The Concept of Cartopolitics and Its Applications in the Analysis of Political Geography and Geopolitics

Extended Abstract

Introduction

The history of cartography demonstrates that while maps were initially considered simple representations of reality through conventional marking, today, they are utilized for understanding and interpreting complex phenomena and highlighting relationships. In other words, throughout the history of human societies, the role of maps has gradually changed from representing locations and spaces to depicting the positions, power, and privileges of societies, nations, etc. From a critical perspective, maps are viewed as a medium conveying messages according to the intentions and goals of cartographers and those who order them commissioners rather than as a neutral phenomenon. Such transformations have led to the fact that today, the term "cartopolitics" is used to study the role of maps in relation to space, politics, and power. Considering the existing gap in the studies of cartopolitics, the present study intends to explore this concept and some of its applications in the analyses of geopolitics and political geography.

Methodology

The present research is basic and theoretical in approach and employs a descriptive-analytical research method. The necessary data for conducting the study were gathered from library and internet sources and analyzed qualitatively.

Results and discussion

territoriality, nurtured in mind, is manifested in various subjective and objective maps. In fact, maps are the initiators of territoriality processes in diverse dimensions and activities in the physical space to realize it. In other words, cartography acts as an instrument of spatial actualization. Just as they play a part in terrestrial territoriality, maps also serve as the basis of maritime territoriality. Generally speaking, maps serve a crucial function in the process of delineating maritime boundaries and territoriality, for lawyers and policymakers desire to see one single image. Even technical experts initially utilize maps as guides for dimensional computer calculations that must lead to an accurate outcome. Maps also play a key role in maritime boundary negotiations and dispute settlement by a third party as a graphic tool for illustrating claims and delineating borders.

Furthermore, one of the stages of territoriality involves the exercise of power to maintain territory. Nowadays, maps have transformed into a means through which each government can effectively exert control over territory, as they are among the essential tools of disciplinary technology of power and establish the relationship between government and territory. Additionally, maps serve as a tool for iconography with regard to optimal territoriality. Hence, with the emergence of nation-states, maps have changed into a powerful symbol of national unity and a cultural product in the realization of national discourse. Cartographic images of a country placed within global or regional maps constitute a powerful element in constructing national identity. That is why one of the initial attempts of newly independent countries is the preparation of a national atlas.

In addition, maps are potent geopolitical tools extensively employed to display conflicts over lands, borders, and more. In fact, maps and other cartographic artifacts serve as a reflection of specific geopolitical interests at any point in time. They are used in understanding or hindering the understanding of spatial processes and geopolitical issues, as well as in exercising power to convey particular images of the world or reinforce a specific geopolitical discourse. Many important geographical theories, especially in political geography and geopolitics, have also been proposed on the basis of geographical maps and a particular type of imaging system capable of justifying that theory. Moreover, war, maps, and geography form a powerful triad together. For this reason, during times of war and international disputes, public interest in maps reaches its peak.

Overall, although it cannot be claimed that all maps are induced, maps are and have basically been the tools in the hands of power. In this regard, a relatively contradictory situation is forming; that is, on the one hand, cartography is increasingly used by governments and others as a means to understand, govern effectively, and properly carry out missions in line with defined interests and, on the other, maps are used as instruments of power to present geopolitical discourses, territorial expansion, territorial claims, separatism, intervention in other countries, threatening, etc.

Conclusion

Maps and cartographic techniques are closely related to consolidating and legitimizing territorial units. Territory mapping operates to strengthen power and convey messages about controlling some parts of the geographic space, thus facilitating actions toward their division, ownership, and control. It can be argued that the map precedes territory. The control and management of territory, and essentially the political organization of space, are realized by maps. Finally, maps, as a geopolitical tool, play a significant role in territorial expansion, including in geopolitical discourses, wars, and geopolitical conflicts. In this context, maps, as tools of power, are drawn primarily based on a particular ideology, indicating the interests of their creators in achieving specific geopolitical goals.

Therefore, maps, as images of political space, never represent reality in a neutral or transparent manner; rather, through cartographic elements such as highlighting, border lines, coloring, imaging systems, etc., they become immersed in power relations by what they depict and what they do not. Hence, using cartopolitics, various individuals, groups, institutions, and governments can attempt to construct worldviews that serve their strategies.cartopolitics describes the way politics relates to the cartographic representation of space, where cartography establishes a particular spatial image in line with specific goals and ideologies. Simply put, cartopolitics refers to the relationship between maps, politics, and power. The findings of the present study reveal that there is a close link between cartopolitics and territoriality as the theoretical foundation of political geography and its subbranches. Various case studies in different time periods point to the instrumental role of cartography in shaping territory, controlling and managing territory, and territorial expansion, particularly in wars, geopolitical conflicts, construction and reconstruction of geopolitical discourses, etc. In all cases, maps, through techniques such as highlighting, specific lines or coloring, imaging systems, etc., are involved in power relations by what they depict and what they do not depict.