Re-navigating the Geopolitical Pivot: China in the Arctic-Heartland

Abstract

Halford J. Mackinder cautioned the world that if a great industrial power manages to rule over the Heartland, it will govern the world. The 21st century is marked by the resurgence of his classical geopolitical thought. Global warming has rendered the Arctic navigable, altering the dynamics of the Heartland and world organisms at large, but now the caution comes from the Arctic. Mackinder's assertion that China, as a great industrial power, has developed its Arctic strategy for a Polar Silk Road to pursue its determined interests in the Arctic-Heartland. To further strengthen its position in the region, it has forged a cooperative alliance with Russia, one of the biggest Arctic states. Chinese interest in the region and the Strategic Russo-Chinese Alliance to develop the Polar Silk Road along the Northern Sea Route is a matter of grave concern for the world at large: for whoever rules over the Heartland, governs the world.