The geopolitics of history

This paper explores the geopolitical dimensions of the relationship between history and theory in International Relations in the context of the ‘return of geopolitics’ through an engagement with the work of German historian Reinhart Koselleck. The core argument of the paper is that history has a geopolitics. International order is a significant node in the relationship between conceptions of geographical and historical unity because of its political claim to and production of global space. The upshot of this is that International Relations are not simply an object of historical investigation but produce the conditions by which historical time is understood. At the same time, Koselleck’s critique of the philosophy of history is implicated in a classical geopolitical imaginary found in the work of Halford Mackinder and Carl Schmitt. The diagnosis of globalisation Koselleck shares with Schmitt and Mackinder informs his view of the mutability of transcendental spatial ideas that enable historical understanding. This geopolitical orientation conceives of globalisation as unification of ‘man’ and ‘nature’ in a manner that resonates with contemporary diagnoses of the reunification of human and natural histories in the context of the climate change. In this way Koselleck’s geopolitics of history both challenges and reinforces the relationship between a global international order and the philosophy of history. Koselleck’s work is thus indicative of wider difficulties in rethinking the relationship between history and theory in International Relations in the context of the return of geopolitics. Finally, this work suggests that advancing the critique of the philosophy of history requires challenging the claim of international order to global space.