Geopolitics

Geopolitics is the study of the effects of Earth's <a href="/facts/Geography/TRd1Toyo">geography</a> on <a href="/facts/Politics/1gDNy3RP">politics</a> and <a href="/facts/International_relations/FgLEX3Cy">international relations</a>. Geopolitics usually refers to countries and relations between them, it may also focus on two other kinds of <a href="/facts/State_(polity)/7ggBzTSk">states</a>: de facto independent states with <a href="/facts/List_of_states_with_limited_recognition/CgR9Rny1">limited international recognition</a> and relations between <a href="/facts/Administrative_division/s8dnhhYm">sub-national geopolitical entities</a>, such as the <a href="/facts/Federated_state/2R6y2Npy">federated states</a> that make up a <a href="/facts/Federation/R846sufb">federation</a>, <a href="/facts/Confederation/8BLyhA5U">confederation</a>, or a quasi-federal system.
At the level of international relations, geopolitics is a method of studying <a href="/facts/Foreign_policy/sXwA3pIh">foreign policy</a> to understand, explain, and predict international political behavior through geographical variables. These include <a href="/facts/Area_studies/1mdJtMDc">area studies</a>, <a href="/facts/Climate/f57XrNFU">climate</a>, <a href="/facts/Topography/SS8Bx4t9">topography</a>, <a href="/facts/Demography/VktYwWUD">demography</a>, <a href="/facts/Natural_resources/w9WXxMx3">natural resources</a>, and <a href="/facts/Applied_science/13h5uYCH">applied science</a> of the region being evaluated.
Geopolitics focuses on <a href="/facts/Political_power/Q4feTyU6">political power</a> linked to geographic space, in particular, <a href="/facts/Territorial_waters/ss9s492R">territorial waters</a>, <a href="/facts/List_of_sovereign_states/0QSAv23N">land territory</a> and <a href="/facts/Wealth/IkxfYrFc">wealth</a> of natural resources, in correlation with <a href="/facts/Diplomatic_history/Wmzv3ywS">diplomatic history</a>, in particular the context of a larger power relative to its neighbouring states of smaller or similar power. Topics of geopolitics include relations between the interests of international political actors focused within an area, a space, or a geographical element, relations which create a geopolitical system. <a href="/facts/Critical_geopolitics/eXCeCPAB">Critical geopolitics</a> deconstructs classical geopolitical theories, by showing their political or ideological functions for <a href="/facts/Great_powers/KBtjXLun">great powers</a>. There are some works that discuss the geopolitics of <a href="/facts/Renewable_energy/6Bu6IrpF">renewable energy</a>. The relationship between geopolitics and geoeconomics is often analyzed by two main schools of thought: the strategic school and the political-economic school. According to Christopher Gogwilt and other researchers, the term is currently being used to describe a broad spectrum of concepts, in a general sense used as "a synonym for international political relations", but more specifically "to imply the global structure of such relations"; this usage builds on an "early-twentieth-century term for a <a href="/facts/Pseudoscience/kdNzoLeS">pseudoscience</a> of <a href="/facts/Political_geography/CQ1xGmIB">political geography</a>" and other pseudoscientific theories of <a href="/facts/Historical_determinism/0kaUDCQv">historical</a> and <a href="/facts/Geographic_determinism/s5zRAIAV">geographic determinism</a>.

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Geopolitics