Spykman's Rimland Theory

During years leading up to the Second world war, transportation technology had greatly improved and international trade had become a major topic in foreign policy circles. Academics and politicians had turned their attention away from overland travel and toward oceanic transportation as an important geopolitical factor within the global power structure. One of the leading academics in this paradigm shift was Nicholas Spykman, a Sterling Professor of International Relations at Yale University. While he is considered by some scholars as a political scientist, his focus was largely geographic in nature and he became a leading academic in the field of geopolitics.

He was highly critical of Mackinder’s Heartland Theory and regarded the model as short-sighted. He argued that, while strategically important, the heartland served little purpose if resources could not be transported overseas. He published his book titled “America's Strategy in World Politics” in 1942, just one year before he died of cancer. In his book, Spykman criticized Mackinder for over-emphasizing the strategic importance of the Heartland. He assumed that the Heartland would not be a potential hub of Europe largely because the vast region of central Asia was surrounded by major mountain ranges, deserts, and the Arctic Ocean to the north. These obstacles made it difficult to transport resources out of central Asia without control over the rimland.

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