Geopolitics

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Geopolitics is often referred to as a synonym for the spatial, foreign policy actions of major powers within the framework of a geostrategy. The narrower scientific conceptual meaning of geopolitics refers to the political-scientific interpretation of geographical conditions, which is often carried out in the context of political consulting. Geopolitics was derived from political geography and was initially in opposition to it. It was of particular importance in Germany in the two world wars and the interwar period. An influential Anglo-American geopolitics did not form until World War II.

Definitions and use of terms
Both in the media and in much of political science, the term geopolitics is used as a synonym for violent and unscrupulous power politics. American and British scientists originally understood geopolitics as an analysis of political (and economic) phenomena that focuses on geographical causal factors. Geopolitics as an Academic Discipline is a method of analysis in the political science research field International Relations with special reference to geography. Academic geopolitics examines with an analytical-descriptive claim the influences that geographical conditions and dynamics have on political developments, with the main interest being on foreign and security policy developments. On the other hand, geopolitics is a practical method of security policy decision-making and implementation. There is a long tradition of scientific geopoliticians who saw themselves as government advisors and always wanted to influence policymakers with their research. The French geographer and geopolitician Yves Lacoste emphasizes that geopolitics is an instrument of domination, geopolitical knowledge is strategic knowledge.

As a term for an academic discipline, Egbert Jahn calls the term “unhappy”. Nobody would think of social policy, family policy, environmental policy or foreign policy as a science. Rather, these are specific sectors and objects of politics, both of political events or processes (politics) and of political contents, tasks and goals (policies). In these cases, a clear distinction is made between politics and political science. The reason why geopolitics is not a politics, but a science or a doctrine of politics, is probably due to the fact that geopolitics is not a certain object of politics, such as the geosphere or the earth, but a certain aspect of politics, namely its spatial reference. Geopolitics is therefore not earth politics, a word that has also recently been used to describe global environmental policy.

Characteristic of geopolitics are their geodeterminism