Geopolitics

[fitzley]

Both of you bring up some good points. I don't foresee anyone getting tough on China just because it is an economic powerhouse that many of us depend on, including the United States.

One of the theories in international relations is that there tends to be one country that dominates the international system for a time before slowly declining and being overtaken by another. The most recent historical example being the United Kingdom, with its large empire and being the center of international trade giving way to the United States taking that position. So, it is theorized that the next successive hegemon will be China.

Problem with the power transition though, is there are usually large scale wars as nation-states vie for the top position.

England fought off challengers such as France and Germany. The United States had the Soviet Union initially, but now faces China as a potential challenger.

More on China: Interesting article!

Why China will attack India by 2012

[deezelboy]

I think Bharat Verma is living in a fantasy world.  I can't see any advantage to China in attacking India!

[Neltharion]

More curry?

[Dutch90]

Just thought I'd revitalize this thread with an interesting note on the origin of the term "geopolitics".

Apparently it was coined by German geographer Karl Haushofer (1869-1946) as "Geopolitik". Basically, his idea of geopolitics was inspired by Darwin's theory of evolution through natural selection, modeling the behavior of states after that of animals. According to Haushofer, it was natural for strong states to supplant weaker ones - it was the survival of the fittest. Also, Haushofer further developed the concept "Lebensraum" ("habitat", "living space") originally coined by Friedrich Ratzel- every state required a "habitat". Basically, this was a "scientific" justification of colonialism and imperialism, and it's thought to have had a significant influence on the expansionist foreign policy of Nazi Germany.

An example of this is the so-called "Hausenhofer map", which overgeneralizes the linguistic and cultural expanse of Germany by also including Germanic-speaking nations such as the Netherlands within Germany's Lebensraum, and by asserting that Germany has cultural influence on Western Russia. Thus, Nazi Germany's claim on and subsequent invasion (or attempted invasion) of neighboring countries was supposedly supported by scientific proof.

Unfortunately I can't find an example of such a map, although I remember one from my geography textbook.

[Neltharion]

Strangly, I'm reading a book for my first year course of Geography (amongst others) and I remember my professor talking about said German Dude, I'm actually reading a book about Geopolitics, and it is frankly, rather interesting.

I shall comment once finished reading.

[fitzley]

Here is a long but interesting link regarding China's Grand Strategy.

China Military Power Report