Towards a constructive critical geopolitics – Inspirations from the Frankfurt School of critical theory

This paper seeks to enrich the scholarly potential and further develop the societal role of critical geopolitical scholarship. In particular, we elaborate on some of the challenges of what we call a ‘constructive critical geopolitics’. This is done through a selective inquiry into some of the key insights of the first generation of Frankfurt School critical theory, in particular as regards its reflections on political action and public engagement. We argue that incorporating some of the central tenets of critical theory into critical geopolitics has important implications for the subdiscipline – theoretically, empirically and as regards its applied/constructive role in society. Our argument seeks to contribute to the inclusion of constructive critical geopolitical analysis alongside the focus on thorough deconstruction of hegemonic knowledge productions, power relations and systems of exclusion. More concretely, drawing on critical theory as well as on geographic feminist and peace research, we call for more explicit normative positioning in critical geopolitical scholarship and suggest that we embrace the complexity of the geopolitical phenomena we study and, in so doing, to consider both their progressive and regressive aspects. We use our interest in processes of European (dis)integration, and the Brexit vote in particular, to highlight the need to further develop such multiperspectival analysis on highly complex and multifaceted geopolitical processes, such as European (dis)integration.