Central Asia in International Relations: The Legacies of Halford Mackinder

by Nick Megoran (Editor), Sevara Sharapova (Editor)

The republics of Central Asia re-emerged as independent actors in the global interstate system in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, their varied histories and geographies offering many different possible opportunities and course of action. In order to explain their often confusing and complicated foreign policy alignments, many analysts have turned again to the theories of Sir Halford Mackinder (1861-1947), the British geographer who is widely regarded as the founding father of geopolitics. This book brings together historical geographers and political scientists to explore this remarkable renaissance of Mackinder's thinking. It charts his own engagement with the region, in both his writings and his visit to Central Asia as a British envoy in the aftermath of World War I. It outlines and evaluates how his ideas have been used by Central Asian, Russian, and American scholars to explain the region's international relations, and it traces how his writings actually
reached Central Asia and the manner in which they have been dynamically reworked by scholars 'in transit'. The book is thus an important contribution not only to theorising the international relations of Central Asia, but also to our understanding of the historical geography of how ideas are ex- changed and reworked in the process.

Genres: International Relations, History

256 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2012

About the author

Also known as Nick Solly Megoran

Nick Megoran is a geography professor at Newcastle University, England, and is part of the leadership group of Wallsend Baptist Church. He is interested in how humans divide up the world between each other, how and why that becomes violent, and how such divisions can be overcome peaacefully. At the heart of his work is a sense that human beings have inherent value and that this should be respected in how we create societies, for example in how we draw international borders and make workplaces.

Reviews

[Ismoil Sadullozoda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a comprehensive discussion of the work of H. Mackinder of Heartland/Pivotal. The authors use different approaches to analyze the origin, change, and criticism of this idea in the works of the Western, local (Central Asian), and Russian scholars. It is very interesting to see how the concept is incorporated in the politics of the states in order to maintain political goals.

I think the development of the technology and Globalization that brought connectivity and mobility made such concepts like Heartland inefficient both in practice and theory. However, the political and analytical trends that give this kind of old thinking rebirth and apply them in the new phenomena is interesting to think of.

The book is a very good analytical work for those who are interested in geopolitics and international relations. Moreover, I found some interesting extracts from the book concerning nationalism in Central Asia. It gives a new internationalizing perspective of the nationalism discourses in the region.

I recommend this book for everyone interested in the politics of Central Asia in the broader sense, its place in the Western view of the early twentieth century, and the local representation of the role of CA in the world (geo)politics. You don't need to have lots of information about CA to understand this book properly.