7.1C - Changing Importance of 1A and 1B
The relative importance of these characteristics (7A) and mechanisms (hard and soft power, 7B) for maintaining power has changed over time. (Mackinder's geo-strategic location theory.)
The relative importance of different forms of power has changed over time. In the past, military force and hard power were the common mechanisms for achieving and maintaining power.
In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the idea that power came from controlling vast land areas was important. In 1904 the British geographer Halford Mackinder produced an influential geo-strategic location theory. (Geo-strategic = policies in terms of securing needed resources, both within the country and globally). This is called the Heartland Theory.
It states that the world island of Europe, Asia and Africa contains most of the world's natural resources. The Heartland is an area of central Asia, bordered by the Himalayas, the Russian steppes and the Arctic. This is very hard to invade, because of physical barriers in the way. It is a power-base, which allows control of the world island.
Influence of the Heartland Theory:
- It persuades the USA, UK, and other European countries that Russia needed to be 'contained', i.e. prevented from spreading outward by taking over new areas close by.
- It reinforced the idea that control of physical resources (land, mineral wealth) was important.
In the 21st century, these ideas seem antiquated:
- Modern military technology (inter-continental ballistic missiles, drones, aircraft carriers, strike aircraft) can hit deep inside another country's territory - size is no longer a protection.
- Physical resources are traded internationally; there is much less need to have them domestically.
- War and conflict are generally seen as abnormal, whereas in the past they were accepted ways of gaining power.
Soft power has become more common as a way of gaining influence and maintaining power, by creating economic and political alliances. However, hard power still exists:
- In 1991 and 2003, the USA invaded Iraq, partly to secure oil supplies
- Russia invaded Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine/Crimea in 2014, claiming to be protecting ethnic Russians.