Critical Geopolitics

Critical geopolitics is an interdisciplinary approach that focuses on the analysis of space, geographical representations, and political power discourses in international relations. In contrast to traditional geopolitical approaches that treat space as a natural, unchanging, and objective reality, critical geopolitics interprets geopolitical representations as discursive and ideological practices. Emerging primarily from the early 1990s under the leadership of academics such as Gerard Ó Tuathail (Gearóid Ó Tuathail) and Simon Dalby, critical geopolitics interrogates how geography and geopolitical knowledge are entangled with relations of power.

Critical geopolitics operates on the assumption that geographical spaces, borders, and identities are discursively produced. In this framework, geopolitical maps are seen as ideological tools that construct identities, threat perceptions, and foreign policies. Within this perspective, how states construct distinctions between “us” and “them,” the discursive strategies they employ to define their boundaries, and how they shape conceptions of security become objects of critical examination.

Critical geopolitics examines geopolitical discourses across three levels:

1. Official (practical) geopolitics, which encompasses discourses produced by decision-makers and state elites,
2. Academic (formal) geopolitics, which includes theoretical productions by intellectual circles,
3. Popular geopolitics, which covers geographical narratives found in media, cinema, and everyday discourse.

This multilayered approach reveals that geopolitics is not merely a field limited to strategic analysis but a broad ideological domain shaped by cultural representations.

Cold War geopolitics, with its discourses presenting world politics as a binary opposition (East-West; us-them), served for decades as the dominant explanatory paradigm in international relations. However, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the deepening of globalization, and advances in communication technologies have eroded this discursive framework. Critical geopolitics emerged during this transformation to challenge the naturalization and universalization of geographical knowledge. In this regard, it draws on both postmodern and poststructuralist theoretical approaches.

Critical geopolitics can be summarized through five key propositions:

1. Geopolitical discourse is not objective but a culturally and ideologically grounded production.
2. Space and borders are socially constructed and ongoing sites of contestation.
3. Geopolitical knowledge functions as a discursive instrument of power; it is used to legitimize the interests of specific actors.
4. Male-dominated discourses are prominent in most geopolitical productions; in this context, gender occupies a central place in critical analyses.
5. The production of geopolitical knowledge is supported by technological, cultural, and institutional tools; for example, cartography, media representation, and security institutions are integral parts of this process.

Critical geopolitics approaches reveal how regions such as the “Middle East” have been “invented” and how these representations are intertwined with security discourses. This example demonstrates that regions are not fixed geographical units but are continuously reproduced within practices of security and power.