BUT NOT THE HEART OF OUR LAND (via Kevin Whited):

REEXAMINING OLD CONCEPTS ABOUT THE CAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA (Igor Torbakov, 2/04/04, EurasiaNet)

The so-called “heartland” theory was first advanced in January 1904 lecture delivered by Sir Halford Mackinder, then the director of the London School of Economics and one of the most prominent British geographers of the era. In his lecture, Mackinder asserted that the ability to efficiently administer the Eurasian heartland would give the controlling state decisive influence over the global development agenda. Concurrently, maintaining stability in the Eurasian heartland would go a long way towards determining global security conditions, Mackinder argued.

At the time that Mackinder developed the heartland theory, Russia stood on the verge of completing Trans-Siberian railroad. To Mackinder, world history was essentially the story of an eternal struggle between what he called the “seaman” and the “landman.” The emergence of railroads, he argued, allowed land powers to be almost as mobile as naval powers. By using “interior lines,” the state occupying the “central position” on the so-called Eurasian island could project power more rapidly than could naval powers, such as Britain. [...]

Today, instead of Britain, the United States is leading the Western effort to limit the revival of Russian influence in Central Asia and the Caucasus. To help project its power, Washington has established military bases in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, while US military advisors are in Georgia helping to retrain Georgian military personnel. [...]

The possible spread of instability in the Eurasian heartland threatens the interests of both Russia and the West. A deterioration of regional security conditions would exert growing pressure on Moscow and Washington to cooperate, rather than compete in the region. Already, the United States and Russia profess to be allies in the campaign against terrorism. Yet the actions of both countries in recent years, most notably the Bush administration’s precipitous attack on Iraq, belie all such talk about an alliance.

Mackinder, in an essay published in the journal Foreign Affairs in 1943, raised the possibility that the West and Russia could one day develop into genuine partners. Writing in the midst of World War II, Mackinder indicated that cooperation between Russia and the West would probably be needed to prevent Germany from ever again posing a threat to the global order. Were he living today, some scholars believe Mackinder would urge cooperation to contain the largest current threat to the world order: global terrorism.

Since we've no interest in a European balance of power and great interest in both constant energy supplies and Islamicist terror, it seems obvious that Russia should be a partner rather than a rival in "the heartland". The perennial instability of the region though suggests why we should be using gas taxes to force alternative energy innovation rather than depending on the inherently undependable.

MORE:
-BIO: Sir Halford John Mackinder (1861 - 1947) (Jon T. Kilpinen, Department of Geography and Meteorology at Valparaiso University)
-ESSAY: Mackinder's World: Halford Mackinder’s ideas, which began to appear in print almost a century ago, have assumed classic status in the world of political geography. Policy makers and scholars remember them now mainly for the seemingly simple formula that control of Eastern Europe would bring command of the “Heartland,” thus control of the “World-Island” (Eurasia), and ultimately the world. His ideas in their entirety, including his own later reconsiderations, form a complex, powerful body of work. (Francis P. Sempa, American Diplomacy)
-ESSAY: Sir Halford Mackinder, Geopolitics, and Policymaking in the 21st Century (Christopher J. Fettweis, Summer 2000, Parameters)
-ESSAY: "The Geographical Pivot of History and Early 20th Century International Relations": Halford Mackinder at 100: Reflections on the 'Geographical Pivot of History' sessions (Pascal Venier)
-ESSAY: Heartland Geopolitics: The Case of Uzbekistan (Chris Seiple, January 25, 2004, Foreign Policy Research Institute’s “E-Notes”)
-ESSAY: Re-defining East and West: An old theory put up against new changes (Catherine Lovatt, 11/29/99, Central Europe Review)
-ESSAY: Mackinder and Frontier Lands (Anssi Kullberg, 19th July 2001, The Eurasian Politician)
-ESSAY: World Conquest : The Heartland Theory of Halford J. Mackinder (MR Ronald Hee , Journal of the Singapore Armed Forces)
-ESSAY: Blundering toward a Second Cold War?: The Cold War has been over for nearly a decade, yet tensions between the United States on the one hand and Russia and China on the other remain extremely high. (Charles Hill, 2002, Hoover Digest)
-ESSAY: First ascent of Mount Kenya (EWP)
-ARCHIVES: "mackinder" (Find Articles)
-REVIEW ESSAY: The Decline and Fall of Almost Everything: a review of Preparing for the Twenty-First Century by Paul Kennedy (James Kurth, Spring 1993, Foreign Affairs)

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 9, 2004 11:06 AM