthening the foundation on which the political relationship is built, it could be argued that economic factors have a considerable leverage in influencing the political relationship. In this regard, a focus on energy trade gains significant attention. The energy trade between India and Pakistan has enormous potential to lock them into an irreversible economic interdependence, thereby reinforcing their efforts to intensify relations in other potential areas of cooperation. This paper is an effort to identify the scope for energy trade to act as an economic confidence-building measure in Indo-Pakistan by studying the cost enefit analysis of Pakistan's inclusion in an Indo-Iran natural gas pipeline project. It analyses in detail India's energy strategy and the economic rationale for trans-Pakistan pipeline. Finally, the paper analyses the potential benefits of a trans-Pakistan pipeline for both India and Pakistan, and its possible impact in creating political constituencies essential for reducing regional conflict.

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[59]
Parker G, 2003. Geopolitics: Past, Present and Future. Beijing: Xinhua Press. (in Chinese)

[60]
Perkmann M, 2003. Cross-border regions in Europe: Significance and drivers of regional cross-border cooperation.European Urban and Regional Studies, 10(2): 153-171.ABSTRACT This article was published in the journal, European Urban and Regional Studies [ Sage]. The definitive version: PERKMANN, M., 2003. Cross-border regions in Europe: significance and drivers of regional cross-border co-operation. European Urban and Regional Studies, 10(2), pp. 153-171, is available at: http://eur.sagepub.com/. The 1990s have seen a strong surge in the number of cross-border regions all over Western and Eastern Europe. The article analyses the emergence of these local cross-border institutions in public governance by addressing their context, dimensions and causal underpinnings. First, it offers a brief background on the history of cross-border regions in Europe and related EU policies to support them. Second, it provides a conceptual definition of crossborder regions and their various forms and positions within the wider context of other transnational regional networks. Third, it analyses the empirical dimensions of European cross-border regions, including their frequency, geographic distribution and development over time. It concludes by linking cross-border regions and their various forms to institutional conditions in specific countries as well as the effects of European regional policy. It is argued that small-scale cross-border regions have flourished in particular because of their increasingly relevant role as implementation units for European regional policy in a context of multi-level governance.

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[61]
Pile, S, 2010. Emotions and affect in recent human geography.Transactions of the Institute of British Geographer, 35(1): 5-20.Abstract This paper seeks to examine both how emotions have been explored in emotional geography and also how affect has been understood in affectual geography. By tracing out the conceptual influences underlying emotional and affectual geography, I seek to understand both the similarities and differences between their approaches. I identify three key areas of agreement: a relational ontology that privileges fluidity; a privileging of proximity and intimacy in their accounts; and a favouring of ethnographic methods. Even so, there is a fundamental disagreement, concerning the relationship – or non-relationship – between emotions and affect. Yet, this split raises awkward questions for both approaches, about how emotions and affect are to be understood and also about their geographies. As importantly, mapping the agreements and disagreements within emotional and affectual geography helps with an exploration of the political implications of this work. I draw upon psychoanalytic geography to suggest ways of addressing certain snags in both emotional and affectual geography.

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[62]
Pleshakov K, 1994. Geopolitika v svete globalnykh peremen.Mezhdounarodnaya zhizn, 10: 30-39.

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Roberts S, Secor A, Sparke M, 2003. Neoliberal geopolitics.Antipode, 35(5): 886-897.

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Scholte J A, 2000. Globalisation: A Critical Introduction. Houndmills: Macmillan.

[65]
Scholvin S, 2011. Clashing geopolitical visions: Iraq from the first world war to the 1958 revolution.Revista Română de Geografie Politică, 2: 157-170.The relationship of geography and politics does not only have a material dimension. Seeing politics from a geographical perspective also means addressing "geopolitical visions", i.e. ideas about geographical space. By using the concept of geopolitical visions, geographers can help to structure historical processes. This value of the concept of geopolitical visions is demonstrated in this article by the history of Iraq from the First World War to the 1958 revolution. Various geopolitical visions about Iraq clashed. Driving forces and turning points of Iraq's pre-1958 history become apparent within the frame of geopolitical visions.

[66]
Secor A, 2001. Toward a feminist counter-geopolitics: Gender, space and Islamist politics in Istanbul.Space and Polity, 5(3): 191-211.Geopolitical reasoning privileges the global scale as the locus of spatialised power relations. For the past 20 years, Islam and Islamist politics have figured prominently in geopolitical discourses of international conflict. This paper puts forth a feminist counter-geopolitics that focuses on how Islamist political practices and discourses are written into everyday life and urban spaces. Approaching political activity as comprising both formal voting behaviour and informal associational activities, this study uses survey and focus group data (collected in Istanbul in 1998/99) to explore gender and Islamist politics at national and local scales. Exploring women's activities within both formal and informal urban political spaces, the study reveals some of the ways in which women participate in the daily production and contestation of Islamist politics in Istanbul.

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[67]
Shen J F, 2014. Not quite a twin city: Cross-boundary integration in Hong Kong and Shenzhen.Habitat International, 42: 138-146.The integration of cross-border regions involves at least three dimensions, i.e., economic integration, institutional integration and social integration. The relationship and the gaps among these processes of integration need detailed studies in the context of increasing number of cross-border regions. The empirical focus of this paper is the cross-boundary integration of Hong Kong and Shenzhen, two major cities that have played a pivotal role in China's urbanization, development and internationalization over the last three decades. It is revealed that economic integration prevails in the Hong Kong–Shenzhen integrated region. Economic integration has necessitated the institutional integration which in turn attempts to facilitate economic integration. But both economic and institutional integration cannot change the pace of social integration. Social integration lags significantly behind economic and institutional integration. Brunet-Jailly's main hypothesis of the theory of borderland studies is only partially valid in Hong Kong–Shenzhen region. The paper concludes that Hong Kong–Shenzhen has not yet become a twin city.

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[68]
Shen Jianfa, 2013. Cross-boundary urban development and integration: A case study of Hong Kong and Shenzhen.City Planning Review, 37(6): 20-25. (in Chinese)This paper examines the cross-boundary urban development and integration of Hong Kong and Shenzhen. It is found that close economic integration has been established, and some progress has been made in institutional integration. But social integration lags significantly behind economic and institutional integration. Residents in Hong Kong and Shenzhen do no have adequate understanding of each other. Over 57% of Hong Kong and Shenzhen residents are not familiar or very unfamiliar with the other city. Over 40% of Hong Kong and Shenzhen residents consider that their different value systems are a main barrier to the construction of Hong Kong-Shenzhen metropolis. The cross-border community in Hong Kong-Shenzhen region is not well integrated. Hong Kong and Shenzhen have many differences which may make it difficult to achieve full integration. Two cities should aim to raise urban competitiveness and facilitate cross-boundary living and working for residents in the process of promoting cross-boundary urban development and integration.

[69]
Shmueli D F, 1999. Water quality in international river basins.Political Geography, 18(4): 437-476.The extent to which the above forces were mobilized to influence the water quality aspects of the treaties that have been studied, varies in accordance with: the severity of the water quality problem in relation to the basins' physical and human settings; the level of competitive uses of basin waters; the level of economic development of each riparian and the co-basin states as a whole; the locational setting and political power asymmetry among riparian states; and whether or not the institutions or agreements are basin-wide. The forces identified in this study are meant to provide some guidance to the factors conducive to failure or success.

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[70]
Sidaway J D, 2000. Postcolonial geographies: An exploratory essay.Progress in Human Geography, 24(4): 591-612.

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[71]
Sit V F S, 1998. Hong Kong’s “transferred” industrialization and industrial geography.Asian Survey, 38(9): 880-904.

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[72]
Sneddon C, Fox C, 2006. Rethinking transboundary waters: A critical hydropolitics of the Mekong basin.Political Geography, 25(2): 181-202.Efforts to understand the geographical and political complexities of transboundary river basins—both within national jurisdictions and at international levels—must embrace critical interdisciplinary perspectives. In this paper, we focus attention on underdeveloped aspects of transboundary water conflicts and cooperation—e.g., how ecological understandings of river basins are transformed within transboundary institutional arrangements; the way multiple actors in transboundary basins construct geographical scales; and how control over water is represented and exercised within governance and management institutions. We advance the notion of critical hydropolitics as a way of explicating these processes. We draw on a case study of conflict over and within the transboundary waters of the Mekong River basin to illustrate this approach. Our aim is to complement and extend ongoing research and policy debates concerning transboundary waters.

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[73]
Snyder K A, 2008. Building democracy from below: A case from rural Tanzania.Journal of Modern African Studies, 46(2): 287-304.Focusing on events in a rural village in Tanzania during 2001 02, this paper examines the changing nature of state/society relations in Tanzania. Drawing on experience from previous years of fieldwork in the early 1990s, it becomes apparent that villagers are beginning to change the way they engage with the state. These new approaches are framed in part by the discourse of democracy, with which Tanzanians have become familiar since the economic and political liberalisation policies of the 1990s. These events reveal a new sense of the right to participate in decision-making on how to use key development resources. They also illustrate how local elites can threaten to capture benefits for their own gain. As Tanzanians begin to demand more rights to participate in the public sphere, their achievements enlarge our understanding of what might constitute civil society.

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[74]
Solovyev E G, 2004. Geopolitics in Russia: Science or vocation?Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 37(1): 85-96.The author describes the development of geopolitical studies in Russia after the Soviet breakup. He identifies two main schools of geopolitical analysis, Traditionalist and Revisionist. Traditionalism is inspired by old European and Russian geopolitical theories and views the world through the lenses of confrontation over power and resources. The revisionist school, on the other hand, adopts a considerably broader definition of what constitutes geopolitics by proposing to study various forms of organizing space on a global scale. According to the paper central argument, the Russian geopolitics, while having emerged as a vocation, it is yet to turn into a full-fledged academic discipline. It continues to lack coherent and scientifically testable theoretical propositions and needs a broad discussion of its issues with the participation of both traditionalists and revisionists.

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[75]
Song X, 2001. Building international relations theory with Chinese characteristics.Journal of Contemporary China, 10(26): 61-74.As an atmosphere conducive for scientific inquiry and research improves in China, many Chinese scholars are optimistic about the future development of International Relations (IR) studies. A younger generation of IR scholars has started to pay more attention to IR theory and begun to research issues like national sovereignty and China's national interests. This paper reviews the development of IR theory in China and the basic arguments among Chinese scholars on theory building, especially concerning the attempt to build an IR theory with 'Chinese characteristics'. It examines the reasons for the continuing challenges, amid progress, of IR theory in China and looks into the prospects in the near future.

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[76]
Sparke M, 1998. A map that roared and an original atlas: Canada, cartography, and the narration of nation.Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 88(3): 463-495.This paper contributes to recent debates about the geography of power, the nation-state, cartographic history, and postcolonial theory. It does so by connecting the themes of these literatures and exploring empirically the claims about the narration of nation made by the postcolonial theorist Homi Bhabha. The two empirical case studies come from contemporary Canada, and concern, in part, the mapping of the nation-state. The first case is a British Columbia trial in which two First Nations, the Gitxsan and Wet'suwet'en, brought a case against the provincial and federal governments over the recognition of their native sovereignty. The second study is of volume 1 of the Historical Atlas of Canada, which, unlike many others before it, sought to place native peoples and spaces within the overarching cartography of the country. In both studies, the ambivalent (post) colonial power relations of cartography-the fact that they can work both for and against colonialism-become evident. They therefore serve as exemplary lessons concerning the political geography of mapping and the chronic persistence into the present of colonial assumptions about cartography. But more than this, the studies also raise significant questions about the limits of Bhabha's locution of "location" as a site for a performative form of political agency. The paper suggests, therefore, that, while spatial theorists can usefully draw on Bhabha's postcolonial supplements to theories of the nation, the work of producing postcolonial geographies of national negotiations simultaneously supplements and displaces Bhabha's own abstraction of agency.

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[77]
Sparke M, 2008. From geopolitics to geoeconomics: Transnational state effects in the borderlands.Geopolitics, 3(2): 62-98.This article reads Ohmae's arguments about ‘the end of the nation‐state’ against the arguments of Luttwak about the centrality of ‘geoeconomics’ in the new world order. By exploring the limits of both their arguments, the article develops a much more critical account of geoeconomics, suggesting that it can be used by scholars of boundaries and geopolitics to come to terms with the development of cross‐border regionalism and associated transnational state effects (i.e. transnational governance imperatives) in the context of free trade. Geoeconomics is thus argued to describe the localised changes in governance imperatives implicated in a series of economically‐driven and quite quotidian challenges to national borders on the ground in both North America and Europe. The article outlines how an examination of localised strategies to create cross‐border regions in the context of globalised economic interdependencies offers a research window onto processes currently challenging the nation‐state from the ground up. As such, it is argued that the case studies discussed here also offer a way of empirically evaluating the geoeconomic influence of discourses about ‘the end of the nation‐state’ promoted by writers such as Ohmae.

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[78]
Taylor P J, Flint C, 2000. Political Geography: World-Economy, Nation-State and Locality. 4th ed. London: Prentice Hall.

[79]
Tuathail G O, 2010. Localizing geopolitics: Disaggregating violence and return in conflict regions.Political Geography, 29(5): 256-265.Critical geopolitics began as a critique of Cold War geopolitical discourses that imposed homogenizing categories upon diverse regional conflicts and marginalized place-specific structural causes of instability and violence. This critique is still relevant. Implicit within it is the promise of a more geographical geopolitics that, arguably, has not been realized by research. Using Bosnia–Herzegovina as an example, this paper examines the challenges of developing a critical geopolitics grounded in the study of contested geopolitical regions and places. Reviewing anthropological and other place-sensitive studies of violent population displacement and post-war returns in Bosnia–Herzegovina, the paper considers some conceptual dilemmas and questions raised by attempting to create a grounded critical geopolitics.

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[80]
Tuathail G O, 1998. Postmodern geopolitics? The modern geopolitical imagination and beyond. In: Tuathail G O, Dalby S. Rethinking Geopolitics. London: Routledge.

[81]
Tuathail G O, 1999. Understanding critical geopolitics: Geopolitics and risk society. In: Gray C S, Sloan G. Geopolitics, Geography and Strategy. London: Cass.Abstract Critical geopolitics is a perspective within contemporary political geography that investigates the politics of geographical knowledge in international relations. It has four different dimensions: formal, practical, popular and structural geopolitics. All four dimensions are introduced and briefly illustrated with reference to Sir Halford Mackinder, the discourse of 'Ballcanism', and the processes shaping the contemporary geopolitical condition. These processes, globalization, informationalization and proliferating techno-scientific risks, force a re-thinking of geopolitics in what Ulrich Beck terms a 'risk society'. Three critical geopolitical arguments about the dilemmas of geopolitics in risk society comprise the conclusion.

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[82]
Usher A D, 1997. Dams as Aid: A Political Anatomy of Nordic Development Thinking. London: Routledge.The book is a critical exploration of dams which sheds light on the wider issues of the political economy of aid, the environment debate and North-South links. Focusing particularly on Nordic (Swedish and Norwegian) aid for hydro dams in developing countries, it describes why dams are no longer built in the region, the mechanism through which Northern aid money subsidizes the dams industry to f...

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[83]
Verma S K, 2007. Energy geopolitics and Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline.Energy Policy, 35(6): 3280-3301.With the growing energy demands in India and its neighboring countries, Iran–Pakistan–India (IPI) gas pipeline assumes special significance. Energy-deficient countries such as India, China, and Pakistan are vying to acquire gas fields in different parts of the world. This has led to two conspicuous developments: first, they are competing against each other and secondly, a situation is emerging where they might have to confront the US and the western countries in the near future in their attempt to control energy bases. The proposed IPI pipeline is an attempt to acquire such base. However, Pakistan is playing its own game to maximize its leverages. Pakistan, which refuses to establish even normal trading ties with India, craves to earn hundreds of millions of dollars in transit fees and other annual royalties from a gas pipeline which runs from Iran's South Pars fields to Barmer in western India. Pakistan promises to subsidize its gas imports from Iran and thus also become a major forex earner. It is willing to give pipeline related ‘international guarantees’ notwithstanding its record of covert actions in breach of international law (such as the export of terrorism) and its reluctance to reciprocally provide India what World Trade Organization (WTO) rules obligate it to do—Most Favored Nation (MFN) status. India is looking at the possibility of using some set of norms for securing gas supply through pipeline as the European Union has already initiated a discussion on the issue. The key point that is relevant to India's plan to build a pipeline to source gas from Iran relates to national treatment for pipeline. Under the principle of national treatment which also figures in relation to foreign direct investment (FDI), the country through which a pipeline transits should provide some level of security to the transiting pipeline as it would have provided to its domestic pipelines. This paper will endeavor to analyze, first, the significance of this pipeline for India and then the geopolitics involved in it.

DOI

[84]
Wang Enyong, 2003. Political Geography. Beijing: Higher Education Press. (in Chinese)

[85]
Wang Limao, Li Hongqiang, Gu Mengchen, 2012. Influence path and effect of climate change on geopolitical pattern.Acta Geographica Sinica, 67(6): 853-863. (in Chinese)Marked by the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009, climate change is shaping the new pattern for future geopolitics with unprecedented drive. Climate change has surpassed the category of pure environment problem and become a focal issue in international relations. Driven by climate change, new changes have taken place in the evolution of geopolitical pattern. (1) Geopolitical contention expands into new fields and regions. (2) Measures and tools of geopolitical contention become more diversified. (3) Main bodies of geopolitical gambling are divided into different groups. With the development of politicization, climate change has become the significant driving force that can influence the evolution of geopolitical pattern. Measures, sphere and contents of geopolitical contention changed dramatically, carbon emission permits, carbon tariff and new energy technology turned into the key points of geopolitical contention. Climate change acts on the evolution of geopolitical pattern through three main paths: "Feedback effect", "Trace back effect", and "Ripple effect", and they exert influence on geopolitical pattern with three impacts: "Depression effect", "Traceability effect", and "Diffusion effect". We draw several conclusions from the analysis: (1) Climate change gradually becomes one of the most active driving forces to impact on the evolution of geopolitical pattern in the present world and it diversifies the geopolitical targets. (2) Climate change generates new geopolitical tools. The developed countries use climate change as a "Lever" to pry strategic resources like energy and grain and the geopolitical means are in a more secretive way. (3) Low-carbon technology, with new energy technology as the core, becomes the key factor of geopolitical influence and power transition. Those who can take advantage of new energy technologies will occupy the leading position in future climate change negotiations and geopolitical competition.

DOI

[86]
Wang Shufang, Ge Yuejing, Liu Yuli, 2015. The spatio-temporal evolution and driving mechanism of geopolitical influence of China and the US in South Asia.Acta Geographica Sinica, 70(6): 864-878. (in Chinese)As a vital geo- strategic area for China and the US, South Asia plays an important role in international geopolitics. On one hand, China's maritime transportation safety and the stability of western frontier are closely related with South Asia. On the other hand, the US needs to implement "Asia Pacific rebalancing strategy" by means of the support of South Asia.Therefore, how to analyze the changes and evolution mechanism of geopolitical influence(i.e.,geo-influence) of China and the US in South Asia, has become the key research question. This paper proposes the index system and mathematical model of geo- influence by combining geography, international relations and political perspective. Furthermore, the paper explores the main influencing factors and driving mechanism of geo- influence evolution by analyzing the spatio-temporal changes of geo-influence of China and the US in South Asia. In this study, five results can be concluded as follows:(1) The geo-influence of China and the US in South Asia has been rising slowly with small fluctuations from 2003 to 2012. What's more, the geoinfluence of China grew faster than that of the US.(2) The evolution of national geo-influence is a slow process. From 2003 to 2012, the changes of geo- influence of China and the US in South Asia fluctuated within a narrow range.(3) Hard power, soft power, interdependent power and friction force are the main effect factors of geo- influence. Hard power and soft power are the dominant factors, which play a pulling role. Interdependent power is the auxiliary factor,which plays a pushing role. Friction force is the weakening factor, which plays a reversing role.(4) The driving mechanism of geo- influence evolution of China and the US in South Asia involves geographical location, geopolitics, geo- economy and geo- culture. Among them,geographical location acts as the restricting force; geopolitics acts as the leading force; geoeconomy acts as the driving force; geo-culture acts as the radiate force.(5) National hard power is not equal to the geo-influence. One strong country does not necessarily have the same strong geo- influence. Thus there is a non- linear relationship between national hard power and geoinfluence. Hard power does play a leading role, but it cannot determine the strength and speed of geo-influence changes.

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[87]
Wang Wentao, Liu yanhua, Yu Hongyuan, 2014. The geopolitical pattern of global climate change and energy security issues.Acta Geographica Sinica, 69(9): 1259-1267. (in Chinese)Currently, the problem of climate change is already far beyond the category of scientific research, and it affects the economic operation mode, interests pattern and geographical relations, and has become the focus of international relations. During the transition period of the international economic and social development and the critical transformation period of the world geopolitical pattern reorganization, China' s industrialization is still at the mid- stage, and tackling with climate change is also China's internal demand under this development stage. With more influences of climate change on national competitiveness, and the Middle East, central Asia, north important geo- strategic region, climate change and geopolitics present complex multiple relations, and climate change in the era of geopolitics gradually has affected the national strategy and diplomacy. This report illustrates the new geopolitics characteristics of climate change from the interests and the game, and puts forward relevant policy suggestions:(1) Weigh the interests, handle the complex relations of power, and negotiate between the European Union group and the umbrella group led by the United States;(2) Strengthen risk assessments, actively carry out cooperation on energy, climate change with the United States and the European Union;(3)Rely on the "One Belt(Silk Road Economic Belt) and One Road(21st Century Maritime Silk Road)" to ensure our energy security, and actively participate in global energy governance;(4) Innovate the "south- south cooperation" mechanism, and increase the investment;(5)Promote economic and energy restructuring and transformation in China to build the international competitiveness in the future. Finally, the research directions in climate change and energy security issues are proposed for Geography, which should be strengthened.

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[88]
While A, Jonas A E G, Gibbs D, 2004. The environment and the entrepreneurial city: Searching for the urban ‘sustainability fix’ in Manchester and Leeds.International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 28(3): 549-569.There is evidence that the politics of economic development in the post-industrial city is increasingly bound up with the ability of urban elites to manage ecological impacts and environmental demands emanating from within and outside the urban area. More than simply a question of promoting quality of life in cities in response to interurban competition and pressures from local residents, the greening of the urban growth machine reflects changes in state rules and incentives structuring urban governance as part of an evolving geopolitics of nature and the environment. The adoption of principles and practices of ecological modernization potentially represents a dramatic shift in the social regulation of urban governance away from unconstrained neoliberalized modes. In this article we explore how different demands on and for urban environmental policy have played out vis-à-vis changing modes and practices of governance in two English post-industrial cities. We explore differences in the ways that entrepreneurial urban regimes have sought to incorporate the green agenda (Leeds), or insulate themselves from ecological dissent (Manchester). We further attempt to conceptualize evolving urban economy-environment relations in the UK in terms of an ensemble of governance practices, strategies, alliances and discourses that enables the local state to manage, though not necessarily resolve, seemingly conflicting economic, social and environmental demands at different scales of territoriality. Here we propose the notion of an 'urban sustainability fix' to describe the selective incorporation of ecological objectives in local territorial structures during an era of ecological modernization. <P>Dans les villes post-industrielles, la politique de développement économique semble liée de plus en plus étroitement à l'aptitude des élites urbaines à gérer les impacts écologiques et les exigences environnementales venus de l'intérieur et de l'extérieur. Au-delà de la simple défense d'une qualité de vie en ville, répondant à la concurrence interurbaine et aux pressions des habitants, l'intégration de la cause Verte dans la machine de croissance urbaine reflète les nouvelles règles et mesures d'encouragement étatiques qui structurent la gouvernance des villes dans le cadre d'une géopolitique évolutive de la nature et de l'environnement. L'adoption de principes et pratiques de modernisation écologique pourrait traduire un revirement dans la régulation sociale de la gouvernance urbaine, en rempla04ant la totale latitude des réponses néolibérales. L'article explore comment les demandes variées de et en politique urbaine d'environnement se sont exercées dans le contexte changeant des modalités et pratiques de gouvernance de deux villes post-industrielles anglaises. Il s'intéresse aux différences de démarches qu'ont adoptées des régimes urbains ayant l'esprit d'entreprise pour incorporer le programme vert (Leeds) ou s'affranchir de la dissidence écologique (Mancheste

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[89]
Withers C W J, 2013. On enlightenment’s margins: Geography, imperialism and mapping in Central Asia, c.1798-c.1838.Journal of Historical Geography, 39: 3-18.This paper examines the nature of British geographical work in Central Asia (Persia and Afghanistan) in a period when Britain was concerned about a region which lay between Europe and Enlightenment on the one hand, and her Indian colonies, the uncertainties of Asia and the imperial designs of France and Russia on the other. The paper explores the connections between geography, diplomacy and colonial knowledge and demonstrates how the mapping and geographical study of Central Asia was a central feature of British colonial ambitions and of Enlightenment conceptual reasoning. In illuminating the ways in which ‘ancient’ and ‘modern’ geography was at work in this politically core yet geographically ‘marginal’ space, the paper highlights the complexities intrinsic to the making of geography and of empire in a region until now neglected in modern historical geography.

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[90]
Wolf A, 1999. Criteria for equitable allocations: The heart of international water conflict.Natural Resources Forum, 23: 23-30.Abstract At the heart of most international water conflicts is the question of quitable allocations, criteria for which are vague and often contradictory. However, application of an equitable water-sharing agreement along the volatile waterways of the globe is a prerequisite to hydropolitical stability. This article explores the question of equity measures for water-sharing agreements in the context of global hydropolitics and is divided into three parts. The Introduction provides a brief summary of the general principles of equitable allocations. The second part of the paper describes the practice of water resources allocations as exemplified in the Transboundary Freshwater Dispute Database - a computerized database of 149 treaties relating to international water resources compiled at Oregon State University; 49 of these treaties delineate specific water allocations. The third and fourth parts of the article contrast the principles and practice of water equity. It is noticeable how rarely the general principles are explicitly invoked, particularly the extreme principles of absolute sovereignty or absolute riverain integrity. Most treaties favor existing uses, and/or guarantees to downstream riparians. It is interesting that, while many international water negotiations begin with differing legal interpretations of rights, they often shift to a needs-based criteria for water allocations. Mostly, one is struck by the creativity of the negotiators in addressing specific language to each very specific local setting and concerns.

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[91]
Woodward B, 2004. Plan of Attack. New York: Simon and Schuster.

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