Neoclassical geopolitics: Preliminary theoretical principles and methodological guidelines
Neoclassical geopolitics: Preliminary theoretical principles and methodological guidelines

Summary/Abstract: The paper is aimed at making geopolitical studies and neoclassical geopolitics equivalent. In this sense, the objectives are conceptual and operational, comprising an original definition of geopolitical studies, and the explanation of the neoclassical geopolitics model and its variables: systemic stimuli, the geopolitical agent’s perceptions and capacities, and foreign policy outcomes (primarily the geopolitical design). Therefore, the problem at stake is to tie up several theoretical and methodological contributions into a solid new geopolitical model, in the limits of the phenomenological and soft positivist sphere. Two sections constituted the structure of this qualitative paper: 1) formulation of a chain of theoretical fundaments in geopolitical studies, and 2) description of a group of methodological steps that a geopolitical study can use. The research advances a) a new definition of geopolitical studies, b) explains the concept of geomisguidance, c) frames and unwraps Ratzel’s concept of Raumsinn, and d) ultimately systematises and assesses geopolitical studies’ literature of different languages with respect to theory and methodology. All these findings were oriented to the practical aspect of the operationalisation of geopolitical studies, presenting the compact conclusion that the analysis of location is not enough for a grand vision of geopolitical studies as an international relations approach

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