Geopolitics In US Foreign Affairs

I always wanted to find the answer to the question: what is to be learned from politics? As I am really interested in this branch of social science, this question is imperative to be answered. Though unwilling to acknowledge, I still have to admit that most of the politics-related disciplines are only to be learned in the textbooks, which means, theories are many and always ready, but application is almost always difficult, confusing and dangerous. Some might refute by proving that politics exist everywhere and human beings by nature play politics even for trivial interests. Yet, I still refuse to link the political theories in black and white with actual politics people play every day, for the former usually serves an unimaginable selfish purpose, totally out of the range of the latter.Geopolitics to me is not merely a combination of geography and politics. It is the study of the impact of geography on politics, the technique of making use of geographic resources for politics, and the caution against dangers of politics owing to geographic disadvantages. Fatalistic as it sounds, (for example,) the location of a nation does to a great extend decide whether it has the right to compete for any possible influence in the future. Interesting is the fact that a"good"location usually bears a much more complicated definition than what is regarded as"good". Imagining how our ancestors, especially those arrogant emperors during the feudalist era, labeled westerners as"Yi (the uncivilized)", we cannot but ask was it not because our nation"happened"to be located in a vast land giving one a sense of security while those"uncivilized"western monsters happened to live in the center of unfathomable seas? Our ancestors just took it for granted for thousands of years (old conventional wisdom) that to be located in a vast land is a blessing, which took them several hundreds of years to realize it was partially a mistake. Thus, one shall then notice that a wrong understanding of one nation's geographical position can actually bring miscalculation of the components'competitiveness– they are farther from land, so they are more desperate to survive, braver in combats, and more skillful in manufacturing those lethal weapons. However, today's Chinese may one day feel lucky that their nation at least has a vast territory that did and does make the conquest of its people more difficult, if not impossible, for most of the invaders daring for a try. Besides, conquest without management is only brutal governance. The rich agricultural resources (a geographic advantage) in China actually helped to solidify the structure of natural economy which, if not reformed within, would never yield to any foreign force. Mongolians did not understand this, thus they failed soon. But Manchu ethnic group learnt it, thus they governed for over 200 years.Thus, if asked why geopolitics for the MA thesis, I would answer: that is the particular area which we often overlooked, though it is one of the most basic elements in politics. The reason why the U.S. is the research target is that although the country itself did not invent geopolitical theories, it truly believed in it, applied it and benefited from it. In human history, no country has ever expanded itself as successfully as the U.S., a country that learnt the geopolitical theories with diligent practice and allowed its impact to filter into its social life and popular culture. It is hard to predict whether geopolitical perspective will exert its influence on the U.S. foreign affairs as it did in the Cold War, yet as a"practical"theory, geopolitics can extend its life by restructuring and transferring itself into a more applicable or feasible tool which never loses its attraction to either the political leaders dreaming big or the politicians starting small. Whatever the case, geopolitics is a useful tool to understand any country's foreign policy, big powers in particular.