Mackinder, Sir Halford (1861-1947), British political geographer, exponent of geopolitics. Mackinder was reader in geography at Oxford, director of the London School of Economics, and a key figure in the creation of the federal University of London. In 1904 he outlined his idea of the ‘heartland’ in a paper to the Royal Geographical Society. He argued that the greater mobility made possible by railways had made Asia and eastern Europe (the heartland) the strategic centre of the world island. The heartland stood in opposition to the maritime or oceanic lands, and would triumph. ‘Those who control eastern Europe dominate the Heartland: those who rule the Heartland dominate the World Island (that is, Eurasia): those who rule the World Island dominate the world.’ Mackinder's views clashed with the US strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan, whose views on the importance of sea power supported the idea that the oceanic powers would win any conflict. WW I tended to support Mahan, and Mackinder shifted his views. In 1924 he first mooted the idea of the Atlantic community, one of a number of ‘regional organizations’ of minor powers. Two years after his death, the idea came into reality, with NATO. His work, of course, is of great interest to the Russians.

— Christopher Bellamy

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