renounce the power struggle and deliberately choose impotence will cease to influence international relations either for evil or good." —from America's Strategy in World Politics "The facts of location do not change. The significant of such facts changes with every shift in the means of communication, in routes of communication, in the technique of war, and in the centers of world power, and the full meaning of a given location can be obtained only by considering the specific area in relations to two systems of reference: a geographic system of reference from which we derive the facts of location, and a historical system of reference by which we evaluate those facts." —from "Geography and Foreign Policy I", American Political Science Review, Vol XXXII, No. 1 (February 1938), p. 29. Works Books The Geography of the Peace, New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company (1944) America's Strategy in World Politics: The United States and the Balance of Power, New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company (1942) The Social Theory of Georg Simmel, Chicago, University of Chicago Press (c. 1925) Articles The Social Background of Asiatic Nationalism, The American Journal of Sociology 1926, issue 3 International Relations from the Point of View of Teaching, in: Proceedings of the Fourth Conference of Teachers of International Law and Related Subjects, Washington 1930 Methods of Approach to the Study of International Relations, in: Proceedings of the Fifth Conference of Teachers of International Law and Related Subjects, Washington 1933 States’ Rights and the League, The Yale Review 1934, issue 2 Geography and Foreign Policy, I, The American Political Science Review 1938, issue 1 Geography and Foreign Policy, II, The American Political Science Review 1938, issue 2 with A. A. Rollins, Geographic Objectives in Foreign Policy, I, The American Political Science Review 1939, issue 3 with A. A. Rollins, Geographic Objectives in Foreign Policy, II, The American Political Science Review 1939, issue 4 Frontiers, Security, and International Organization, Geographical Review 1942, issue 3 References Further reading Antero Holmila (2019) "Re-thinking Nicholas J. Spykman: from historical sociology to balance of power." The International History Review. Kaplan, Robert D. (2012) The Revenge of Geography: What the Maps Tell Us About the Coming Conflicts and the Battle Against Fate New York: Random House. External links "Spykman's World" at American Diplomacy Dutch emigrants to the United States Geopoliticians Military geographers Political realists 1893 births 1943 deaths 20th-century Dutch diplomats University of California alumni