The actual balance of political power at any given time is the
product, on the one hand, of geographical conditions, both
economic and strategic, and, on the other hand, of the relative
number, virility, equipment and organization of the competing
peoples. Mackinders pivot paper caused one member of the Royal
Geographical Society to look with regret on some of the space
which is unoccupied here. Unfortunately, as W. H. Parker has
pointed out, in the English-speaking world Mackinders paper lay
forgotten . . . for thirty-five years. It was only during and
after the Second World War that Englishmen and Americans began
to appreciate the wisdom and prescience of Mackinders pivot
paper and his 1919 masterpiece, Democratic Ideals and Reality. A
few months before he delivered the pivot paper to the Royal
Geographical Society, Mackinder was appointed the director of
the London School of Economics, a post that he held until 1908.
In 1910 he was elected to the House of Commons, where he served
until 1922. In 1919, as ci