Geopolitics in a topsy-turvy world: ten futuristic perspectives
Geopolitics in a topsy-turvy world: ten futuristic perspectives

Summary/Abstract: The paper is based on the following: my studying, teaching, writing and experiencing political geography and global geopolitics for half a century, from my experiences traveling in nearly 80 countries on all continents, from teaching in more than two dozen countries (large and small in the Global North and the Global South) on five continents, and from my professional career interests studying human and human/environmental futures (Brunn 1974, 1981, 1984, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, forthcoming). All of these personal and professional ingredients are essential in addressing the topic for this topic because I think it is important for everyone looking at local, regional or international geopolitics to know “where the author is coming from” and “where we are going or where we might be going.” Permit me to make three points at the outset, which are woven into the discussion below. First, the year is 2016, it is not 2001 or 1989 or 1968 or 1948. Second, it is important in looking at geopolitical futures to look forward, not backwards, about what might be the "state and the shape” of the political world. And in that perspective to explore some “new and different” worlds about what “might or could be.” Third, the future is and will not simply a repetition of the past, much as we might think it is or hope it is. There are new actors on regional and world stages, new approaches to seeing a problem, new technologies and from those some new political and geopolitical realities.

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