Theoretical Explanation of Ethnic Divergence in Political Geography

Ethnic divergence and investigation of its identity, spatial and political aspects is one of the central topics of geopolitical studies. Although different disciplines have addressed the fundamental applications of this cultural-geographical phenomenon, the ambiguities about the position of ethnic studies in geopolitics sometimes results in blurred expression of its epistemological domain with other scientific domains such as sociology, political science and international relations. In this regard, the aim of this paper is to present a framework and theoretical model for study of ethnic divergence in geopolitics. This is a descriptive-analytical study. The data were collected by library study. Results of this study show that if the ethno-nationalism is based on two bases i.e. bedrock (spatial-politics) and mechanisms, geopolitics will investigate the domain mainly focused on environmental elements (spatial-politics). This means that national, regional and global environments are the platforms that facilitate ethnic divergence. Therefore, it can be said that geopolitics addresses effective environmental bedrock contributing to formation of ethnic divergence which can play an important role in the emergence of and guiding of divergence mechanisms.