JEOPOLİTİK STRATEJİ - Deneme Sınavı - 2

Globalization had been the epicenter of political debates and analyses on world politics throughout the 1990s. The rise of globalization as a very popular notion and analytical tool to explain the nature and dynamics of international relations in this particular period could be attributed to the end of Cold War where two so-called superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, dominated the stage of international politics as leaders of two power poles (this is why that era is called bipolar world). Globalization was promoted as a sweeping explanation to describe the new state of affairs in the interstate relations. Therefore, the correct option is E.

The process of globalization also had visible impacts in the domain of international politics. The scholarly debates particularly focus on whether or not this process has eroded the significance of nation-states. Nation-state which, in technical terms, refers to a political entity that exercises absolute sovereignty over a defined territory and a certain group of people in that territory has been viewed as the main determinant actor of the international political system, particularly since the 20th century. Therefore, the correct option is B.

General conviction among IR scholars suggests that the nation-state is the most important (if not the only) actor of the international political system. Featuring a centralized authority of government and exclusive jurisdiction, the nation state is considered the most effective and prevalent mode of political organization. However, whether the state will remain the main actor of the global system is one of the most controversial debates of the IR discipline. Therefore, the correct option is A.

Particularly subsequent to the 1970s when the impacts of Cold War visibly started to erode in international politics, the term regained relevance and relative independence from the debates on strategy and military studies. The then-State Secretary of the US, Henry Kissinger, made significant contributions to the revival of the concept in this era. In his memoirs, The White House Years, Kissinger referred to the US foreign policy he drafted in the 1970s as an approach that considered the geopolitical requirements and dictations. Therefore, the correct option is B.

Although it was not at the epicenter of the debates, geopolitics complemented the theoretical and practical explanations offered in this new era in a number of aspects. Fukuyama’s seminal book The End of History (1992) argued that the battle between major ideologies ended with the obvious victory of liberal democracy, suggesting that the liberal values are the ultimate achievement of mankind. The End of History thesis further suggested that the world politics is entering a new era where most states will adopt similar values and construct identical identities. This approach further stressed that ideology was no longer a determinative tool in interstate politics and that economic rivalry would become the main dynamic in international affairs. Liberal economy and liberal democracy would reshape the world and nations would show a tendency towards establishing some sort of world government performing roles of global governance in an era of complexity. Therefore, the correct option is D.

The current understanding of the international relations creates correlations between sovereign privileges of the states, and their moral and legal responsibilities by virtue of being recognized as states. This is to suggest that even though it serves as the basis of state acts and autonomy, sovereignty has also been transformed into the source of state responsibility in certain instances where the members of international community have established a shared code of morality or normativity. Therefore, the correct option is C.

Human security refers to a shift from emphasis upon state’s own national security concerns to the protection of the security of the individuals in international politics. In other words, individuals have, to a certain degree, become a subject of interstate relations and international law particularly when their survival as groups of people is at stake. Therefore, the correct option is C.

Geopolitics also plays a role within the state itself in the form of regulations. Thus, this instate geopolitical activities can be properly called geopolitics of regulation which is mostly performed by private actors that make the private/public distinction a blurred category. Regulatory activities can also take place at the transnational level as observed in the presence of a number of such organizations in a number of fields where states are unable or reluctant to make investments. The regulatory activities of these institutions encompass a myriad of areas and transcend the borders of the nation states. Because they do not have direct reference to geography or territorial security, they can be regarded as part of “low geopolitics,” as opposed to “high geopolitics.” Therefore, it is fair to argue that geopolitics and globalization have always gone and moved together rather than being antithetical to each other. Therefore, the correct option is A.

Geoculture as a term was originally coined by Immanuel Wallerstein in his book “World Systems Analysis” to refer to the cultural framework of the modern world system.

Geopolitics, in its broader definition, is the analysis of the geographic influences on power relationships in international relations. Etymologically consisting of the words “geo” meaning earth, land and “politics”; geopolitics is a discipline emerged out of political geography.

According to Montesquieu, warm climates weaken people, and they become more prone to be enslaved, while people living in colder climates are braver and thus prone to be free.

He introduced a number of key elements and concepts within his theory, one of which is the “heartland”. Mackinder’s writings were mainly concerned with the grand strategy of the British empire and at this juncture geography was the pivot for a clear understanding of world politics.

Ratzel is the first theorist who introduced and used space and location as a means of analyzing the state. His theory of state was based on the organic state idea that accordingly suggests that states are living organisms which are born and have to grow. For a state, to grow a sufficient life-space (lebensraum) is imperative, therefore in order to grow, states have to expand by changing existing borders. Lebensraum was defined by Ratzel as the geographical surface area required to support a living species at its current population size and as population grew it had to expand.

Karl Haushofer’s geopolitics is based on these common aspects of German geopolitics, but he had also been influenced by Mackinder’s heartland theory.

In this manner, a leading figure was George Ken- nan, an American diplomat and historian. Kennan was the figure who suggested containment as the core of US geopolitical strategy against Soviet activities after the Second World War. The main source for his containment theory is an article Kennan published in 1947, in Foreign Affairs, but under the pseudonym “Mr. X”. Since Kennan was a member of the US Department of State during the Truman administration, he could promote the idea of containment. Containment, according to Kennan, is the “application of counter-force at a series of constantly shifting geographical and political points, corresponding to the shifts and maneuvers of Soviet policy”.

At this point, it is worth mentioning another theory which provided the base for the containment to be actualized. This is the domino theory which essentially was based on the idea that if one country in a region came under the influence of communism, then the surrounding countries would follow it in a domino effect. It was first suggested in 1947 by William Bullit and was adapted in policies of the Kennedy and Nixon administrations.

Brzezinski defined Turkey as a geopolitical pivot, which means “a state whose importance is derived not from its power but rather from its sensitive location and from the consequences of its potentially vulnerable condition for the behavior of geostrategic players”. Thanks to its geostrategic location, Turkey has a variety of geostrategic choices; the Western perspective, the Northern or Caucasus perspective and the Mediterranean perspective.

Russia, the main actor of US and European energy geo strategies, is therefore a good example of the materialization of geo-economics. Russia uses its energy endowment to advance strategic objectives, which can best be seen in the Russian-Ukrainian gas crisis of 2008.

Harfold J. Mackinder, a geographer in the United Kingdom, is considered to be the first important geopolitical thinker.

Unlike Mackinder, Alfred Mahan, a military historian in the United States, argued that the road to global primacy in international politics would go through mastering oceans and other sea lines.