Geostrategy is a subfield of geopolitics. As with all strategies, geostrategy is concerned with matching means to ends—in this case, a country's resources with its geopolitical objectives. Geostrategists, as distinct from geopoliticians, advocate proactive strategies, and approach geopolitics from a nationalist point-of-view. Many geostrategists are also geographers, specializing in subfields of geography, such as "human geography", "political geography ", "economic geography", "cultural geography ", "military geography ", and "strategic geography". Geostrategy is most closely related to strategic geography.
Defining geostrategy
Academics, theorists, and practitioners of geopolitics have agreed upon no standard definition for "geostrategy." Most all definitions, however, emphasize the merger of strategic considerations with geopolitical factors. While geopolitics is ostensibly neutral, examining the geographic and political features of different regions, especially the impact of geography on politics, geostrategy involves comprehensive planning, assigning means for achieving national goals or securing assets of military or political significance.
History of geostrategy
Precursors
Herodotus talks about a Greek plan to gain the "empire of the sea."
Alexander Hamilton was a geostrategic thinker. Thomas Jefferson understood the balance of power, although he did not design a good navy with which to preserve it.
Golden Age
Between 1890 and 1919 the world became a geostrategist's paradise. The international system featured rising and falling great powers, many with global reach. There were no new frontiers for the great powers to explore or colonize. From this point forward, international politics would feature the struggles of state against state.
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