TEXT ANALYSIS

GEOPOLITICAL WORLD ORDERS BY PETER J. TAYLOR.


   I have identified the following key words:


·        Geopolitical world order: Global patterns of the political situation and international
policies. We are speaking about hierarchies, blocks, trade, economy, etc. which complete a whole
system at the global level.

·        New world order: It means the collapse of the older one, according to economical and
political changes which raise other kind of global system.

·        Old world order: The one which dominated in the period before.

·        Geopolitical analysis: “The revealing of fundamental truths about global geographical
constraints on the behavior of states. Events were interpreted in terms of what were viewed as
permanent spatial patterns of power.”

·        Geopolitical code: It describes “the output of practical geopolitical reasoning.”

·        Geopolitical code scales:

·        Mackinder’s terms: They are cycles from the geopolitical point of view that according to
the global patterns of power:

§  Long term: It is the bigger one, an example is the sea-power patterns, called Columbian era,
which will finish in contemporary era under a land-power pattern.

§  Middle term

§  Short term

·        Cycles: Periods where a set of features are emphasized and it is showed repeatedly. The
cycles sometimes are repeated following patterns but other times there are not links between them.

·        Kondratieff cycles: They are based in economical aspects but with political impacts. All
of them has two phases: the growth one and the stagnation one.

·        Hegemonic cycles: The ones with the powerful state “is pre-eminently powerful,
economically, politically and culturally”. They have economic advantage and extend its leadership
at the global level.

·        Bipartisanship: “It is the norm that we can usually identify general codes that transcend
several governments but with specific codes incorporing perhaps different emphases for each of
those governments.”

·        Periodization: To define the periods with the same geopolitical patterns and the each
transition period.


   This text speaks about the global patterns in political issues, and to explain it divides the
text in two blocks, the first one talks about the geopolitical theory (geopolitical analysis:
geopolitical codes, geopolitical world orders, periodization) and the second one explains the
geopolitical world orders from the British hegemony world order of XIX century until nowadays.

   The first block explains all the concepts which are important to know before to study the
contemporary geopolitical situation, as we have defined these concepts previously we will speak the
first geopolitical world order: the British hegemony and its succession. Thus during the XIX
century the industrial revolution raised the british emporium to the leader position, getting
continental alliance powers in opposition as Franco-Russian alliance and Germany. It let place to
the last third of the century where there were fluidity of agreements and alliances and with
Germany in the top of continental European power but with UK as the most powerful state in the
world. It brought to overlap interest and finally it gave place to a militarization of Europe. In
this period the imperialism geoeconomic model was followed by a new mercantilism, where Germany was
in the place as the main competitor but under an autarky model. However as it is not an easy job,
the world began to divide in interdependent economic zones to support this system.

   In the very last of XIX and the beginning of the XX century, the world orders and codes began to
suffer a shift. Thus Germany began to take important positions, expanding its influence in Balkans,
Ottoman Empire; while Britain was Egypt and Suez as the main points to control. These zones were
also interesting in some Russian and French international policies; hence the anti-British and
anti-German feeling began to grow in those countries.

   From the begging of XX century started the transition process to decline of British hegemony.
Firstly, since 1907 to 1914, there were the agreement for British-French alliance and
German-Russian alliance, in this way Germany tasted the British power through several actions and
finally they got the division of several territories in a cautious context to evade problems.
However Germany wanted more ones without exits, with carries them to the incompatibility with
Britain Empire, and in addition with Russia because of Balkans war. That situation lived in Germany
carried to the First World War, where Britain took place as French defender to protection, truly,
its own flank.

   The war was failure for German and Austro-Hungarian Empire and successful for Russia, France,
USA and UK. The final of the war was stamped with the Paris points where France and UK achieved to
maintain its position, USA was converted in the most powerful nation (contributed with the Wilson
points and the League of Nations) and Germany was the truly loser with a lot of war doubts.

   So the decade of 1920 is the truly transition to the change, beginning a new world order when
Britain and USA are the world leaders and France took the Germany position as continental European
leader. In this way Britain let to be the hegemonic nation, sharing the sea power with USA and
Japan, and the European power with France and Italy. In addition UK tried to help the Russian
colonies in Asia to get the independence but it was failure and the Soviet Union began a big
campaign against the imperialist enemy UK.

   The 30’s gives the definitive decline of UK to let a new world dominated by pan-regions, where
stood out the American one headed by USA. The rest ones were Asian pan-region, with Japan as the
leader and a fragmented European pan-region, with Italy expanding its fascist empire in Africa, the
communist USSR and the UK in a decadence period. But here it was so important the development of
the concept of Germany pan-region base in several points: the revenge from the I World War, the
vital space and the recovering of the loss colonies and getting new ones in Africa; it trying with
it to get the world domination.

   So appeared two contrasted blocks: firstly, Germany, Italy and Japan and secondly, USSR. In this
way UK was the mediator between the two blocks, giving concessions to Germany in the center of
Europe, therefore accepting that they have lost the hegemony. Anyway UK let Germany to make and
unmake in several European zones because they did not have interest there. However UK put Poland as
the limit point, when Germany began to act there, UK would take place.

   It was one important trigger for before the II World War. In addition URRS did not let Germany
to make whatever they want in Europe, and in the side of the world, USA had interests in Asia and
Pacific and did not let Japan to domain it.

   Finally the conflict had two slopes: one respect to Germany and the other one respect to Japan.
Both lost and UK was victorious again, but with a very secondary paper respect to its allies.

   The end of the war gave place to a new world order that we know as Cold War. The beginning of
that period was characterized by freezing of international relations, fabricating a contrast world
between two ways of thought. We can say that it open the period where USA is the leader of the
world-system and where there is a geographical pattern North-South.

   The period leaves from the contraposition of “bourgeoisie/capitalism and
proletarians/communism”. The first idea was leadered by USA that wanted a world which would break
with the previous isolationism in favor of a liberal world. In the other side is the revolutionary
world towards socialist ideas, supporting by some countries in the Soviet bosom.

   USA considered URRS as expansionist state, so practicing a political imperialism, whereas the
URRS considered USA as a large influence toward its economical interest, so practicing an
economical imperialism. It drove the world to a choice between a bi-polar worlds established
according to ideological blocks.

   So it was the beginning of the Cold War, where we have to say the actions produced later than
the II World War where the winners preserved their territories and the loser, Germany, was divided
in two ideological blocks from Berlin. Here the priorities for the URRS were the satellite
countries which socialist regimes like Poland, Czechoslovakia or Hungary. While for USA the
Caribbean zone was its strategic priority.

   There were extra-European conflicts which influenced in Cold War as the revolution in China, the
Korean War or Arab-Israel conflict.

   From the beginning of 50’s the Cold Ward changed the intensity and in this way the conflict was
turned in a race to get the larger amount of nuclear arms as possible.

   During 60’s the Cold War was turned in one of its hotter moments with the revolution in Cuba.
So, when Cuba turned toward a communism system and the subsequent alliance with the URRS, the last
ones has an attempt to put nuclear arms into the Caribbean island giving place to the Cuban crisis.

   From the last 60’s until 70’s there was another important event as the Vietnam War, where US
supported the conservative regimens of Vietnam. It also happened a shift in the economic issues,
where the capitalism world was under the head of USA, Europe and Japan, as we can see that began
the G7 meetings (USA, West Germany, Japan, France, Britain, Italy and Canada). In this period there
also were interventions from the powerful countries around the world, for example URRS made it in
Poland in 1973 and in Czechoslovakia in 1968, while USA removed the socialist regime in Chile.
Moreover both of them took place in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

   The 80’s shows a period similar the first phase of the Cold War with a freeze situation but in
the final it was marked by the collapse of communism system in Europe, where URRS, Czechoslovakia,
Poland or Romania saw the end of the socialist structure. In addition during this period happened
important facts around the world as catastrophic wars in the third world, the management of Iron
Lady in UK or the Afghanistan war.

   Finally the author speaks about the new world order, which anyone knows how it will look like,
but we can make an idea about USA as leader in political and economic features. We cannot do
envisage about its succession and we cannot search for historical analogies because USA shall
employee strategies to maintain its domain as UK made it in the past.