Mackinder was also aware of China’s potential. Many historians believe Mackinder was the inspiration behind Hitler’s Lebensraum - or move to the East policy - and his invasion of Russia during the Second World War. Mackinder was well read in Germany before both wars. If Germany controlled Eastern Europe, it would eventually control Russia, the Heartland, and the World Island. Writing at the turn of the Twentieth Century, Mackinder thought the battle to control the Heartland would begin in Eastern Europe. Though Leninism was little better than Tsarism at harnessing its promise. But Mackinder’s concern was who might realize the potential.Ī non-Tsarist regime in Russia was one possibility, which presaged the Soviet Union. Since Russia historically controlled much of the area, that and the backward Tsarist regime explained why it did not dominate the world. Mackinder highlighted the Heartland’s rough terrain and brutal climate. Understand Mahan and you understand the American playbook for this century. Mahan knew that Western science and technology would at some point be globalized and wrote that under such circumstances, “It is difficult to contemplate with equanimity such a vast mass as the four hundred millions of China concentrated into one effective political organization, equipped with modern appliances, and cooped within a territory already narrow for it.” Mahan described a future struggle for power in the area of central Asia he called the “debatable and debated ground,” and identified the “immense latent force” of China as a potential geopolitical rival. Should China “burst her barriers eastward,” he wrote, “it would be impossible to exaggerate the momentous issues dependent upon a firm hold of the Hawaiian Islands by a great civilized maritime power.” annexation of Hawaii as a necessary first step to exercise control of the North Pacific. In 1893, he wrote a letter to the editor of the New York Times in which he recommended U.S. Mahan also recognized the great power potential of China. He envisioned an expansionist Russia needing to be contained by an alliance of the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, and Japan, which is precisely what happened to deal with the Soviet Union between 19. In The Problem of Asia, Mahan urged policy makers to “glance at the map” of Asia and note “the vast, uninterrupted mass of the Russian Empire, stretching without a break from the meridian of western Asia Minor, until to the eastward it overpasses that of Japan.” Mahan also identified two potential rivals who might control of Eurasia. got involved in both World Wars despite initial reluctance. Mahan explains why American policy makers do not. The American people lean toward isolationism. It is an American security imperative to ensure the geopolitical pluralism of Eurasia. is geopolitically an island lying offshore Eurasia, and the greatest threat to its security is a hostile power or alliance of powers that gain effective political control of Eurasia. The most likely place for that enemy to come from is Eurasia. The United States, he argued, can be threatened only by an enemy naval force that could both invade its territory and curb its access to the oceans. Therefore, the foundation of America’s national security had to be control of the seas. Control the chokepoints and you can cut-off an enemy’s troop movements, supplies, communication and economy. Control the seas and you can take the battle to the enemy’s heartland. Control the seas and you can deliver your troops anywhere at any time.
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