Geopolitics and the Quest for Dominance
Geopolitics and the Quest for Dominance

Author: Jeremy Black

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Published: 2015-11-25

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 0253018730

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History and geography delineate the operation of power, not only its range but also the capacity to plan and the ability to implement. Approaching state strategy and policy from the spatial angle, Jeremy Black argues that just as the perception of power is central to issues of power, so place, and its constraints and relationships, is partly a matter of perception, not merely map coordinates. Geopolitics, he maintains, is as much about ideas and perception as it is about the actual spatial dimensions of power. Black's study ranges widely, examining geography and the spatial nature of state power from the 15th century to the present day. He considers the rise of British power, geopolitics and the age of Imperialism, the Nazis and World War II, and the Cold War, and he looks at the key theorists of the latter 20th century, including Henry Kissinger, Francis Fukuyama and Samuel P. Huntington, Philip Bobbitt, Niall Ferguson, and others.

Smokeless War
Smokeless War

Author: Manoj Kewalramani

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2021-06-28

Total Pages: 231

ISBN-13: 9354350968

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In January 2020, the COVID-19 outbreak in China was viewed as a black swan event, threatening the Communist Party's rule. Two short months later, however, China appeared to have controlled the virus, while the rest of the world struggled to respond. As country after country imposed lockdowns of varying strictness and the human cost began to rise, geopolitical frictions flared up over the origins of the virus, along with Beijing's early failures, diplomacy and discourse. Smokeless War: China's Quest for Geopolitical Dominance offers a gripping account of the Communist Party of China's political, diplomatic and narrative responses during the pandemic. Drawing on the latest academic research and Chinese language sources, it discusses the Party–State's efforts to achieve greater discourse power and political primacy, as it sought to convert a potentially existential crisis into a historic opportunity. In doing so, the author provides an insightful account of the Communist Party of China's approaches to cultivating sources of strength and exercise of power.

Heavenly Ambitions
Heavenly Ambitions

Author: Joan Johnson-Freese

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 2012-05-26

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 0812202368

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In the popular imagination, space is the final frontier. Will that frontier be a wild west, or will it instead be treated as the oceans are: as a global commons, where commerce is allowed to flourish and no one country dominates? At this moment, nations are free to send missions to Mars or launch space stations. Space satellites are vital to many of the activities that have become part of our daily lives—from weather forecasting to GPS and satellite radio. The militaries of the United States and a host of other nations have also made space a critical arena—spy and communication satellites are essential to their operations. Beginning with the Reagan administration and its attempt to create a missile defense system to protect against attack by the Soviet Union, the U.S. military has decided that the United States should be the dominant power in space in order to protect civilian and defense assets. In Heavenly Ambitions, Joan Johnson-Freese draws from a myriad of sources to argue that the United States is on the wrong path: first, by politicizing the question of space threats and, second, by continuing to believe that military domination in space is the only way to protect U.S. interests in space. Johnson-Freese, who has written and lectured extensively on space policy, lays out her vision of the future of space as a frontier where nations cooperate and military activity is circumscribed by arms control treaties that would allow no one nation to dominate—just as no one nation's military dominates the world's oceans. This is in the world's interest and, most important, in the U.S. national interest.

The Wa of Myanmar and China's Quest for Global Dominance
The Wa of Myanmar and China's Quest for Global Dominance

Author: Bertil Lintner

Publisher:

Published: 2021-03

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 9786162151705

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The United Wa State Army (UWSA) is a nonstate armed group that administers an autonomous zone in the difficult-to-reach Wa Hills of eastern Myanmar. As China expands its geopolitical interests across Asia through the Belt and Road Initiative, the Wa have come to play a pivotal role in Beijing's efforts to extend its influence in Myanmar. In a book relevant to current debates about geopolitics in Asia, the illicit drug trade, Myanmar's decades-long civil wars, and ongoing efforts to negotiate a settlement, Bertil Lintner, the only foreign journalist to visit the Wa areas when they were controlled by the Communist Party of Burma, traces the history of the Wa Hills and the struggles of its people, providing a rare look at the UWSA.

Introduction to Geopolitics
Introduction to Geopolitics

Author: Colin Flint

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2012-07-26

Total Pages: 313

ISBN-13: 1136724370

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This clear and concise introductory textbook guides students through their first engagement with geopolitics. It offers a clear framework for understanding contemporary conflicts by showing how geography provides opportunities and limits upon the actions of countries, national groups, and terrorist organizations. This second edition is fundamentally restructured to emphasize geopolitical agency, and non-state actors. The text is fully revised, containing a brand new chapter on environmental geopolitics, which includes discussion of climate change and resource conflicts. The text contains updated case studies, such as the Korean conflict, Israel-Palestine and Chechnya and Kashmir, to emphasize the multi-faceted nature of conflict. These, along with guided exercises, help explain contemporary global power struggles, environmental geopolitics, the global military actions of the United States, the persistence of nationalist conflicts, the changing role of borders, and the new geopolitics of terrorism, and peace movements. Throughout, the readers are introduced to different theoretical perspectives, including feminist contributions, as both the practice and representation of geopolitics are discussed. Introduction to Geopolitics is an ideal introductory text which provides a deeper and critical understanding of current affairs, geopolitical structures and agents. The text is extensively illustrated with diagrams, maps, photographs and end of chapter further reading. Both students and general readers alike will find this book an essential stepping-stone to understanding contemporary conflicts.

Postmodern Imperialism
Postmodern Imperialism

Author: Eric Walberg

Publisher: SCB Distributors

Published: 2011-06-09

Total Pages: 293

ISBN-13: 0983353964

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Eric Walberg’s POSTMODERN IMPERIALISM: Geopolitics and the Great Game is a riveting and radically new analysis of the imperialist onslaught which first engulfed the world in successive waves in the 19th–20th centuries and is today hurtling into its endgame. The term “Great Game” was coined in the nineteenth century, reflecting the flippancy of statesmen (and historians) personally untouched by the havoc that they wreaked. What it purported to describe was the rivalry between Russia and Britain over interests in India. But Britain was playing its deadly game across all of Eurasia, from the Balkans and Palestine to China and southeast Asia, alternately undermining and carving up “premodern” states, disrupting the lives of hundreds of millions, with consequences that endure today. With roots in the European enlightenment, shaped by Christian and Jewish cultures, and given economic rationale by industrial capitalism, the inter-imperialist competition turned the entire world into a conflict zone, leaving no territory neutral. The first “game” was brought to a close by the cataclysm of World War I. But that did not mark the end of it. Walberg resurrects the forbidden “i” word to scrutinize an imperialism now in denial, but following the same logic and with equally horrendous human costs. What he terms Great Game II then began, with America eventually uniting its former imperial rivals in an even more deadly game to destroy their common revolutionary antagonist and potential nemesis-communism. Having “won” this game, America and the new player Israel-offspring of the early games-have sought to entrench what Walberg terms “empire and a half” on a now global playing field-using a neoliberal agenda backed by shock and awe. With swift, sure strokes, Walberg paints the struggle between domination and resistance on a global canvas, as imperialism engages its two great challengers-communism and Islam, its secular and religious antidotes. Paul Atwood (War and Empire: The American Way of Life) calls it an “epic corrective”. It is a “carefully argued-and most of all, cliche-smashing-road map” according to Pepe Escobar (journalist Asia Times). Rigorously documented, it is “a valuable resource for all those interested in how imperialism works, and sure to spark discussion about the theory of imperialism”, according to John Bell (Capitalism and the Dialectic).

The Geopolitics of Domination (Routledge Library Editions: Political Geography)
The Geopolitics of Domination (Routledge Library Editions: Political Geography)

Author: Geoffrey Parker

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-10-03

Total Pages: 195

ISBN-13: 1317600274

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Using the examples of the Ottoman Empire, Spain, Austria, France and Germany, this book describes the principal geopolitical features of the expansionist state. It then presents a model of the operation of the expansionist process over space and time. It goes on to apply the geopolitical characteristics of the model to the period after 1945 in order to assess the extent to which the Soviet Union might be considered as being an expansionist state, either actually or potentially. This latter question is obviously once more extremely relevant with the current events in Ukraine.

Geopolitics
Geopolitics

Author: Francis Sempa

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-07-12

Total Pages: 144

ISBN-13: 1351517686

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Writers, observers, and practitioners of international politics frequently invoke the term "geopolitics" to describe, explain, or analyze specific foreign policy issues and problems. Such generalized usage ignores the fact that geopolitics as a method of understanding international relations has a history that includes a common vocabulary, well-established if sometimes conflicting concepts, an extensive body of thought, and a recognized group of theorists and scholars. In Geopolitics, Francis P. Sempa presents a history of geopolitical thought and applies its classical analyses to Cold War and post-Cold War international relations. While mindful of the impact of such concepts as "globalization" and the "information revolution" on our understanding of contemporary events, Sempa emphasizes traditional geopolitical theories in explaining the outcome of the Cold War. He shows that, the struggle between the Western allies and the Soviet empire was unique in its ideological component and nuclear standoff, the Cold War fits into a recurring geopolitical pattern. It can be seen as a consequence of competition between land powers and sea powers, and between a potential Eurasian hegemonic power and a coalition of states opposed to that would-be hegemony. The collapse of the Soviet empire ended the most recent threat to global stability. Acting as a successor to the British Empire, the United States organized, funded, and led a grand coalition that successfully countered the Soviet quest for domination. No power or alliance posed an immediate threat to the global balance of power. Indeed, the end of the Cold War generated hopes for a "new world order" and predictions that economics would replace geopolitics as the driving force in international politics. Russian instability, the nuclear dimension of the India-Pakistan conflict, and Chinese bids for dominance have turned the Asia-Pacific region into what Mahan called "debatable and debated ground." Russi

Geopolitics: A Very Short Introduction
Geopolitics: A Very Short Introduction

Author: Klaus Dodds

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2019-07-25

Total Pages: 177

ISBN-13: 0192566490

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Geopolitics is a slippery term. From great power politics and speculation about resource scrambles, to everyday encounters and objects such as smart phones, it affects citizens, corporations, international bodies, social movements, and governments. Geopolitics is far more than simply the impact of geographical features such as rivers, mountains, and climate on political developments. Geography matters but not necessarily in the way that pundits and presidents assume. In this Very Short Introduction, Klaus Dodds tours the field of geopolitics, encompassing both its intellectual historical origins and its current concerns. As people struggle to cross borders, moving a few feet either side of a territorial boundary can be a matter of life or death, dramatically highlighting the connections between place and politics. Even far away from the front lines of states, geopolitics remains an important part of everyday life. A country's connectivity, location, size, and resources all affect how the people that live there understand and interact with the wider world. In this third edition Dodds includes new sections considering the rise of populism and economic nationalism as examples of how states, people, and corporations manage territorial frames for political projects such as Make America Great Again, One Belt, One Road, and Brexit. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

On Geopolitics
On Geopolitics

Author: Harvey Starr

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-11-17

Total Pages: 122

ISBN-13: 1317255178

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On Geopolitics shows how the 'new geopolitics' combines the fields of geography and international relations to create a comprehensive overview of current political developments. Using recent developments in geographical technology as well as traditional theories and methods, Harvey Starr explores themes of spatiality and territoriality as they connect to international affairs. He also examines geopolitical dynamics beyond borders in a world now buffeted by non state actors and subject to intergovernmental institutions and norms. On Geopolitics is a brilliant synthesis of Starr's ongoing work on conflict and co-operation, alliances, opportunity, and willingness, within a geographic framework. At the same time, Starr points the way toward new tools and techniques for the study of globalisation and world politics.