Introduction to Contemporary Geopolitics

Geopolitics is all around us, it happens every day. The course shows the connection between geography and international relations, the origins of geopolitical concepts and ideas, how countries view the world around them, why their views are different and how space and distance determine economic ties and security concerns. Students, employees of public and private companies involved in international activity, as well as simply curious people can find this course basic, but interesting and useful. This course introduces geopolitics – one of the ways to interpret and explain international relations in the modern world. To do this, you will study the origins of this discipline, as well as its concepts that determined foreign policy decisions in the XX century. After that, we will look at the most recent versions of geopolitics and how some of them can be used for critical analysis. The main goal of the course is to understand the geopolitical approach to international relations and learn how to use it to explain and predict events taking place at the regional or global level. This includes studying theories, using them for case studies, passing tests to assess knowledge and correct understanding of the geopolitical approach. The course has no prerequisites, though it is desirable that the listeners have an interest in international politics, know the world map well and the changes that took place there in the XX century. The course "Political Geography and the Modern World", which is held at the HSE before studying Modern Geopolitics and which was created to prepare students for the study of theories of international relations, can help you with this. The course is for: • Those who are interested in international relations • Students in Politics, Regional Studies and Social Sciences • Those who want to find links and causalities between geography and international politics • Students who like history and who want to know the nature of major international events in the XX century • Those who prefer online format and a quick and basic explanation of international processes • For everyone who wants to know about the world around us The course consists of short video lectures from 6 to 11 minutes, in which invaluable questions are included. An estimated test of 10-15 questions will take place every week. In the end of the online course there is a final exam in the form of test. The course allows you to interpret international events in different ways, evaluate and predict them from perspective of different geopolitical approaches.