Reflections on globalization processes in geopolitical thought since the second half of the 20th century

¹ University of Prešov in Prešov, Faculty of Humanities and Natural Sciences, 17. novembra 1, 080 01 Prešov, Slovakia
² University of Prešov in Prešov, Faculty of Management, Konštnatínova 16, 080 01 Prešov, Slovakia

^* Corresponding author: irina.kozarova@unipo.sk

Abstract

Research background: Geopolitical thought at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries was among the first to accentuate a global dimension of international politics. It stagnated in the context of WWII, however, the adoption of geopolitical approaches in U.S. foreign policy concepts contributed to its revival during the Cold War and its rapid development in the 1990s because of the need to address the changes in the power-political and spatial-political structures of the world. The relationship between geopolitical thought and globalization, however, remains controversial. In academic literature, geopolitics and globalization are perceived either as compatible or as incompatible phenomena.

Purpose of the article: The paper aims to outline how geopolitical thought has reflected the development of globalization processes and how it has changed with this development since the 2nd half of the 20th century.

Methods: Analytical-synthetic and historical-comparative methods are used for the study of globalization development and content analysis and comparative methods are employed to map the development of geopolitical thought and its reflection of globalization.

Findings & Value added: The development, direction and consequences of globalization have been reflected in geopolitical thought mainly since the 1990s. As a result, new trends in geopolitical thought have been established; apart from the changes in the power-spatial and political-spatial structures of the world studied by classical geopolitical thought, they also reflect the relationship between global and local, an acceleration in contradictory processes in the world caused by economic, cultural, demographic, information and other factors of spatial control.