SCANDINAVIA AND FORMER YUGOSLAVIA TERRITORIES ACCORDING TO THE HARTSHORNE MODEL: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

Today, there are more and more studies combining the disciplines of political geography and International Relations. This study is based on the model of Richard Hartshorne, one of the pioneers of political geography, which deals with the factors that hold states together or pull them apart. Hartshorne's physics-inspired model of centripetal forces - those pulling states closer to the centre and centrifugal forces - those pulling states away from the centre, is adapted to the regions of Scandinavia and the former Yugoslavia. In this framework, religion, language, ethnicity, economic structure, geographical location and history have been analysed as unifying factors in one region and divisive factors in another. In the end, it is concluded that the importance of the raison d'être element in Hartshorne's model, which has been present in Scandinavia since the beginning, has been lost over time in the countries of the former Yugoslavia.