[Opinion] Siberian Trans-Siberian Railway, Korean Peninsula, Mackinder

Construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway Greatly Impacts the Korean Peninsula
Halford Mackinder, the Father of Geopolitics, Identified the Korean Peninsula as a Foothold for Sea Power to Check Land Power
Alexander Dugin, Known as Putin's Brain, Advised the Invasion of Southeastern Ukraine to Weaken US Power
Russia's Invasion of Ukraine Is a Counterattack by Land Power (Russia) Against Sea Power

On April 15, 1885, three British naval warships illegally occupied Geomundo. This occurred just two weeks after a clash between Russia and Britain in Afghanistan. It was to check the Russian Eastern Fleet, which had departed from Vladivostok, from sailing to Central Asia. When deploying sea power became difficult, Russia shifted its focus to strengthening land power. Finally, in 1891, Alexander III ordered the commencement of the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway. Japan understood this as Russia’s strategic focus being fixed on East Asia and recognized that war was inevitable.

After Japan’s victory in the First Sino-Japanese War, the world’s strongest power, Britain, needed Japan, which had emerged as a major power in East Asia, to check its greatest rival, Russia. Japan, in turn, desperately needed Britain’s help to wage war against Russia. The two countries signed the Anglo-Japanese Alliance on January 30, 1902. The Russo-Japanese War, which began in 1904, was a confrontation between Russia and Japan over the Korean Peninsula and Manchuria. Japan maximized its military strength by allying with Britain, the greatest sea power, but Russia’s immature land power, which had not even completed the Trans-Siberian Railway, was no match. Japan, victorious in this war, forcibly annexed the Korean Peninsula. For Japan, the Korean Peninsula was a crucial key to continental expansion. In retrospect, the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway by Russia to advance into East Asia greatly influenced the fate of the Korean Peninsula.

The construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway was the decisive trigger for Halford Mackinder, the father of geopolitics, to write his 1904 paper “The Geographical Pivot of History.” He warned that the emergence of a powerful land power connected by railways would eliminate the sea power’s dominance that had been enjoyed until then. As a British scholar who had long engaged in the Great Game with Russia, he intuitively sensed the threat to Britain, which relied on sea power, if Russia acquired strong land power through railway construction. Mackinder identified the Korean Peninsula as one of the essential footholds necessary for sea power to check land power, clearly emphasizing the strategic importance of the Korean Peninsula.

Mackinder, who had not received much attention, gained significant interest in the United States after the start of World War II. In July 1943, Mackinder published the paper “The Round World and the Winning of Peace” in Foreign Affairs. He pointed out that if the Soviet Union defeated Germany in the war, it would become the largest land power country on Earth. The heartland, a core region occupied by Russia, was the largest natural fortress on Earth, and for the first time in history, sufficient troops in both quantity and quality were stationed there. At the time Mackinder published this paper, the Soviet Union was allied with the United States, so he did not express hostility toward the Soviet Union in the paper. However, by emphasizing the Soviet Union’s geopolitical potential, he provided postwar American strategists with justification for a containment strategy against the Soviet Union.

Alexander Dugin, known as Putin’s brain, interpreted the collapse of the Soviet Union in his 1997 book The Foundations of Geopolitics as the defeat of the world’s largest land power, the Soviet Union, by the world’s greatest sea power, the United States. He proposed various measures to weaken American power and increase Russian power. Dugin urged Putin to invade southeastern Ukraine. For him, Ukraine’s independence was a tremendous threat to the entire Eurasian continent. The tragedy currently unfolding in Ukraine can be seen as a counterattack by land power Russia. The Korean Peninsula, a geopolitical fault zone, remains unstable.

Kim Dong-gi, author of The Power of Geopolitics

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.