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Geo-strategic View of Mackinder and SpykemanNote: the word ‘strategy’ refers to the art of using power, while the twin words ‘geo strategy’ together imply the art ofGeo-strategic views
Note: the word ‘strategy’ refers to the art of using power, while the twin words ‘geo strategy’ together imply the art of
using power in relation to the whole world. The ‘geo strategic views’ simply imply the geographical pattern related to
global strategic ideas.
Geo- strategic View of Spykeman
Nicholas J. Spykeman was a professor of International Relations at the Yale University and the director
of the Yale Institute of International Studies. The most outstanding contribution of the American scholar was his
book, ‘The Geography of the Peace’, published in 1944, shortly after his death in 1943.
The Rimland theory
Spykeman propounded the Rimland theory in opposition to the Heartland theory of Mackinder.
Working from the same premises as Makinder, Spykeman gave a very different interpretation of the
relative importance of the Heartland vis-a-vis the surrounded tier, the Inner or Marginal Crescent,
“partly continental and partly oceanic”, which Spykeman renamed as the “Rimland”.
Spykeman considered geographical features (topography, terrain, and climate) as important
determinants in the foreign policy because of its emphasis on spatial variations. The theory says that
the national power is the final determinant of the security of a state, while lasting peace is possible
only through a collective security arrangement of either an armed league of nations or an international
balance of power arrangement.
The theory approached the problem from the point of view of the USA. Saw the USA
surrounded by Eurasia and Africa. Japan and England were seen as centres of military and economic
power and separated by the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans. According to him, the US strategy in case
of war should be to avoid unification of the Old World powers against it. He saw the Soviet Union as
the strongest land power and a unified Rimland as a menace to both Russia and USA.
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