Spatial Development, Regional Policy, and Contemporary World Politics

Abstract

This article examines whether the uniform socio-economic development of a state affects its stability in international relations. We rely on the theory of complex interdependence as developed by Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye, as well as the geopolitical sociology of Randall Collins. Based on empirical material from East Asia and the East of Russia, the author analyses the impact of international situations on regional development, the steps the state takes to develop the regions as a response to international situations, and the impact of the one country’s regional development on the policies of other countries. At least seven incentives for regional policy can be found which have an international political nature: separatism and irredentism; territorial claims; international ethnocultural ties; the disintegration of the national economic space and terra nullis; the expansion of exports and international freight transit; natural and man-made disasters in transnational landscapes; and cohesion of the supranational organization. The development of its own territory as a springboard for foreign policy expansion has now stopped and affected by the evolution of military affairs and international conflicts. However, it strengthens a state’s security and allows an active policy of good-neighbourliness or pressure.