Rudolf Kjellén

Johan Rudolf Kjellén (Swedish: [ɕɛlleːn], 13 June 1864, Torsö – 14 November 1922, Uppsala) was a Swedish political scientist and politician who first coined the term "geopolitics". His work was influenced by Friedrich Ratzel. Along with Alexander von Humboldt, Karl Ritter, and Ratzel, Kjellén would lay the foundations for the German Geopolitik that would later be espoused prominently by General Karl Haushofer.

Kjellén completed gymnasium in Skara in 1880 and matriculated at Uppsala University the same year. He completed his Ph.D. in Uppsala in 1891 and was a docent there from 1890 to 1893. He also taught at Gothenburg University from 1891 and was professor of political sciences and statistics there from 1901 until he received the prestigious Skyttean professorship of Eloquence and Government in Uppsala in 1916.

A conservative politician, he was a member of the Second Chamber of the Parliament of Sweden from 1905 to 1908 and of its First Chamber from 1911 to 1917.

Kjellén was Ratzel’s student and would further elaborate on organic state theory, coining the term "geopolitics" in the process.

The basics of his ideas were presented in 1900 in the book Introduction to Swedish Geography, based on his lectures at Gothenburg University. Kjellén's The State as a Living Form, published in 1916, is generally regarded as his most important book on geopolitics. It outlines five key concepts that would shape German geopolitik:

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