Westward Movement of Civilizations and Neo-Classical Geopolitics
In neo-classical geopolitics the Westward movement of civilizations is an important feature. Centrally located rivers and seas have been crucial to the rise of civilizations (for instance the Nile and Euphrates-Tigris, the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas, to mention a few). Especially important have been the oceans (the Atlantic and the Pacific). These huge water areas will continue to dominate. The prediction “Age of the Pacific” is often used stating that it will be the coming focus of search for power. Here the large conflicts will arise.
The basis of this theory is that main world civilizations have moved forward from China in the East to America in the West. In my essay “America, The Last Empire: Decline or Strength?” in the book “Information Warfare” by Winn Schwartau, 1996, there was a warning of a Pacific Era with communist China could be hegemon if Western nations did not wake up to this dangerous possibility.
I have now completed a lengthy essay for publication on the aforementioned subject (the preliminary title is Completion of Civilization in America). As an appendix I have also prepared the outline of a proposed Atlas of World Civilizations.
According to Sir Halford Mackinder in 1938 the Northern Atlantic was then the most desirable body of water on which a state could be located. It now seems the Pacific Ocean will be the most desirable body. Here we can find one of the main world civilizations, Japan, and the Western civilization represented by the nation of Australia. Also in 1938 Nicholas Spykman foresaw the irresistible rise of the Pacific Ocean as a key route for world trade. The relative position of the two oceans was according to Spykman shifting in the favour of the Pacific.
Director Mr. Bertil Haggman, LL.M., author, Sweden
