1 Course title
Geopolitics and Geostrategy
2 Course code
3 Teaching methods
Theoretical and practical classes with the
expositive method and the debate of themes
of the program. The students will have the
support of the bibliography and the
developed summaries of the class.
4 Type of course
Optional
5 Year of study, semester/trimester
semester
6 Number of credit
5
7 Level of course
8 Hours per week
4
9 Hours per semester
30
10 Language of instruction
English
11 Name of lecturer
Leszek SYKULSKI
12 Prerequisites
n/a
13 Objectives of the course, preferably expressed in terms of learning outcomes and competences
Distinguish geopolitics from politic geography and from geostrategie. Know the aims,
methods and perspectives of the geopolitics. To understand the principal theories of classic
geopolitics and their importance to the international system analysis. Understand the relation
between politic, politic geography, geopolitics, strategy and geostrategy. Analyze the
principal themes of the new geopolitics.
14 Course contents
1. Introduction:
1.1. Nature, objecte method of the course; 1.2. Struktural geopolitics and geostrategy; 1.2.
Presentation of the basic bibliography.
2. Geopolitics and Geostrategie: Concepts:
2.1. The Concept of Geopolitics and politic Geography; 2.2. The Concept of Geopolitics and
Geostrategie; 2.3. Concept Comparison; 2.4. Aims; 2.5. Study Objects; 2.6. Perspectives,
Methods, Orientations and Paradigms.
3. Notable geopolitics and geostrategists:
3.1. Friedrich Ratzel; 3.2. Rudolf Kjellén; 3.3. Halford J. Mackinder; 3.4. General Karl
Haushofer; 3.5. Nicholas J. Spykman; 3.6. Alfred Thayer Mahan; 3.7. George F. Kennan;
3.8. Henry Kissinger; 3.9. Zbigniew Brzeziński; 3.10. Aleksandr Dugin.
4. Geopolitics and Geostrategie - Principal Theories:
4.1. Historic Evolution; 4.2. Terracentric Views; 4.3. Marecentric Views; 4.4. Aerocentric
Views; 4.5. Astrocentric Views.
5. Geopolitics in the 20th Century
5.1. The Geopolitics Though until the First World War; 5.2. The Geopolitics Though
between the two wars; 5.3. The Geopolitics Though after the Second World War; 5.4.
General Considerations.
6. Power Elements and power analysis:
6.1. Structural Elements; 6.2. Conjectural Elements; 6.3. Methods power analysis; 6.4.
Geopolitical Variables; 6.5. Spheres of Interest and Spheres of Influence; 6.6. Geopolitical
Regions – Classifications and Composition.
7. Risk society and geopolitical change:
7.1. Scientific and technological dimensions of modern life; 7.2. Environmental degradation,
global warming, climate change; 7.3. Weapons of mass destruction; 7.4. Geopolitical
reasoning and expressions of geopower.
8. Measuring National Power:
8.1. Explaining the Generation of National Power; 8.2. National Resources:
8.2.1. Technology, 8.2.2. Enterprise, 8.2.3. Human resources, 8.2.4. Financial/Capital
Resources, 8.2.5. Natural resources; 8.3. National Performance: 8.3.1. External Constraints,
8.3.2. Infrastructural Capacity, 8.3.3. Ideational Resources, 8.4. Military Capability: 8.4.1.
Strategic Resources, 8.4.2. Conversion Capability, 8.4.3. Combat Proficiency;
8.5. Measuring of Power of chosen States.
9. The New Geopolitics:
9.1. New Aims; 9.2. New Point of Vues; 9.3. Ecopolitics: 9.3.1. From Ecologie to
Ecopolitics, 9.3.2. Ecopolitics: autonomous class; 9.4. Demopolitics: 9.4.1. Human
Geography and Geopolitics; 9.4.2. Migrations; 9.4.3. Minorities; 9.4.4. Public Opinion
Pressure; 9.5. Geoeconomics: 9.5.1. Geoeconomics and New Geopolitics, 9.5.2.
Geoeconomics and Classic Geopolitics, 9.5.3. Geoeconomic Spaces; 9.6. Geopolitics of
Peace: 9.6.1. Geopolitics and Peace, 9.6.2. Pacifisms, 9.6.3. The studies about peace; 9.7.
Globalization; 9.8. Critical Geopolitics.
15 Assessment methods
Students are expected to read assigned books and articles, attend classes, participate in class
discussion, and pass written exam.
16 Recommended reading
Basic readings:
Agnew John A., Geopolitics: revisioning world politics, Routledge New York 2003.
Dodds Klaus, Geopolitics. A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2007.
Toal Gerard, Critical geopolitics: the politics of writing global space, University of Minnesota Press,
Minneapolis 1996.
Additional readings:
Brzezinski Zbigniew, The grand chessboard: American primacy and its geostrategic imperatives,
NY: BasicBooks, New York 1997.
Fukuyama Francis, The End of History and the Last Man, Free Press, New York 1992.
Huntington Samuel P., The Clash of Civilizations?, in “Foreign Affairs”, vol. 72, no. 3, Summer
1993, pp. 22–49.
Huntington Samuel P., The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, Simon &
Schuster, New York 1996.
17 Others
n/a