Geopolitics

This volume serves as a clear entry point into present-day arguments about geopolitics and global power. Tracing the field from its origins to the present, Agnew examines the ideas that have long shaped it, along with the new directions it has taken and the varied effects it has produced over time.

He builds the discussion around five core ideas within the modern geopolitical imagination: the habit of picturing the planet as a single whole; the labeling of regions as either 'advanced' or 'primitive'; the belief that the state is the supreme form of political life; the drive of rival states to gain dominance; and the claim that a hierarchy of power is unavoidable. Each idea is tested against current events, including Hong Kong's reintegration into China, proposals to give the European Union greater authority over its member nations, and the risk of fragmentation facing Canada, Spain, Russia and the United Kingdom.

Throughout, Agnew explores how the arrangement of power is bound up with the way geographic space is defined. He also points to the geopolitical assumptions that seemed secure a decade ago and now appear either abandoned or open to doubt.