Abstract

This review of the latest book by Mario Losano (La geopolitica del Novecento) begins by considering two claims related to the scientific study of the relationship between geographical conditions and politics. The author suggests that geopolitics entails, on the one hand, a deterministic claim about the possibility of discovering the laws according to which a given political order can be influenced by its environment, and on the other hand, a natural law claim about the possibility of deducting from those laws a set of principles which should guide political action (with specific reference to international relations). Losano's book - which focuses on the latter claim - analyzes how the term and the concept of geopolitics have been recently associated with the dictatorships of the twentieth Century. The article does not simply discuss Losano's account of the genesis of European dictatorships and of the consequences of (de)colonization for contemporary politics, but also takes into account the crucial issue of whether or not a geopolitics different from the one proper of totalitarian regimes really exists.