Is a geopolitics of nuclear deterrence possible? The very posing of this question raises the cardinal issue, faced by analysis. The answer must be sought, in the first instance, by setting aside the particular historic theories of geopolitics—of Mahan, Mackinder, Kjellen, Spykman or Gottman, as such—but in utilizing, nevertheless, the fundamental elements of their geopolitics as generic properties of international politics. The specific ways in which nuclear weapons have impacted actually upon their theories, and the geopolitical consequences they have for contemporary international politics can only take meaning from this prior disengagement of generic elements from their historical context. Otherwise, the technological gap that separates postwar nuclear politics from its non-nuclear antecedents would invalidate the question altogether.