Reflections on Geopolitics

Elsig, Manfred (12 April 2023). Reflections on Geopolitics (WTI Working Paper 02).

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The notion of geopolitics is widely used in public debates these days. This paper focuses on how the concept has evolved over time in the study of international economic cooperation focusing in particular on trade and investment policies. In light of international relations and international political economy perspectives, the paper discusses the origins of the concepts found in the early 20th century. It then describes how it was marginalized by mainstream theories during the Cold War period, albeit it was implicitly taken up by theorists in the tradition of offensive realism. The paper then maps the liberal turn of the 1990s in political economy and how power politics were further relegated to the background with increasing market integration. It was not until the 2000s when power politics made a slow return. Both academia and politics have been witnessing a surprising renaissance of geopolitics in the past 10 years. The paper maps out the contours of this new variant of geopolitics, a mix of superpower rivalry and economic nationalism, and offers some reflections regarding the danger of deterministic scenarios and ways to temper geopolitics going forward.

Item Type:

Working Paper

Division/Institute:

02 Faculty of Law > Department of Economic Law > World Trade Institute
10 Strategic Research Centers > World Trade Institute

UniBE Contributor:

Elsig, Manfred

Subjects:

300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 320 Political science
300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 330 Economics
300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 340 Law
300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 380 Commerce, communications & transportation
900 History > 990 History of other areas

Series:

WTI Working Paper

Language:

English

Submitter:

Mario Sgarrella

Date Deposited:

25 Apr 2023 12:58

Last Modified:

25 Apr 2023 12:58

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/181673

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/181673

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