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  • © 2019

The Genesis of Geopolitics and Friedrich Ratzel

Dismissing the Myth of the Ratzelian Geodeterminism

  • Includes an extended presentation of some Ratzel's lesser known essays, which are very important to understand his major books
  • Contains 29 maps of Friedrich Ratzel collected from several books
  • Introduces a new viewpoint in evaluating Ratzel's concept of Political Geography and consequently his contribution to leading geopolitical concepts

Part of the book series: Historical Geography and Geosciences (HIGEGE)

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xvi
  2. Fr. Ratzel and Geopolitics

    • Alexandros Stogiannos
    Pages 1-27
  3. Fr. Ratzel’s State as a “Social Organism”

    • Alexandros Stogiannos
    Pages 29-55
  4. Fr. Ratzel, Central Europe and “European Union”

    • Alexandros Stogiannos
    Pages 151-164
  5. Fr. Ratzel and the Eastern Question: Flag Follows Trade

    • Alexandros Stogiannos
    Pages 165-199
  6. Final Conclusions

    • Alexandros Stogiannos
    Pages 201-203
  7. Back Matter

    Pages 205-252

About this book

This book discusses the influence of Friedrich Ratzel's ideas in more contemporary geopolitical analytical systems and the geodeterminism commonly attributed to him. The author thoroughly analyzes the structural components of Ratzel's thought. 


The research is inspired by the numerous contradictory approaches in the secondary literature, presenting Ratzel as both humanist and racist, geo-determinist and multidimensional analyst, organicist and social scientist, precursor of Geopolitics and opponent to the same idea. In this work, more particular issues are approached: the establishment of a scientific Political Geography; the methodological approach of his multidisciplinary work; the redefinition of his geopolitical period; his notion of state and the evaluation of sociological and cultural parameters as factors of state power; the biogeographical content of the notion of Lebensraum; his attitude towards the racist theories as well as towards the Darwinian theories; his overall worldview and the confrontation with cosmopolitism; his contribution to an interdisciplinary, positivist and scientific approach in analyzing social and international affairs; his thoughts on the architecture of Europe. 


The book will be useful for researchers and students in many scientific fields, such as International Relations, Geopolitics, Geography and History of Geography.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Faculty of Turkish Studies and Modern Asian Studies, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

    Alexandros Stogiannos

About the author



Dr. Alexandros Stogiannos received his PhD in Geopolitics at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (UoA), (Faculty of Turkish & Modern Asian Studies / School of Economics and Political Sciences), where Geopolitics is taught on both an undergraduate and a postgraduate level. 


He has authored multiple individual articles on the German geographer Friedrich Ratzel and his ideas, published in international journals in Germany and Greece. His research interests focus primarily on Systemic Geopolitical Analysis, as well as on the Theory and History of Geopolitics. In his published case studies he emphasises on the implementation of Machine Learning methods, such as Data Mining.


Dr. Alexandros Stogiannos is a Senior Researcher at the Laboratory of Geocultural  Analyses of the Greater Middle East and Turkey  (Faculty of Turkish & Modern Asian Studies), and a Lecturer at the MSc degree programme  Geostrategic Synthesis and Defence Studies and International Security of the same Faculty.


Aside from his academic career, Dr. Stogiannos has also established the ERASMOS Language School (Corfu) were he is still co-manager and head of the German department.  He is also a former political reporter and editor.

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 139.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book USD 179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access