W służbie imperializmu. Rudolfa Kjellena koncepcja granic
In the Service of Imperialism: Rudolf Kjellén's Concept of Borders

Summary/Abstract: This article presents a reconstruction of the concept of borders formulated by Rudolf Kjellen and its geopolitical consequences. The text refers to the content analysis of selected publications by Kjellen and makes use of the systemic method, in which geopolitics and state borders constitute a complex sub-system of state theory. The text seeks to answer the following research questions: What was the basis of Kjellen’s theory of the state, and what is the significance of the concept of borders inside its framework? On what did he base his systematics of borders and how did he evaluate their different variants? How did geopolitics correlate with his vision of political borders? The organic theory of the state assigned political borders a relative and temporal role. Kjellen recognized the contradictory functions of political borders between protecting the state from external influences and threats, as well as mediating the opening and outward expansion that was necessary to gain ad­equate living space. He referred the analysis of political borders to the strength of a particular state and its boundary lines at a particular time. He preferred large, expansive powers which deprived smaller states of their right to exist. In this sense, borders were not only empirical, delineated boundary lines on the ground and on the map, but reflected the variable will and strength of the state actors delineating them, determined also by numerous qualitative factors.

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