Mackinder’s Heartland Theory

• Sir Halford Mackinder was a pioneer political geographer who formulated Heartland Theory to demonstrate the importance of strategic location of powerful nations in determining balance of global power. Mackinder’s heartland theory was first published in 1919 in a book titled ‘Democratic Ideals and Reality’ and modified it slightly in 1943. However, the basic idea of his theory remained the same.

Basic Idea of Heartland Theory

Basically, Mackinder wanted to explain the history of global balance of power by showing the contest between land and sea power. He introduced his concept of geographical pivot for the first time in an article called Geographical Pivot of History (1904).  Mackinder’s ideas took shape in  early 20th century when the Germany and Russia were rising as a global economic and political power, challenging naval power of Great Britain. The Germany and Russia are both continental countries and have very little access to sea power through rivers and inland lakes. The Arctic ocean also freezes during the long winters. In contrast to these continental powers, Great Britain had access to oceans throughout the year and exerted great political influence on major nations. In long run, Russia or say heartland may emerge as a major land power due to its peculiar location and create a unipolar world as explained in later sections.

Historical Background

The rise of land power such as Germany created imbalance of power between land and sea power. Therefore, the First World War broke out between world powers in 1914 and ended in November 1918. In the war Russia participated in the favor of Allies. However, if it had participated in favor of the Central Powers including Germany, it would be near impossible for allies to defeat them because the Russian territory acts as a fort protected by various geographical barriers. At the end of war in 1919, Mackinder published his ideas. In 1943, he modified the areas defining eastern Europe and heartland during concluding phase of Second World War.

Mackinder’s Heartland Theory

On the basis of historical events and facts, Mackinder divided the whole world into three spatial units i.e. the heartland, the inner crescent and the outer crescent (See Fig. 1).

The Heartland

The heartland or the geographical pivot is a geographical area spanning from Slavic East Europe and Eastern half of Germany to present-day Russia and Central Asia. In short, it contains former USSR and Eastern Europe. Mackinder theorized that this area is very well insulated by geographical barriers from external aggressions. He believed that the heartland has all the economic resources i.e. agriculture and minerals to become an economic and industrial power. Additionally, it can survive without dependence on rest of the world in case the world tries to renounce it for political reasons. Therefore, heartland acts as a impenetrable fort. In Mackinder’s words,

“Who rules East Europe, commands the Heartland,
Who rules the Heartland, commands the World Island,
Who rules the World Island, commands the World”

The Inner Crescent

The inner or marginal crescent is the land surrounding the heartland. It consists of Western Europe (Excluding United Kingdom), West Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Eastern Asia. Some parts of present day Russia i.e. Kamchatka Peninsula and Chukchi Peninsula also lie in the inner crescent zone. The control over this zone is very crucial for controlling the heartland. In fact, most of the western powers in contemporary world are still trying to control the inner crescent to gain geostrategic advantage over Russia. For instance, the present war between Russia and Ukraine is to gain geostrategic advantage where Ukraine is a proxy of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

The Outer Crescent

The outer or insular crescent is an area which is insulated from the influence of heartland. It has good connectivity with sea which makes it a center of naval power. The outer crescent includes United Kingdom, North America, South America, Australia and Africa. It is rest of the area outside inner crescent also known as world island. During the period of First World War leading unto Second World War, USA emerged as a key global power insulated from all sides by oceans similar to United Kingdom. In 1943, he gave the concept of ‘midland basin’ to denote a combine of USA and West Europe. Midland basin acts as counter balance to heartland.

Explanation of Heartland Theory

In short, the Mackinder emphasized that there are two poles of power i.e. heartland and outer crescent which represent, land power and sea power, respectively.

• The struggle between these two power describe the course of history of the world. Hence, he termed the heartland as geographic pivot of history.
• Factually, the central Asia was always a center from which the streams of migrants emerged and propagated in all directions. Max Mueller has already highlighted the similarity in the linguistic composition of the population between Central Asia, Europe, West Asia and South Asia.
• Mackinder wanted to explain the expansionist potential of Russia and Central Asia through this theory. In his mind, if the heartland organizes and utilizes its resources, it has the capacity to create a unipolar world. However, it is essential to control the Eastern Europe to control the heartland. It is so because Eastern Europe provides access to the heartland through passes, plains and lakes which compromises its invincibility.

Implications of Heartland Theory

Mackinder’s theory explains the world political scene of 20th century to a vast extent and continues to explain the contemporary global struggle for power. For instance:

• The rise of Germany in first half of 20th century challenged seas power of France and Britain. It attacked Slavic European countries. Russia understood the implications of this action on its security and participated in war against Germany.
• In second world war, too, Russia played important role in defeating Nazi Germany. In both the wars, had the Russia supported Germany, it would be impossible to defeat Germany.
• In the cold war era, USA continuously tried to keep the countries in inner crescent away from the political ideology of Russia. For example, the wars between North & South Korea and between North and South Vietnam were result of attrition between ideological expansion of Russia and USA.
• Presently, the war between Russia and Ukraine is also a war for gaining geostrategic influence in the inner crescent zone.

Limitations of Heartland Theory

All the above examples show that Mackinder’s Heartland theory is relevant since its inception. Nonetheless, its limitations can not be ignored. These limitations are as follows.

• The heartland is mostly a cold desert having negligible agricultural productivity. The population is so sparse that the laying of railways and roadways to all the settlements is uneconomical. Additionally, the fertile grasslands of Russia exist to the west of Ural mountains which are accessible from European side. Most of Russian population live in this region.
• In modern world, the war technology has developed significantly. Powerful countries can target each other by inter-continental ballistic missiles and fighter jets negating physical barriers.
• Russia is not a world economic power as theorized by Mackinder. Most of the western nations keep its growth in check through trade barriers and economic sanctions.
• Former USSR disintegrated into many countries resulting into weakening of heartland.
• In present world, it is essential to have coastal ports to practice trade and naval power. These activities provide significant leverage in terms of geostrategy.
• Mackinder used Mercator’s Projection for portrayal of heartland. This projection exaggerated the size of the heartland whereas in reality, it is much smaller.
• Cyber warfare and significance of air power combined with sea power is more important in present world than the land power.

Conclusion

To summarize, one can argue that Mackinder ideas are mostly relevant in the past as well as the present. However, emergence of modern technology has negated some of the advantages of heartland. Presently, Russia also possesses most modern weapons like western countries. It has sufficient capability to defend itself from outer crescent but it lacks naval power to be a true global power like USA. Nonetheless, the geographical reality continues to matter, modern weapons of Russia cancels out the modern weapons of the NATO countries. The nuclear deterrent also keeps the various military alliances in check.