Author: Giuseppe Gagliano – 31/01/2025
HALFORD MACKINDER AND THE GEOPOLITICS OF DEFENSE: THE IMPERIAL DREAM OF GLOBAL CONTROL – A Geographer in Service of the Empire
Giuseppe Gagliano, CESTUDEC – Centro studi strategici Carlo de Cristoforis
Abstract – This essay explores the role of Halford Mackinder and Isaiah Bowman in shaping the transformation of Anglo-American geopolitics between the 20th and 21st centuries. After World War II, geopolitics became a controversial discipline, partly due to its association with German Geopolitik and geographical determinism. However, in the United States, it remained central to strategic and political studies, albeit redefined under new paradigms.
Mackinder, known for his Heartland theory, argued for the necessity of global power balance to prevent the dominance of a single Eurasian power, significantly influencing Cold War strategy and the creation of NATO. Bowman, on the other hand, emphasized economic geopolitics, arguing that future conflicts would no longer be fought between territorial borders but between economic systems.
The essay examines the transition from classical geopolitics, based on a rigid distinction between maritime and land powers, to a more fluid and globalized approach, where free trade and control over global economic infrastructure become instruments of hegemony. Finally, it explores Mackinder and Bowman’s intellectual legacy in the current U.S.-China competition, focusing on China’s Belt and Road Initiative as a direct challenge to U.S. maritime supremacy.
Keywords: Halford Mackinder, Geopolitics, Isaiah Bowman, Heartland Theory
Continue reading, please download the Analytical Dossier AD_05_2025 ISSN 2704-6419
Giuseppe Gagliano – In 2011 he founded the international network Cestudec (Centro studi strategici Carlo de Cristoforis) based in Como, with the aim of studying the conflictual dynamics of international relations from a realistic perspective, placing emphasis on the dimension of intelligence and geopolitics in the light of the reflections of Christian Harbulot, founder and director of the School of Economic Warfare (EGE). Gagliano has published four essays in French on economic warfare and ten essays in Italian on geopolitics.