Cocktail Geopolitics and the Changing Nature of Governance

Governance is considered one of the most significant concepts in today’s society. Governance mechanism and its associated approaches vary across countries depending on their economic as well as political contexts and interests. Geopolitics represents political disposition of countries and regions across a geographic milieu. Although geopolitical variables are likely to influence governance approaches, few studies link geopolitics to governance. It is also becoming increasingly difficult to understand the intricate nature of constantly changing geopolitical variables, apparently creating a combined, cocktail-like effect on governance. This paper contributes to this understudied area by examining how geopolitical dimensions, such as power, place and demography, change over time while influencing a country’s governance mechanism and approaches. A framework to conceptualize the influence of geopolitical dimensions on governance and its shifting trend is presented to advance existing analyses and understanding of such a relationship pattern and encourage future research in this important yet seemingly neglected area.