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The World Island: Eurasian Geopolitics and the Fate of the West

Both a historical analysis and a call to arms, this is the comprehensive policy guide to understanding and engaging the geopolitics of Eurasia.

Date & Time

Tuesday
Mar. 22, 2011
11:00am – 12:00pm ET

Overview

Alexandros Petersen, Advisor, European Energy Security Initiative, Woodrow Wilson Center and Senior Fellow, Eurasia Center, Atlantic Council

Book details:
Both a historical analysis and a call to arms, this is the comprehensive policy guide to understanding and engaging the geopolitics of Eurasia.

Sir Halford Mackinder, the father of geopolitics, argued that the power that controls Eurasia controls the world. How can the West ensure that the struggle for this fundamental theater in world politics is resolved in favor of Western democratic governance—without the autocratic domination of Eurasia?

The 20th century was dominated by three visions of Eurasian geopolitics: "The World Island," "Containment," and "Prometheism." The World Island: Eurasian Geopolitics and the Fate of the West posits a fourth vision of Eurasian geopolitics: the 21st-century Geopolitical Strategy for Eurasia.

Through an original and comprehensive analysis and synthesis of the ideas of Sir Halford Mackinder, George Kennan, and Jozef Pilsudski, this title reestablishes fundamental Western strategy objectives. It analyzes the state of and potential for Western engagement with China, Afghanistan, Turkey, Russia, and other Eurasian states and sets out what is at stake for the West in the Eurasian theater. Promoting a robust strategy to further and protect essential Western values, the author argues for the development of trade and energy links, coupled with the promotion of good governance and the facilitation of policy independence, integration, and Western-orientation among the Eurasian nations.

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Speaker

Alexandros Petersen

Alexandros Petersen

Former Advisor: European Energy Security Initiative; Former Public Policy Scholar
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Hosted By

Global Europe Program

The Global Europe Program addresses vital issues affecting the European continent, US-European relations, and Europe’s ties with the rest of the world. We investigate European approaches to critical global issues: digital transformation, climate, migration, global governance. We also examine Europe’s relations with Russia and Eurasia, China and the Indo-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa. Our program activities cover a wide range of topics, from the role of NATO, the European Union and the OSCE to European energy security, trade disputes, challenges to democracy, and counter-terrorism. The Global Europe Program’s staff, scholars-in-residence, and Global Fellows participate in seminars, policy study groups, and international conferences to provide analytical recommendations to policy makers and the media.  Read more

History and Public Policy Program

The History and Public Policy Program makes public the primary source record of 20th and 21st century international history from repositories around the world, facilitates scholarship based on those records, and uses these materials to provide context for classroom, public, and policy debates on global affairs.  Read more

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