An Explanation of the Process of Geopolitical Imagination; the Case study of the US Geopolitical Imagination of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in the Cold War Era

Geopolitical imagination, by definition, is the competition between powers in forming individuals’, institutions’ and political factors’ perception of the characteristics and contents of geographical space, on the basis of their intended interests. In this article, as a case study, the US perception of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics during the Cold War era is analysed. The authors argue that the image of an evil Soviet during the Cold War was formed through a complicated interaction process among formal geopolitics, applied geopolitics, and general geopolitics. It was through policies, doctrines, political statements including the Truman Doctrine, George Kennan’s Containment Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, National Security Council Report 68 (NSC-68), and Reagan’s Evil Empire Doctrine that the practical geopolitics of the United States provided an evil image of the Soviet Union as an inherently irreconcilable enemy. In this process, the formal geopolitics added a scientific dimension to US representation of the Soviet by presenting geopolitical theories like Heartland, Rimland, Domino, Chain Network, Seversky’s Air Power and the like. Finally, general geopolitics presented the geopolitical discourse of the Soviet Union as an evil enemy, convincing the public opinion by using media representations. Creating such a perception of the Union of Soviet Republics empowered the United States, in such a way that the latter set the ground for its geopolitical interventions in different regions of the world, while at the same time creating identity for its people during four decades of the Cold War.