By Mauricio Diagama Durán
The world, stumbling into a new globalization, presents tensions deriving from the interaction of international issues with national and local ways of thinking and acting.
These tensions have resulted in conflicts, in some cases violent, and in threats or risks to people and governments.
Therefore, new approaches or tools are needed to understand, explain and propose actions for international and national security. Or that different ideas are used to solve international problems.
In this context, geopolitics resurfaces as a tool for contemporary analysis.
Evolution
At the end of the 19th century, a new theoretical approach arose, which revolutionized the actions of the European powers. Among other things, due to the growing need for living spaces, great importance has been given to the territory, its resources and its natural connection with the military forces.
Later, some claimed that such ideas constituted an autonomous science within the social sciences and others included them as part of international relations or comparative political science. And so began the discussion about his character.
But the reality is that there was a confusion between the theoretical structure (geopolitics as a set of ideas), the methodological structure (geopolitics as a method of analysis) and its practical application (geostrategy).
During the 20th century, and especially during the Nazi regime, those principles were used to justify the purposes of expansion. And in this way an interpretation of geopolitics was born, which states that it promotes the colonialist interests and the aggressive behavior of the countries or of those who express or suggest them for their use.
But after the end of the Second World War, other approaches, methods, study perspectives or visions about space and man appeared.
The field of geographic and space sciences emerged as a response to the limits of traditional geography. And the human and social sciences also multiplied.
This is why geopolitics has returned in the context of the Cold War and new ideas, schools and civil and military strategists have appeared.
Nowadays, things have changed a lot. The Globalization, the rise of China, the enormous technological advances among other things, have made geopolitics a great tool for analysis. And the world has important centers of geopolitical thought, which try to analyze cases and facts, to offer interpretations and generate answers to the authorities.
So now geopolitics is more an approach or a look, which has the characteristics of an adequate study method to understand the social conflicts that occur in a given space.
The reason is that it allows us to understand the power, using the perspective of human space, the resources involved and the interests of the actors who are sheltered from him.
Also because if the interests are particular for each actor, conflicts appear, which can become violent. Therefore, it is possible to explain how conflicts are generated, resolved, maintained or ended within the spatial dimensions.
Premisis
There is a close relationship between men, power and state, at all levels, with the forms of space in which men live. Space and everything inside it constitute independent variables in the equation of development, although men modify them with their actions.
The space adopts many natural forms, regardless of the man and the people who occupy them. Therefore, the vision of the environment, reduced to the soil (territory) or water (salt – sea, fresh – rivers, lakes, lagoons) is important but does not reflect the entire relationship between man and the environment. Each space is a large, high and deep three-dimensional capsule, structured with different materials such as earth, water or air.
Man in his life creates and adopts artificial forms of space, which he calls, for example, countries, regions, departments, states or provinces and sets spatial limits or boundaries, to mark his power in front of others. These artificial forms are subject to human action and are therefore dynamic, depending on the power that forges them.
The national state and its forms of geographical organization, internal or external, are human creations and therefore are not absolute, therefore they can be modified, depending on the power expressed in them.
The resources of a country or one of those artificial forms of space can be vital, strategic or symbolic, depending on the importance they have for those who own them, use them or request them. And they may or may not be within that space. So while those want them and try to get them, the others will try not to lose or increase them. Natural resources, such as water, air, forests, jungle or minerals, are the most important, linked to life itself.
Many conflicts arise because of the resources present in a given space. Some will be violent and some will not. But they are natural, they are in the public interest and a culture is necessary for their resolution.
Finally, it is only by power that conflicts are resolved, maintained or ended.
Questions
What is the dynamic factor or the independent variable: the human being or the environment? The man or the land where he is located? Why do men decide to conflict on a space? Why are the resources associated with a space vital, if sometimes they are not related to human integrity? What makes individual interests relative to these resources? Why, if resources cannot be exploited well, do they protect themselves, even with life itself, rather than sharing or cooperating?
Constitutive elements
As you can see, the geopolitical approach focuses on identifying spaces, actors, interests and resources (especially natural ones) as keys to conflicts, many of which are violent. Therefore, it analyzes the power, relationships and history of each space, from a human perspective, the state and things.
So it allows us to visualize the relationship between global, national and local security. It also makes it easier to understand economic conditions as factors of conflict and generators of peace or violence.
It also shows countries with particular interests, compatible or not with others, and how they try to achieve their goals. Because resources are the foundation of wealth and competing for them is part of their development.
Here interests are the raison d’etre of politics, since the struggle for power is explained by obtaining or preserving wealth and defending the interests of anyone who holds that power.
And while the struggle for power should be peaceful, this approach shows that force and violence are used as a means of defending private interests.
Therefore geopolitics makes it clear that conflicts, violence and the use of force are part of human reality.
Key concepts in Geopolitics
In the previous paragraphs we wrote that geopolitics can be defined as a set of ideas or as a method of analysis and that its application is called geostrategy. Also, we underlined that geopolitics tries to understand the conflicts that occur within a given space. And it allows us to analyze the relationship between power, resources and interests of actors. It is also useful to explain the history and relationships in each space, from a human, state and things perspective, allowing us also to understand the economic conditions that generate peace or conflicts and violence.
Now, we will specify the concepts.
Power
There are innumerable interpretations and concepts associated with power and in particular with political power. But in summary, it is the ability to impose one’s will on the behavior of others (Weber). So for geopolitics the key is that the space occupied, or contested, by the actors with this ability, is essential, to understand how their interests and resources combine.
Spaces and resources
Geopolitics takes the space in which human actions are carried out and within which power is exercised as an independent variable. It is also the primary source of wealth due to the existence of resources. So space is a three-dimensional capsule, with precise limits, but with different physical forms.
Here it is clear that no space subject to power is infinite, therefore man himself sets artificial limits to limit the action of the power of others.
The area, where those limits set by men are located, is called the border.
With these concepts, it is possible to reach those of controversial spaces, close spaces and distant spaces.
The space under discussion is defined as the heart or center of the relationship between actors who fight for something that contains vital, strategic or symbolic resources for one or more of them.
The near and far spaces constitute the environment, in which there are other actors with their own interests, who can make decisions or take actions on the space in conflict.
In this case, resources are activities that can be used to produce one’s own benefits and whose possession is a factor of wealth. Therefore they can be useful, be available for use, be limited and be important for the economy.
There are natural and artificial resources (man intervenes in their development). Natural resources come from the contested space, are independent of men and their existence does not depend on them.
These resources can be vital, such as clean air, fresh water or food, so the spaces in which they exist are strategic, such as jungles, rivers, forests or heaths. Or they may not be viable, but they can be strategic, such as oil, coal or precious stones.There are also artificial and symbolic resources.
Because resources generate wealth, their possession, transformation and use is essential for actors, such as the state, the family, companies, etc. And due the fact wealth supports power, resources are valuable economically and politically.
Therefore, when a resource is classified as strategic, it is directly associated with the maintenance, increase or improvement of wealth (The President of Nestlé said, for example, that water is not a vital resource for humanity in its together and therefore should be treated as another product).
Actors
An actor can be individual or social. The latter is characterized by the fact that it is structured by individual actors, who share common visions, values and ways of acting and doing more or less common. Here internal leadership is focused on defending collective interests and achieving the group’s objectives.
Well, in today’s world, there are more players and therefore the field of international relations has expanded.
This happens because in previous centuries the social, economic and political weight was based almost exclusively in the States, and for this reason their role was much more predominant. Now a multinational company can manage corporate budgets higher than the public budgets of a country and have interests spread all over the world.
There is also the international bureaucracy of intergovernmental organizations (OIG), which may have the same or more power than a mayor or regional authority.
Then there are the economic actors who express and defend the interests associated with individual or collective wealth.
Moreover, relevant criminal organizations and terrorist groups also assume the role of international actors.
And when an actor takes actions or makes decisions that can influence, benefit or go against the interests of other actors, conflicts arise.
So the role of states is to act as the most powerful actor, to give security to all others and to manage conflicts peacefully and within the framework of the laws.
Interests
The issue of interests is associated with this approach, with the particular desires, aspirations and needs of individual actors, social groups, the state or society in general.
They are not just desires or dreams, because they are connected to real objectives, resources or problems, on which the actor has some type of ability to acquire, maintain or increase them. And in defense of this interest, I am able to act with the tools that allow it to develop, obtain, preserve or increase it. Actors also understand them as their own and unique, and if they belong to the economic order, the respective economic actor regards them as the main reason for their wealth.
Country, nation and state
The country is a political-spatial concept, based on the idea that in a limited space people live organized by some kind of power, with more or less common resources and interests.
The nation is a sociological concept, which refers to the group of people with relatively common ties, identities and cultural forms, which can occupy one or more countries.
And the state is a legal, administrative and political concept, which refers to the way people organize themselves for their common survival and coexistence, establishing rules, authorities and institutions, within a common space.
From the above it follows that not all countries are non-national, nor do they have a single state. Not all nations are located in a single country nor are they governed by a single state. Much less that all states are citizens
Geopolitics: The Nature of Conflict
In human life there are personal and social conflicts. Personal conflict is the exclusive domain of the individual and therefore is not the raison d’etre of geopolitics, although it is clear that social interests will always be connected to the person and his problems.
On the other hand, in social conflicts, a social actor expresses individual and group interests at the same time, which are reflected in the concrete decisions and actions it takes in the face of the particular situations it has to face.
In the same way, we can affirm here that the different particular interests lead to differences between individual and social actors; and that because of their profound nature, many of these conflicts come from wealth, that is, from possession, control or exploitation of resources found in a given space.
We can also say that all social conflicts quickly end up becoming economic, since by involving actors, interests and resources, they become struggles for economic power and wealth itself.
So we will talk about social conflicts because for geopolitics, the central thing is the power relations in society, in the state, in countries, in the world (and potentially also in the universe), compared to a given space.
Social conflict concept
Geopolitical analysis starts from recognizing various thinkers as fundamental to structuring the conceptual bases of social conflicts.
Galtung, for example, says that conflict is inherent in society, that conflicts will always exist and that the key lies in how they are resolved and in what changes they will generate in society as a whole. Robbins ensures that conflict is a process that begins when one party senses that there is another, which affects or can negatively influence one or more of their interests. Sheriff notes that the conflict arises from the relationship established by two groups to obtain resources and the strategies they develop based on their possession and domination.And finally Coser argues that social conflict is a struggle for scarce values, status, power and resources, during which opponents wish to neutralize, damage or eliminate their rivals.
Therefore, it can be concluded that social conflicts are part of human and social life, which transcend the individual himself, as a rational and autonomous being, and which are generated, among other reasons, by the comparison of perceptions, or possession and use of resources, or from opposite interests, the strategies used to improve the position, acquisition, use and struggle for power, values and norms, and in particular for the distribution of social wealth.
For geopolitics, social conflicts could also be defined as clashes, struggles or clashes, peaceful or violent, with weapons or without weapons, between at least two powerful actors, who have particular interests, opposite or non-coinciding, against one or many of the aspects already mentioned, but which in any case always involves a space, some resources present there and the potential or active wealth of its possession or use.
And politics understood as negotiation, conversation, debate, dialogue, diplomacy or conciliation would be the natural scenario for its solution, therefore those tools or the use of the law would be those used to make a good geopolitical analysis and resolve a conflict situation. Except that this approach is based simply on idealistic views.
Now, as in truth, there is also violence or the use of any other type of tools, by one or more actors, to achieve their goals, and in many cases it is also trying to destroy, limit or subdue the others, therefore several politicians emerge principles, destined to face or generate old or new conflicts, which allow you to fight for power and therefore obtain the wealth present in a given space.
War, in all its forms and levels and armed conflicts, is therefore assumed, as an extension of politics or politics by other means (Clausewitz) or as a combination of all forms of struggle, to achieve power. In this case, terrorism, rather than an irrational type of violence supported by fear, would be a mechanism for a valid form of political struggle. This would have the realistic approach on which geopolitics would work.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, both in the practice of conflicts and in the analysis of a specific case, it will be necessary to combine the two approaches to have a global vision of geopolitics.
Types of social conflicts
Because of their origin and nature, social conflicts are classified into political, social, religious, cultural, criminal, racial, economic, ideological or territorial.
They can also be classified according to the nature of the actors involved and the spatial scope that the actors cover. Universal conflicts will have the universe as a stage and the most powerful countries and international actors on earth as current protagonists. Global conflicts, with the earth as a whole and possibly with the same previous actors. Finally we have international conflicts, which include several countries, and internal conflicts in a single country Internal conflicts affect the whole country, a region, a city, a neighborhood, a road, etc. And they can involve international actors.
However, according to the space reached, the basic characteristic and the use or not of weapons, as the main resource of the actors for their solution, we speak of non-violent or violent conflicts, such as wars, battles, armed clashes, assaults, skirmishes .
Armed conflict
One of the most difficult concepts to define is that of armed conflict, which despite its manifestations and consequences are observable from day to day, has many variables that are subject to different points of view and perspectives.
For geopolitics, the well-known concept of Eriksson and Wallensteen (2003) could be used, which says that there is an armed conflict, in relation to a government, and / or a territory, when two parties, at least one of which is the government of a State, use the armed force with the result of at least 25 deaths.
And it can be integrated with what it says that an armed conflict is of low intensity when the number of deaths in a year or during the conflict is greater than 25 and less than 100, of medium intensity when there are more than 100 deaths but less than 1000 and that war is a high intensity armed conflict when there are more than 1000 dead.
Ideas force in geopolitics
The situation of the pandemic will surely affect many realities that were considered eternal.
But naturally it will not change everything, so many of the global trends that were already coming, such as international trade, global business or the massive use of technology, will surely continue, in the midst of a world organized by countries, with strong states. and powerful actors, and all of them in search of resources located in strategic places on earth or in the closest universal space.
Only in this new scenario, and like never before, society’s main resource will be knowledge, which generates technology, and this, in turn, will require physical resources and raw materials located in certain spaces for its development. Therefore, wealth and power will continue to be tied to the possession and use of strategic resources.
On the other hand, some analysts were already talking about a change of era since the end of the last century and tried to give new names to this period of history – post-capitalism (Drucker), post-civilization (Boulding), global village (McLuhan), technocratic society ( Zbigniew), post-industrialism (Bell) or world economy (Taylor) – but the truth is that today, it is more important to ask about what the new changes will be like.
Well, to respond to such realities and questions, new idea – force must appear, seeking not only to move society, individuals, power or states, but also to explain their behaviors. In this way, geopolitics is strengthened as a method of analysis, although it also shows its own needs for change. The point is that some of his traditional ideas – force, are limited, for example, the notions of space and time, understood as fixed, static, linear or immutable dimensions, do not fully correspond to this new era.
So we ill present here some of these powerful new ideas that can be added integrally to the contemporary geopolitical method, that we already described in the previous paragraph,and used as part of its structure.
Idea-force notion
A strong idea is essentially a simple but forceful message, made up of few words, that reflects a complete meaning and that invites a certain understanding and action, but that serves someone with power. (Burque and Díaz, 2010)
It is therefore a human creation and expresses the position of an accepted, validated and often official thought. And it is also a direct message, which serves to direct power and action within analytical parameters.
The idea of space within a round world
The first idea – traditional force of geopolitics says that all space is explained by fixed north-south and east-west coordinates, in addition to unalterable limits.
Only this statement is valid when it comes to locating small spaces in front of the surrounding spaces, and it is wrong, when seeking to relate a larger space such as a country, a region or a continent, in front of others, since the world is not flat. , and the coordinates depend on the position from which the analyst is located.
So the location of a space could only be exact and absolute, given its size, composition, accidents, etc., or by close neighbors; but it would be relative, when it comes to establishing distant spaces and your relationship with them.
Here the new strong idea is that the location of a space is relative to distant spaces and according to the position of the analysts who observe it.
The idea of economy space
The second idea – traditional force affirms that one of the factors that explains the great conflicts is the economic issue. Only that the wealth and resources of a space, as well as the actors with their particular interests, are always present in every great social conflict.
For this reason, methods such as geoeconomics help with this understanding, saying that it studies the spatial and economic issues of natural resources, or the material goods produced by nature and countries. And as a complement, that a geo-economic zone must have natural resources that are valuable.
Or that the international system and the behavior of the actors must be analyzed based on economic interests. Or that the maintenance of rivalry between nations should be studied using economic means instead of war.
Well, geopolitics, in association with geoeconomics, must study and understand, how and why the greatest social conflicts are always linked to a specific space, which generates wealth. So the new idea – force affirms that economic interests explain great conflicts, and that both are linked to particular and concrete spaces.
The idea of nonlinear time and waves of change
The idea of linear time has been around for many centuries. And with it the notions of progress, development, stages, improvement. etc. In addition and as a complement, there is underdevelopment, backwardness or stagnation.
Only today it can be seen more clearly that there are different types of dominant civilizations, actors and individuals within the spaces, but many times living together with actors, societies, groups, etc. who develop other types of cultures, beliefs or economic practices.
Here is the linear view, according to which the countries that industrialized before are now the developed ones and those that did not do it in time are now the poor, or have to go through stages to achieve their industrialization in order to stop being so ( Kenneth Galbraith), are clearly inconvenient.
In reality, the waves of change help to better explain why if today knowledge and technology are dominant in many sectors of the world, also and simultaneously, many actors are not in that type of life.
And it also helps explain that while the wave of the industrial prevailed, agricultural issues also survived very strongly. Or why the areas, cities or regions present great internal tensions due to the wave of change in which some citizens live and how these, in turn, can develop conflicts with those who hold power from the haciendas, the countryside or the jungles. Between countries the situation is similar.
Here the new idea – force says that there can be different people, actors and interests in the same space, according to the waves of change that each one of these people finds themselves.
The idea of the future through scenarios
If time is not understood as linear, the future cannot be predicted by the classic cause-effect relationship. And the behavior or results of an actor’s action cannot be defined solely on the basis of what he has already done or is doing.
So the idea of the strength according to which the future is intended as a continuous and sequential course of action is highly harmful in explaining the development and outcome of the conflict.
The new idea must say that there are several possible scenarios for the future development of the conflict, defined on the basis of the probability that actions, decisions or interests that are involved in it will occur.
Author: Mauricio Diagama Durán (Consultant, teacher, researcher and international lecturer (Argentina, Mexico, Peru, Russia, Venezuela, among other countries) and National, on topics associated with geopolitics, international relations, public administration, educational administration, international business management , and international business, Bogotá, Colombia)