Eurasianism and the Concept of Central Caucaso-Asia

Rethinking Central Eurasia 23
becoming increasingly popular, 15 and not only in the context of several
contemporary geopolitical theories drawn up in the West. 16 It is not
surprising that Russia’s imperial ambitions (ambitions of the largest state in
the Heartland 17 ) of acquiring the functions of a world center do not correlate
with the Western states’ desire to raise their influence in the Heartland. 18
However this is entirely consistent with Mackinder’s theory about the role of
the state that controls the Heartland, as according to contemporary
Eurasianists, in geographical terms, the Pivot Area and Russia are one and
the same thing. 19
The similarity between Mackinder’s Heartland theory and the Eurasianist
trend of the Russian geopolitical school lies in the fact that both help to
justify imperial ambitions. The difference, on the other hand, is that while
the first served the imperial ambitions of Great Britain 20 and, in the
contemporary context, the West, the second serves Russia. In both cases, the
interests of those countries which these imperial ambitions apply to are left
out of the picture. It is this, in our opinion, that shows the one-sidedness and,
consequently, the limitations of both geopolitical constructs – the Heartland
theory and Eurasianism. These geopolitical constructs fully blend into a so-
15
Anita Sengupta, Heartlands of Eurasia: The Geopolitics of Political Space (Lanham:
Lexington Books, 2009); Lasha Tchantouridze, “Eurasia, Geopolitics, and American
Foreign Policy,” Central Asia and the Caucasus, No. 5 (53) (2008), pp. 11-12.
16
For example, Ekaterina Borisova, “Halford Mackinder’s Ideas Today,” Central Asia
and The Caucasus, No. 4 (34) (2005), pp. 21-23; Sevara Sharapova, “Mackinder’s
“Heartland” Theory and the Atlantic Community,” Central Asia and The Caucasus, No.
4 (34), 2005, pp. 103-116; Fabrizio Vielmini, “The Influence of Mackinder’s Theory on
Current U.S. Development in Eurasia: Problems and Perspectives,” Central Asia and
The Caucasus, No. 4 (34) (2005), pp. 58-65.
17
It is not at all accidental that the essentially trivial statement by Vladimir Putin that
Russia is a Euro-Asiatic country was very important for the neo-Eurasianists (Ilya
Maksakov, “Evraziystvo na iuge Rossii: ubezhdeniia i somneniia” [Eurasianism in the
South of Russia: Convictions and Doubts], Nezavisimaia gazeta, June 8, 2001,
).
18
For example, Utkin, “Evraziyskaia.”
19
Dugin, Osnovy geopolitiki, p. 44.
20
For example, Bernard Semmel, “Sir Halford Mackinder: Theorist of Imperialism,”
The Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, Vol. 24, No. 4 (1958), pp. 554-561.