Geopolitical thought of Saul Bernard Cohen: Between obsoletion and underutilization

At the time when geopolitics, after its half a century long downfal, is reemerging and returning to the focus of academic considerations, varaities of contemporary geopolitical thought is observed almost exclusively through the prism of two entrenched positions: classical and critical geopolitics. With such oversimplification, geopolitics may loose much, demanding observation, understandment and requestioning of thoughts by those authors that cannot be simply labeled as either classical or critical. In a desire to contribute to the overcoming of such oversimplifications, this paper observes the geopolitical though of Saul Bernard Cohen in the light of determining its contemporary relevance. Starting from the question whether his thoughts are obsolete or underutilized, the paper provides an overview of authors that influenced Cohen, observation of the evolution of his geopolitical thoughts through seven decade long career, and the conceptual matrix he developed. Labeling Cohen?s thought as a specific geopolitical approach, rather than a general theory, the paper identifies the limitations of his approach with which the discrepancy between the possibilities it provides and the lack of its usage in contemporary geopolitical literature are explained. Yet, this paper points to the existence of considerations within Cohen?s opus which can serve as the foundation for overcoming the limitations of his geopolitical approach, concluding that, because of such possibilities, Cohen?s geopolitical thought is to a greater extent underutilized then it is obsolete.