Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

History and geography delineate the operation of power, not only its range but also the capacity to plan and the ability to implement. Approaching state strategy and policy from the spatial angle, Jeremy Black argues that just as the perception of power is central to issues of power, so place, and its constraints and relationships, is partly a matter of perception, not merely map coordinates. Geopolitics, he maintains, is as much about ideas and perception as it is about the actual spatial dimensions of power. Black's study ranges widely, examining geography and the spatial nature of state power from the 15th century to the present day. He considers the rise of British power, geopolitics and the age of Imperialism, the Nazis and World War II, and the Cold War, and he looks at the key theorists of the latter 20th century, including Henry Kissinger, Francis Fukuyama and Samuel P. Huntington, Philip Bobbitt, Niall Ferguson, and others.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Black (history, Univ of Exeter, UK) traces the rise and evolution of geopolitics, from ancient times through the post-Cold War era. The focus is on the shifting assumptions and ideas that have influenced the different conceptions of geopolitics over time. Black is not concerned with explaining international relations from a geopolitical perspective but with describing and assessing the way perceptions of space and place influence people's thinking about the interrelationship of geography and power. Geopolitics, in his view, is not simply about how maps influence international relations but about how people conceive of the spatial dimensions of power. Black's wide-ranging study examines such topics as British geopolitics, geography and imperialism, Nazi perspectives, and geopolitical thinkers of the Cold War and post-Cold War eras. This intellectual history will be of interest chiefly to historians and constructivist scholars concerned with how conceptions of cartography have influenced thinking about international affairs. A more accessible and useful book on geopolitics for international relations students is Robert Kaplan's The Revenge of Geography (CH, May'13, 50-5262). Summing Up: Optional. Graduate and research collections. --Mark R. Amstutz, Wheaton College

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Jeremy Black is Professor of History at the University of Exeter. He is author of many books including Other Pasts, Different Presents, Alternative Futures (IUP, 2015); Clio's Battles: Historiography in Practice (IUP, 2015); The Power of Knowledge: How Information and Technology Made the Modern World ; War and Technology (IUP, 2013); and Fighting for America: The Struggle for Mastery in North America, 1519-1871 (IUP, 2011).