Spatial structure and geo-economics

Abstract

This paper is based on a lecture delivered at the scientific conference devoted to the commemoration of professor György Enyedi. He was a pioneer among the geographers in studying the role of spatialization of political and economic processes, and dealing with the main issues of geography in a comprehensive, interdisciplinary framework. His international role was also very important in a rational change in social sciences: rediscovering the territorial embeddedness of globalization and, particularly, of political and economic factors.

The process of global transformations has been probably the most important underpinning of this change. Geostrategic and technological changes have a major influence on the international order and on those forces shaping the processes leading to a new order. The present changes are of epoch-making importance. Indeed, the world is in a state of transition to a new historical order, the parameters and regulating forces of which remain to be determined, though it seems likely that it is an order of dynamic, fluid, and rapidly fluctuating processes difficult to fully apprehend and control. Thus it is necessary for the world to embrace collective multilateral governance to manage those factors of instability and risks already visible in the system, with the aim of promoting more efficient conflict prevention, building multilateral cooperation regimes and facilitating risk management. The last stage of the 20th century and the first decades of the 21st will most probably be considered by future historians as a rare and more or less unprecedented coincidence of different major changes evolving in a number of critical areas in the globalization process: population trends, the global power structure, politics, economics, science, technology, environment and governance. Each one of these changes can be characterized as transformations in a given important area. The historical coincidence, interactions and consequences of these transformations are extremely rare developments in human history. It is a fundamental task for the global community to sustain relatively peaceful relations by defusing potentially explosive situations and averting major crises. Also, it is important to promote the sustainability of global development by finding solutions to global demographic, socio-economic and environmental problems in an increasingly diverse and interconnected world of close to 200 political units and more than 7 billion people. All these made the spatial consequences of transformations fundamentally important for global politics, economics and also for scientific research. An important concept, which may develop into a new discipline which interconnects international economics, economic statecraft and foreign policy, national and global security, is “geo-economics”. It may grow to be a very important field of social sciences in a transforming world which will become unrecognizable by the middle of the 21st century.