science

Geopolitical imagination

Geopolitical imagination is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Geopolitical imagination rather than just read about it. In short: Geopolitical imaginations are constructed views of the world that reflect the vision of a place's, a country's or a society's role within world politics. Geopolitical imaginations are constituted by shared assumptions and representations of power relations and conflicts in world politics within a certain geographical territory.

Key takeaways

Geopolitical imagination belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Geopolitical imagination to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Geopolitical imagination from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Geopolitical imaginations are constructed views of the world that reflect the vision of a place's, a country's or a society's role within world politics. Geopolitical imaginations are constituted by shared assumptions and representations of power relations and conflicts in world politics within a certain geographical territory. By critically analyzing how and why these imaginations are constructed, it is possible to reveal underlying power relations and to get a better understanding of various conflicts. Therefore, geopolitical imaginations are closely connected to the academic field of critical geopolitics.

Concept Geopolitical imaginations are composed of the representation of a country's territorial limits and its geopolitical code which is “[...] a set of strategic assumptions that a government makes about other states”. These so-called geopolitical codes are based on national identity (particularly in ‘them’ and ‘us’ distinctions), emotional attachment to a place as well as national myths. Geopolitical imaginations provide the legitimisation for geopolitical actions or certain positions in foreign and domestic policy. Geopolitical imaginations are reflections of current discourses and therefore they are not fixed but rather vary over time and in different societies. Research has primarily analyzed geopolitical imaginations of European and North American countries, ignoring the fact that in other socio-political contexts there exist different ‘non-western’ geopolitical imaginations.

Hegemonic geopolitical imaginations in history The view of the world as two polarizing ideological blocs (western and eastern bloc) is a geopolitical imagination which was dominant during time of the Cold War. Designations such as the Iron Curtain (the boundary between the bipolar powers) helped to justify certain politics and policies, e.g. in the United States in foreign policy by containment (a military strategy to stop the expansion of the ‘enemy’) or in domestic policy with the expansion of homeland security which enforced technologies of control and disciplining. Samuel P. Huntington made a draft of a fragmented conflicted world order. In his popular hypothesis called ”The Clash of Civilizations” (1996), he divided the world map geographically into rigid cultural entities, such as the Western bloc, the Islamic bloc or the African bloc, and proclaimed that the next major conflict will occur between these different cultures. In the 21st century, “hegemonic geographical imaginations are dominated by the affective geopolitics of the War on Terror”. This has been a consequence of the synthesis between the Clash of Civilizations, the terror attacks of 9/11 and the following designations of rogue states (states which have been blamed for threatening the world peace) and the axis of evil (states which have been accused of supporting terrorism and aspiring to weapons of mass destruction).

See also Critical geopolitics Geopolitics Imagined geographies

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Geopolitical imagination

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Geopolitical imagination claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Geopolitical imagination before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Geopolitical imagination ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Geopolitical imagination

In research: Geopolitical imagination appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Geopolitical imagination in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Geopolitical imagination is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Geopolitical terminology, Geopolitics stubs, Political term stubs, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Geopolitical imagination outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Geopolitical imagination in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Geopolitical imagination means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Geopolitical imagination out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Geopolitical imagination in simple terms?

Why does Geopolitical imagination matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Geopolitical imagination?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Geopolitical imagination.