Spatio-Temporal Changes and Their Reasons to the Geopolitical Influence of China and the US in South Asia

Sustainability

Shufang Wang¹  Yuan Cao¹  Yuejing Ge¹ 

[1] School of Geography, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; E-Mails:

关键词: geopolitical influence;    spatio-temporal changes;    China;    the US;    South Asia;   

DOI  :  10.3390/su7011064

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

The current international society has entered an era of large-scale power transfer. Government interests have gradually transferred from national strength to national influence. As such, how to quantitatively present the fuzzy geopolitical influence (i.e., geo-influence) has attracted greater attention from scholars. The proposed concept of geo-influence conforms to this trend of power structure change in international relations, and provides a reference for national sustainable development on the international stage. This study sets up an index system and a mathematical model of geopolitical influence, and explores the spatio-temporal changes of the geo-influence of China and the United States (US) in South Asia over the past decade. Three primary results are found as follows: (1) In general, the geo-influence of China and the US in South Asia increased between 2003 and 2012. In terms of growth rate, the geo-influence of China in South Asia grew much faster than that of the US; (2) The overall strength and geo-influence show non-linear relationships. Strong national overall strength does not necessarily mean that one country has the strongest geo-influence; (3) National geo-influence is inversely proportional to the friction of distance. The larger the friction of distance is, the smaller national geo-potential is, and vice versa.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.