Political Geography of the Twentieth Century

Introduction - a century of political geography, Peter J. Taylor: fin-de-siecle geopolitics; war and order; the rise of the state; the American century; prologue - fin de siecle geopolitics - Mackinder, Hobson and theories of global closure, Gerry Kearns: fin de siecle geoeconomics; Mackinder and Hobson; global economics; global strategy; global development; weaknesses of the ecological view of geopolitics. Part 1 Geopolitical world orders, Peter J. Taylor: geopolitical analysis; geopolitical world order of the British succession; the Cold War geopolitical world order; a new geopolitical world order. Part 2 Political geography of war and peace, John O'Loughlin and Herman van der Wusten: introduction; 20th century, bloody century; wars, wars everywhere, is not a theory there?; great power developments in the 20th century; fragile underpinnings of peace; temporal and spatial distribution of war; war cycles and economic cycles in the 20th century; global wars; local wars. Part 3 The rise and decline of the corporate-welfare state - a comparative analysis in global context, R.J. Johnson: the state in operation - some quantitative indicators; why the state?; the economic context of state action; 20th-century crises and the state in the core of the capitalist world-economy; the free economy and the strong state; four vignettes - New Zealand, West Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom; crisis and the state beyond the capitalist core. Part 4 Colonialism, postcolonialism and the political geography of the Third World, Stuart Corbridge: the commands of empire (writing history); the search for a text (writing politics). Part 5 The United States and American hegemony, John Agnew: American hegemony and American history; America's rise to power; superpower years; the new world order?; America's impasse. Part 6 Epilogue - fin de siecle geopolitics - towards a geographical dialogue: nationalism versus "World Society" - a view from Russia, Vladimir Kolossov; from hegemony to co-operation - a view from Japan, Akihiko Takagi; demography and division - a view from the Middle East, Ghazi Falah; globalization and the semi-periphery - a view from Brazil, Bertha K. Becker; democracy and privatization - a view from India, Chandra Pal Singh; coercion and instability - a view from Nigeria/Africa, C.O. Ikporukpo.