Foundations of Geopolitics
Foundations of Geopolitics is a 1997 geopolitical strategy book by Russian philosopher Aleksandr Dugin that outlines a grand strategy for Russia to dominate Eurasia and dismantle American global power. It has been described as the most influential political book in modern Russia, reportedly used as a textbook at Russian military and intelligence academies.
Published in Russian in 1997 under the title Osnovy geopolitiki, the book draws heavily on the German geopolitical tradition of Karl Haushofer and the British geographer Halford Mackinder, who argued that whoever controls the Eurasian heartland controls the world. Dugin synthesizes these ideas with Russian Orthodox messianism and the Eurasianist tradition to produce a blueprint for Russian civilizational dominance in the coming century.
The book's prescriptions for weakening the West read as a strikingly accurate prediction of events that would unfold over the following two decades: encouraging separatism in the United States by inflaming racial and regional tensions, supporting Britain's exit from the European Union, cultivating pro-Russian political movements across Europe, using Ukraine as a buffer or absorption target, and building strategic partnerships with Germany, Iran, and Japan. Many analysts have noted the degree to which actual Russian foreign policy from the 2000s onward appears to follow Dugin's manual.
The Third Rome concept, central to the book, draws on the 15th-century Russian theological doctrine that Moscow was the Third Rome, the final protector of true Christian civilization after the fall of Constantinople. Dugin secularizes and weaponizes this idea: Russia's destiny is not merely national survival but the provision of an alternative civilizational model to Western liberalism, one based on tradition, community, hierarchy, and Eurasian solidarity rather than individualism, secularism, and finance capital.
The book's relevance to the Trump era analysis is that it frames both Putin's strategy and, by parallel logic, Trump's strategy as responses to a recognized coming collapse of the liberal world order. Both leaders, from this perspective, are not disrupting a stable system but are positioning their nations to survive and benefit from a collapse they regard as inevitable and already in progress.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the main argument of Foundations of Geopolitics? ＋
Dugin argues that American liberal dominance is a temporary and self-destructive phenomenon. Russia's strategy should be to survive as a coherent civilizational bloc while the West collapses under the weight of its own secularism and individualism. By building Eurasian alliances, controlling the heartland's resources, and using information warfare to deepen Western divisions, Russia can emerge as the dominant pole of a post-American world order.
How influential is Foundations of Geopolitics in Russia? ＋
It has reportedly been used as a curriculum text at Russian military and intelligence academies. Analysts tracking Russian foreign policy have noted remarkable alignment between Dugin's prescriptions and actual Kremlin actions, including backing Brexit, supporting Western nationalist movements, the Ukraine invasion, and cultivation of partnerships with Iran and other anti-Western states. Whether it is a cause or a reflection of Russian strategic thinking remains debated.