Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
THE GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPEAN DIVISIONS
When it comes to contemporary geopolitics, with its frequent upheavals and evolutions, the
focus is naturally on Afro-Asia, from the Middle East to China. Europe tends to be left out
of the equation, reduced as it often is to a financial story. But this is a mistake. The European
Union's population of 500 million is the third largest in the world after China's and India's.
The EU's economy of $16 trillion is larger than that of the United States. From its western
extremity Europe faces the heart of North America. It is as close to the Southern Cone of
South America as is the United States. From its eastern extremity, Europe overlooks Afro-
Eurasia. Europe lies at the heart of the Eastern or “Land” Hemisphere, equidistant between
ics should begin with Europe. The perspective of Mackinder, Spykman, Morgenthau, and
some of the other thinkers we have considered is in large part a European one. Thus, to see
how the world has evolved since their day it helps to start where they did. Though Marshall
Hodgson is obviously right about the primacy of the Near Eastern Oikoumene, that region
will constitute one of the climaxes of our journey, and so we need not commence with it.
Not to worry, Europe will lead us organically to geographical consideration of Russia, Ch-
ina, the Indian Subcontinent, and the Greater Middle East. To understand geopolitics in the
twenty-first century, we must start with the twentieth, and that means with Europe.
