Abstract
The chapter queries the possibilities for “constructive critical geopolitics” (Bachmann and Moisio in, Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space 38:251–268, 2020) in our engagements with policymakers and their adoption of geographical concepts. With a focus on the European Union’s self-declared ‘geopolitical turn’, the chapter offers three vignettes that illustrate some of the challenges of “constructively” engaging with institutional geographical imaginations, beyond mere deconstruction and critique.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
Le Grand Continent, founded in 2019, has become a leading platform for Europe-wide discussions of the EU’s ‘geopolitical turn’. With articles published in French, Italian, Spanish, German and Polish, in just a few years, the online magazine has become a leading platform for critical discussion on the key issues facing the EU and Europe, offering the space for an informed geopolitical debate “on the relevant scale”, as the magazine frames its contribution: https://legrandcontinent.eu/fr/a-propos/.
- 2.
As the EU Economic Security Strategy proposed in the summer of 2023 makes explicit (European Commission 2023).
- 3.
Italian political scientist Nathalie Tocci who shepherded the writing of the EUGS has described the process in Tocci (2016): the article provides a great inside look into the negotiations that led to the formulation of the strategy document, and why “it took two years to write 20,000 words” as Tocci jokes in the opening sentences.
- 4.
- 5.
- 6.
When the ECFR published its autumn 2023 study on the global shift in geopolitical alliances, these were two of the articles that accompanied it:
- 7.
The EPRS provides research briefs for Members of the European Parliament and the general public on a variety of topics. The EPRS Library and Knowledge Services is currently directed by French political geographer Franck Debié, who is also professor of geography at the École Normale Supérieure.
- 8.
A recording of the event can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EYUuZU_yFE.
- 9.
- 10.
As a signatory of the letter, I can confirm that we received neither.
- 11.
Borrell subsequently explained his comments further in an extended conversation on Le Grand Continent:
https://geopolitique.eu/en/2022/10/31/a-conversation-with-josep-borrell/.
- 12.
The European Commission recently announced the creation of a 3rd campus of the College in Tirana, described as a way ‘increase its soft power in a key geopolitical region’: https://www.politico.eu/article/college-of-europe-new-campus-albania/
- 13.
For an in-depth reflection on the challenges of ‘pedagogies of dissent’, see Closs Stephens and Bagelman (2023).
- 14.
A discussion of that ‘strategic environment’ can be found in the special issue of Defense Studies (Becker et al. 2022).
- 15.
Alun Jones (2022) beautifully describes the role of interpreters in ‘babelic organisations’ such as NATO, noting the complex internal politics of the negotiation of geopolitical imaginations through language.
- 16.
Merje Kuus provides a fascinating in-depth discussion of the practices of institutional negotiation in the EU context in her book Geopolitics and Expertise: Knowledge and Authority in European Diplomacy (2014).
References
Bachmann, V, 2022. Visionary geographies and European Studies. Progress in Human Geography, 46(2), pp. 416–440. https://doi.org/10.1177/03091325211033644
Bachmann, V. and Bialasiewicz, L., 2020. Critical Geopolitics. In: Y. Stivachtis, D. Bigo, T. Diez, E. Fanoulis and B. Rosamond, eds. The Routledge handbook of critical european union studies. London: Routledge.
Bachmann, V. and Moisio, S., 2020. Towards a constructive critical geopolitics—Inspirations from the Frankfurt School of critical theory. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 38(2), pp. 251–268. https://doi.org/10.1177/2399654419869016
Becker, J., Duda, M. and Lute, D., 2022. From context to concept: history and strategic environment for NATO’s 2022 strategic concept. Defence Studies, 22(3), pp. 489–496. https://doi.org/10.1080/14702436.2022.2082959
Bialasiewicz, L., 2022. Le moment géopolitique européen: penser la souveraineté stratégique. In: G. Gressani and M. Malik, eds. Politiques de l’interregne. Paris: Gallimard.
Bialasiewicz, L. (2021). The Unhealthy Geopolitics of a Sovereign Europe. Green European Journal, Vol. 22. Available at: https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/the-unhealthy-geopolitics-of-a-sovereign-europe/ [Accessed 17 May 2024].
Bialasiewicz, L., 2023. What’s ‘left’ for a geopolitical EU? Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 48(4). https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12636
Borrell, J., 2020. Embracing Europe’s Power. Project syndicate and european external action service, February 8. Available at: https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/embracing-europe%E2%80%99s-power_en [Accessed 17 May 2024].
Borrell, J., 2022a. European Diplomatic Academy: Opening remarks by High Representative Josep Borrell at the inauguration of the pilot programme. European External Action Service. Available at: https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/european-diplomatic-academy-opening-remarks-high-representative-josep-borrell-inauguration_en [Accessed 17 May 2024].
Borrell, J., 2022b. On metaphors and geopolitics. European Union External Action Service. Available at: https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/metaphors-and-geo-politics_en [Accessed 17 May 2024].
Castree, N., Fuller, D., Kent, A., Kobayashi, A., Merrett, C. D., Pulido, L. and Barraclough, L., 2008. Geography, pedagogy and politics. Progress in Human Geography, 32(5), pp. 680–718. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132508095081
Closs Stephens, A. and Bagelman, J., 2023. Towards scholar-activism: Transversal relations, dissent, and creative acts. Citizenship Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/13621025.2023.2171251
Dorling, D. and Shaw, M., 2002. Geographies of the agenda: Public policy, the discipline and its (re)‘turns.’. Progress in Human Geography, 26(5), pp. 629–641. https://doi.org/10.1191/0309132502ph390oa
ECFR, 2019. Strategic sovereignty: How Europe can regain the capacity to act. European Council on Foreign Relations. https://ecfr.eu/publication/strategic_sovereignty_how_europe_can_regain_the_capacity_to_act/
Eckes, C., 2020. EU autonomy: Jurisdictional sovereignty by a different name? European Papers, 5(1), pp. 319–329.
Elden, S. and Bialasiewicz, L., 2006. The new geopolitics of division and the problem of a Kantian Europe. Review of International Studies, 32(4), pp. 623–644.
European Commission, 2023. Joint Communication to the European Parliament, The European Council and the Council on “European Economic Security Strategy”, JOIN, 2023. Available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52023JC0020 [Accessed 17 May 2024].
European External Action Service, 2016. Shared vision, common action: A stronger Europe. A global strategy for the European Union’s foreign and security policy. June 2016.
Guerrina, R., Haastrup, T. and Wright, K., 2023. Contesting feminist power Europe: is Feminist foreign policy possible for the EU? European Security, 32(3), pp. 485–507. https://doi.org/10.1080/09662839.2023.2233080
Hansen, P. and Jonsson, S., 2014. Eurafrica: The Untold History of European Integration and Colonialism. London: Bloomsbury.
Haroche, P., 2023. A ‘Geopolitical Commission’: Supranationalism Meets Global Power Competition. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 61, pp. 970–987. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.13440.
Harvey, D., 1974. What kind of geography for what kind of policy? Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 63, pp. 18–24. https://doi.org/10.2307/621527
Hay, I., 2001. Critical geography and activism in higher education. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 25(2), pp. 141–146. https://doi.org/10.1080/03098260120067592
Hoijtink, M., Mühlenhoff, H. and Welfens, N., 2023. Whose (in)security? Gender, race and coloniality in European security policies: Introduction to the Special Issue. European Security, 32(3), pp. 335–346. https://doi.org/10.1080/09662839.2023.2235286
Hyndman, J., 2001. Towards a feminist geopolitics. The Canadian Geographer, 45, pp. 210–222.
Jones, A., 2022. Babelic organisations and the interpreters of geopolitical knowledge production. Political Geography, 95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2021.102582
Jones, R., Kocher, A., Sultana, F., Smiles, D., McSweeney, K. and Molnar, P., 2023. Interventions on public geographies. Political Geography. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2023.103007
Juncker, J-C. and Gressani, G., 2021. “Everything is geopolitical”, a conversation with Jean-Claude Juncker, December 2021. Groupe d’Etudes Geopolitiques/Le Grand Continent. Available at: https://geopolitique.eu/en/articles/conversation-with-jean-claude-juncker/ [Accessed 17 May 2024].
Klinke, I., 2023. Of tanks and tankies: What's ‘left’ for geography after the invasion of Ukraine. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 48, pp. 811–815. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12627
Kuus, M., 2014. Geopolitics and Expertise: Knowledge and Authority in European Diplomacy. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
McConnell, F., Kuus, M., Jeffrey, A., Crawley, H., Vaughan-Williams, N. and Smith, A., 2017. Interventions on Europe's political futures. Political Geography, 60, pp. 261–271. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2017.02.003
Megoran, N., 2023. Making sense of the Ukraine war: Geographers should not be afraid of geography. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 48, pp. 821–825. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12626
Moore-Cherry, N., 2022. Pathways to a more policy-engaged geography. Space and Polity, 26(2), pp. 94–101. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562576.2022.2090137
NATO, 2022. Strategic Concept 2022. Available at: https://www.nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/2022/6/pdf/290622-strategic-concept.pdf [Accessed 17 May 2024].
NATO, 2023. Official Texts 2023. Available at: https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_210549.htm [Accessed 17 May 2024].
Smirnova, V., 2023. Russia's spatial anxiety and the construction of geographical knowledge. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 48, pp. 816–820. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12638
Spector, C., 2021. No démos. Souveraineté et démocratie à l’épreuve de l’Europe. Paris: Seuil.
Toal, G., 2017. Near Abroad: Putin, the West and the Contest over Ukraine and the Caucasus. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Tocci, N., 2016. The making of the EU Global Strategy. Contemporary Security Policy, 37(3), pp. 461–472. https://doi.org/10.1080/13523260.2016.1232559
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank, in order of appearance, the European Parliamentary Research Service and especially EPRS scientific director, Prof. Franck Debié, for inviting me to be part of their discussions. At the College of Europe, I would like to thank my students who, through the years, have always kept me on my ‘geopolitical toes’, never shying away from challenging my critical pedagogy. A huge thanks go to Ambassador Thijs van der Plas for proposing a joint MA course on the practice of diplomacy, and for his generosity in sharing his time and experience. Also at NATO, a big thank you goes to Bartjan Wegter, for opening the geopolitical black-box that is the Alliance to Amsterdam students, and for consenting to his comments being cited. The reflections presented in this chapter would not have been possible without all of you.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bialasiewicz, L. (2024). Policymaking and Political Geography: Engaging EU Geopolitics in Practice. In: Menga, F., Nagel, C., Grove, K., Peters, K. (eds) Political Geography in Practice. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-69899-6_18
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-69899-6_18
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-69898-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-69899-6
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)