Geopolitical Thinkers: James Fairgrieve
James Fairgrieve (1870-1953) was a British geographer and teacher who in 1914 wrote Geography and World Power (published in 1915), a work that sought to show how geography �controls� history. Fairgieve studied at the London School of Economics from 1903 to 1910, obtained a London University certificate in geography in 1912, and lectured on geography at the London Institute of Education.
Fairgrieve�s importance to geopolitics derives from his concept of what he called the �great land mass of Euro-Asia-Africa,� which four years later Sir Halford Mackinder would call the �World-Island.� Fairgrieve noted that Euro-Asia-Africa was surrounded by a �stream of ocean.� European explorers, Fairgrieve wrote, discovered �the oneness of the ocean� which held the �keys to world commerce.� Fairgrieve reviewed the struggles for power among the Dutch, Portuguese, Spaniards, and the British sea powers. He wrote about the benefits of Britain�s insular position in relation to the Old World. Fairgrieve also noted that the �great plain of the world� included the �steppeland� and Central Asia�what he called the �central land of Euro-Asia��under the political organization of the Russians, and which was mostly �cut off from the ocean.� Russia, he wrote, was the �great land power� that occupied the �heart land of the old world.� He described Central and Eastern Europe as a �crush zone� situated between the great powers of Russia and Germany. Fairgrieve described China�s history as being influenced by great rivers, a long coastline, and a great plateau. He predicted that the interplay of land and sea forces �will have a growing tendency to unify China.� Fairgrieve�s book, which went through numerous editions, had a slew of maps, and he updated each new edition with developments in global politics.
After the cataclysm of the First World War, Fairgrieve wrote, �within the last generation or two, thanks largely to increased ease of communication, the world has become a single system with no part really independent of any other part.� He predicted that the United States would become �the seat of an ocean power, and play a part on a vaster scale which Britain played in earlier times,� while China was �in a position to dominate the heartland� and possibly take to the sea�a remarkable vision of the geopolitics of the 21st century.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Geography and World Power (University of London Press, LTD, 1915, 1917, 1919, 1921, 1924, 1927, 1932, 1941, 1944, 1948).
--Francis P. Sempa