In an age of rampant globalisation the study of geopolitics assumes a crucial, and urgent, significance. While geopolitical considerations have always ruled imperial structures in the past, the present state of international politics, demands a renewed attention to the historical, economic, cultural and spiritual bases of the major empires of the European mainland. Western Europe, however, has been hampered in its natural development as the matrix of "western civilisation" by the severe calamities it suffered in the two world-wars. Steuckers' essays are of particular importance in emphasising the western European role in genuine cultural development within and outside Europe.