ABSTRACT

Chokepoints are essential elements of systems centred on the regulation of flow. Geophysical chokepoints, sites of topographic narrowing, play a key role in what I call ‘vascular geopolitics’, or geopolitics based on the control of circulation rather than the control of territory. Using the case of the Roki Tunnel, which goes beneath the Caucasus mountains to connect Russia and Georgia, I show how Russia has attempted to exercise neocolonial control over the breakaway province of South Ossetia and of Georgia proper by maintaining control of the tunnel. However, chokepoints can be transformed in kind and moved in space, and this has allowed Georgians to contest this form of regional geopolitics.

摘要

阻塞点是以流量调节为中心的系统的基本要素。地球物理瓶颈，地形变窄的地点，在我所说的“血管地缘政治”或基于流通控制而非领土控制的地缘政治中发挥着关键作用。以位于高加索山脉下方连接俄罗斯和格鲁吉亚的罗基隧道为例，我展示了俄罗斯如何试图通过维持对隧道的控制，对南奥塞梯和格鲁吉亚本土的分离省份实施新殖民主义控制。然而，咽喉要道可以在本质上改变并在空间上移动，这使得格鲁吉亚人能够对这种形式的区域地缘政治提出质疑。