Rudolf Kjellén

Rudolf Kjellén (1864–1922) was a Swedish political scientist and professor at Uppsala University, best known for coining the term 'geopolitics' in 1899. His influential work, 'The State as a Form of Life' (1916), explored the relationship between geography and state power, proposing that states exist in a hierarchical system where their actions are influenced by their geographical context. Kjellén's ideas laid the groundwork for later geopolitical theories, though his original concepts were overshadowed by negative associations with geopolitics after World War II.