The theoretical frameworks and analytical tools that explain how geography shapes international relations.
28 articles
The Oldest Principle of International Relations
The theory that peace and stability emerge when no single state dominates the system. For centuries, the balance of power has shaped alliances, wars, and the fundamental structure of world order.
The Grand Strategy of the Cold War
The American strategy of preventing Soviet expansion through a combination of military alliances, economic aid, and political pressure. Containment defined four decades of global competition.
Mackinder's Geographical Pivot of History
The foundational geopolitical theory arguing that control of Central Eurasia—the 'Heartland'—is the key to world domination. Mackinder's 1904 thesis reshaped how nations think about geography and power.
Spykman's Challenge to the Heartland
Nicholas Spykman's counterargument to Mackinder, proposing that the Eurasian coastal regions—not the interior—hold the key to world power. This theory directly shaped American Cold War strategy.
Command of the Oceans and Global Influence
The theory that control of the seas is the foundation of national greatness. From Alfred Thayer Mahan to modern naval strategy, sea power has shaped the rise and fall of empires.
The Study of Power and Geography
An introduction to geopolitics—the study of how geography shapes international relations. Understanding geopolitical concepts provides a framework for making sense of world events.
Deterrence theory explains how states prevent adversaries from taking unwanted actions by maintaining credible threats of punishment—a logic that underpins nuclear strategy and extends to conventional, cyber, and economic domains.
Digital sovereignty refers to a nation's capacity to govern the digital infrastructure, data flows, and technological systems operating within its borders—an increasingly contested domain as power in the twenty-first century flows through fiber optic cables as much as oil pipelines.
The archipelagic line running from Japan through Taiwan to the Philippines that contains China's navy within East Asian waters. Breaking through or controlling this chain is central to Chinese strategy—and to American efforts to maintain regional primacy.
Geoeconomics describes the practice of wielding economic instruments—trade, investment, sanctions, technology controls—to achieve strategic objectives that were once pursued primarily through military means.
Globalization describes the intensification of cross-border flows of goods, capital, people, and ideas that has reshaped the world economy and international politics—a process now facing unprecedented challenges from geopolitical rivalry, technological change, and domestic backlash.
Gray zone conflict describes activities that fall between routine statecraft and open warfare—coercive actions that challenge adversaries while remaining ambiguous enough to avoid triggering decisive military response.
Hybrid warfare combines conventional military operations with cyber attacks, information warfare, economic coercion, and proxy forces to achieve strategic objectives while avoiding the costs and risks of traditional armed conflict.
A multipolar world is one in which power is distributed among several major states, none of which can dominate the others—a configuration that may bring both greater regional autonomy and heightened risks of great power conflict.
Nationalism holds that the nation—a community defined by shared culture, history, language, or identity—should be the primary unit of political organization and the supreme object of loyalty, a force that has both unified peoples and divided continents.
Neoliberalism describes an economic and political framework that emphasizes free markets, deregulation, privatization, and reduced state intervention—an ideology that has shaped global economic policy since the 1980s and generated intense debate about its benefits and costs.
The use of economic restrictions as instruments of foreign policy—from targeted measures against individuals to comprehensive embargoes against nations. Sanctions have become a primary tool of statecraft, though their effectiveness remains debated.
Strategic autonomy refers to a state's ability to make and implement decisions in defense, foreign policy, and critical technologies without excessive dependence on external powers—a concept that has gained urgency as great power competition intensifies.
The dangerous dynamic that occurs when a rising power threatens to displace an established hegemon—a pattern identified by the ancient Greek historian that may illuminate the US-China rivalry.
Weaponized interdependence describes how states exploit their central positions in global economic and technological networks to coerce others—turning the infrastructure of globalization into instruments of power.
Artificial intelligence has emerged as a decisive arena of great power competition, reshaping military capabilities, economic power, and the nature of statecraft itself. Control over AI development and deployment may determine which nations lead the international order in the coming decades.
The Belt and Road Initiative represents China's most ambitious foreign policy undertaking: a multi-trillion dollar program to finance infrastructure across Eurasia, Africa, and beyond, creating new trade corridors while extending Beijing's economic and political influence worldwide.
Data localization encompasses the legal requirements that compel organizations to store and process data within the territorial boundaries of a specific nation—a policy instrument that has become central to debates over digital sovereignty, national security, and economic competition in the twenty-first century.
Geopolitical risk refers to the potential for political events, conflicts, and policy changes to disrupt economic activity, affect asset prices, and alter the operating environment for businesses and governments across borders.
Rare earth elements are a group of seventeen metallic elements essential to advanced technologies from smartphones to missiles. China's dominance over their mining and processing has created critical supply chain vulnerabilities that reshape geopolitical calculations.
Techno-nationalism describes the strategic orientation in which states treat technological capability as fundamental to national security, economic competitiveness, and geopolitical influence—merging industrial policy with foreign policy in pursuit of technological supremacy.
The shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy is not merely an environmental or technological phenomenon—it is a structural transformation of the global order, redistributing power from hydrocarbon exporters to mineral-rich states and technology leaders while creating new dependencies, alliances, and vulnerabilities.