Jeopolitik Düşüncenin Yeniden Kurgulanması: Eleştirel Yaklaşım Ve Pembe Dalga Bağlamı

Year 2025, Issue: 86, 298 - 312, 25.10.2025

Hazal Arslan

Abstract

Bu çalışmanın amacı, uluslararası ilişkilerde teorik bir çerçeve olarak eleştirel jeopolitiğin ortaya çıkışı ve evrimini incelemektir. Çalışma, devlet merkezli ve bölgesel deterministik modellere önemli ölçüde vurgu yapan klasik jeopolitikadan, mekansal ve politik kategorilerin nesnelliğini sorgulayan post-yapısalcı yaklaşımlara geçişin incelenmesiyle başlar. Söylem, kimlik ve güç/bilgi kavramlarını entegre ederek, post-yapısalcılık jeopolitiği söylemsel bir pratik olarak yeniden kavramsallaştıran eleştirel jeopolitiğin temellerini attı. Makale, Foucault, Ó Tuathail ve Dalby'nin çalışmalarından yararlanarak jeopolitik bilginin dış politika söyleminde nasıl üretildiğini ve kullanıldığını incelemektedir. Mevcut çerçevenin pratik uygulanabilirliğini göstermek için çalışma, Latin Amerika'daki Pembe Dalga döneminde ABD'nin dış politika söylemini kısaca ele almaktadır. Bu örnek, ayrıntılı vaka çalışmalarını vurgulamak yerine, jeopolitiğin bölgesel stratejik çerçevelerde ‘dostlar’ ve ‘düşmanlar’ gibi jeopolitik ikilemlerin oluşumunu açıklığa kavuşturmada oynadığı önemli rolü vurgulamayı amaçlamaktadır. Makalenin katkısı, iki farklı ama birbiriyle bağlantılı çalışma alanına katkıda bulunmayı amaçlayan ikili yapısında yatmaktadır: eleştirel jeopolitiğin teorik anlayışı ve çağdaş dış politika anlatılarını yorumlamada analitik potansiyel.

Keywords

Jeopolitik , Eleştirel jeopolitik , Post-yapısalcılık , Pembe dalga , Bush dönemi

Reimagining Geopolitical Thought: The Critical Geopolitical Approach and the Pink Tide Context

Abstract

The objective of this study is to explore the emergence and evolution of critical geopolitics as a theoretical framework in international relations. The study commences with a review of the transition from classical geopolitics, which placed significant emphasis on state-centric and territorially deterministic models, to post-structuralist approaches that have been known to challenge the objectivity of spatial and political categories. By integrating concepts of discourse, identity, and power/knowledge, post-structuralism laid the groundwork for critical geopolitics, which reconceptualizes geopolitics as a discursive practice. The article draws on the works of Foucault, Ó Tuathail, and Dalby to examine how geopolitical knowledge is produced and utilized in foreign policy discourse. To demonstrate the practical applicability of the present framework, the study briefly engages with US foreign policy discourse during the Pink Tide period in Latin America. Instead of emphasizing meticulous case studies, this illustration aims to underscore the pivotal role that geopolitics plays in elucidating the establishment of geopolitical dichotomies, such as ‘friends’ and ‘foes’, in regional strategic frameworks. The paper aims to contribute to two distinct but interconnected fields of study: the theoretical understanding of critical geopolitics and the analytical potential in interpreting contemporary foreign policy narratives.

Keywords

Geopolitics , Critical geopolitics , Post-structuralism , Pink tide , Bush administration

References

• Agnew, J. (2003). Geopolitics: Re-visioning world politics (2nd ed.). Routledge.
• Bleiker, R. (2001). The aesthetic turn in international political theory. Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 30(3), 509–533. doi: 10.1177/03058298010300031201
• Burchill, S. (2005). Theories of international relations (3rd ed.). Palgrave Macmillan.
• Campbell, D. (1992). Writing security: United States foreign policy and the politics of identity. University of Minnesota Press.
• Castañeda, J. (1993). Utopia unarmed: The Latin American left after the Cold War. Vintage Books.
• Castañeda, J. (2006). Latin America's left turn. Foreign Affairs, 85(3), 28–43. doi: 10.2307/20031965
• Clausewitz, C. von. (1976). On war (M. Howard & P. Paret, Eds. & Trans.). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1832)
• Dalby, S. (1991). Critical geopolitics: Discourse, difference, and dissent. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 9(3), 261–283. doi: 10.1068/d090261
• Derrida, J. (1991). A Derrida reader: Between the blinds (P. Kamuf, Ed.). Columbia University Press.
• Derrida, J. (1997). Of grammatology (Corrected ed.; G. C. Spivak, Trans.). Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Dodds, K. (2014). Geopolitics: A very short introduction (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.
• Dunne, T. (2013). Liberalism. In S. Burchill & A. Linklater (Eds.), Theories of international relations (5th ed., pp. 93–119). Palgrave Macmillan.
• Fernandes, S. (2007). Barricades and ballot boxes: The politics of the Pink Tide. New Left Review, (42), 41–64.
• Flint, C. (2006). Introduction to geopolitics. Routledge.
• Foucault, M. (1972). The archaeology of knowledge (A. M. Sheridan Smith, Trans.). Pantheon Books.
• Foucault, M. (1980). Power/knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings 1972–1977 (C. Gordon Ed.; L. Marshall, J. Mepham, & K. Soper, Trans.). Vintage Books.
• Foucault, M., & Gordon, C. (2016). Questions on geography. In Space, knowledge and power (pp. 173-182). Routledge.
• Frechette, M. (2006). Rethinking Latin America: A new approach in US foreign policy. Harvard International Review, 28(2), 28–31. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42763108
• George, J. (1994). Discourses of global politics: A critical (re)introduction to international relations. Lynne Rienner Publishers.
• Gonzalez, M. (2019). The Ebb of the Pink Tide: The Decline of the Left in Latin America. Pluto Press. doi: 10.2307/j.ctv7vcsq4
• Griffiths, M. (2007). International relations theory for the twenty-first century: An introduction. Routledge.
• Hagan, C. B. (1942). Geopolitics. the Journal of Politics, 4(4), 478-490.
• Hyndman, J. (2004). Mind the gap: Bridging feminist and political geography through geopolitics. Political Geography, 23(3), 307–322.
• Kissinger, H. (1994). Diplomacy. Simon & Schuster.
• Koppes, C. R. (2013). Containment. In R. Schulzinger (Ed.), A companion to American foreign relations (pp. 265–288). Blackwell.
• Leogrande, W. M. (2007). A poverty of imagination: George W. Bush's policy in Latin America. Journal of Latin American Studies, 39(2), 355–385.
• Mamadouh, V. (1998). Geopolitics in the nineties: One flag, many meanings. GeoJournal, 46(4), 237–253.
• Nycz, G. (2008). In the shadow of the ‘War On Terror’: democracy promotion and US policy towards Latin America during the presidency of G.W. Bush. Politeja, 10/2, 37–48. Http://Www.Jstor.Org/Stable/24919322
• Ó Tuathail, G. (1996). Critical geopolitics: The politics of writing global space. Routledge.
• Ó Tuathail, G., & Agnew, J. (1992). Geopolitics and discourse: Practical geopolitical reasoning in American foreign policy. Political Geography, 11(2), 190–204. doi:10.1016/0962-6298(92)90048-X
• Ó Tuathail, G., & Dalby, S. (2002). Rethinking geopolitics. Routledge.
• Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. (n.d.). CAFTA-DR (Dominican Republic-Central America FTA). https://ustr.gov/trade-agreements/free-trade-agreements/cafta-dr-dominican-republic-central-america-fta
• Owens, P. (2010). Reclaiming ‘Bare Life’?: Against agamben on refugees. International Relations, 23(4), 567-582. doi: 10.1177/0047117809350545 (Original work published 2009)
• Roxborough, I. (1994). Theories of underdevelopment. Routledge.
• Said, E. W. (1978). Orientalism. Pantheon Books.
• Sidaway, J.D. (2002). Imagined Regional Communities: Integration and Sovereignty in the Global South (1st ed.). Routledge. doi: 4324/9780203201763
• Smith, P. H. (2019). Talons of the eagle: Latin America, the United States, and the world (5th ed.). Oxford University Press.
• Spykman, N. J. (1944). The geography of the peace. Harcourt, Brace and Company.
• Weigert, H. (1945). Generals and geographers: The twilight of geopolitics. Oxford University Press.
• Zuckert, M. (1991). Natural rights and the new republicanism. Princeton University Press.