An Appeal for the Re-Incorporation of Heartland and Rimland Theories into the Advanced Placement® Course & Exam Description

Abstract

The recent developments in Eastern Europe have brought the theories of Halford Mackinder and Nicholas Spykman back into discussion. Despite their relevance to understand present and past geopolitical developments, they are noticeable absent from the course curriculum for AP® Human Geography. This article makes the argument that classical geopolitical theories, specifically Mackinder’s Heartland Theory and Skykman’s Rimland Theory should be re-included in the curriculum to provide opportunities to apply critical and feminist perspectives to help broaden students’ abilities to critique geopolitical codes.

Keywords:

• Heartland Theory
• Rimland Theory
• geopolitics
• education

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dr. Sarah W. Bednarz and Dr. Petr Pavlinek for their feedback and encouragement. I would also like to thank the reviewers and Journal of Geography editorial team for their assistance in preparing this piece for publication.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kyle Tredinnick

Kyle Tredinnick is a Geography PhD student at the University of Nebraska Lincoln in the School of Global Integrative Studies with a focus in Geographic Education.