What would you criticize about this article, if anything? It is too conspiratorially inclined or is it mostly correct? I have always been somewhat skeptical of the “heartland” theory, and i am wary when it comes to analyses by non-Marxists, especially when the focus is on individuals and shadowy groups rather than systems. Something here bothers me… but i can’t quite put my finger on it.
I agree about the “heartland” theory being silly, it seems too ad hoc and esoteric. I don’t see any materialist justification for it.
The funny thing about it is that despite a lot of Russian nationalists having picked up on it (because as you say it strokes their egos), it actually originated in the West and has been used by Western imperialists to form their agenda. I find that quite amusing.
As for Dugin, i think you’re spot on about his irrelevance and about comparing him to Jordan Peterson. I personally just can’t take anyone seriously who claims to have invented a “fourth political theory” when there isn’t even a third, despite what fascists like to claim. The simple fact is that there can only be two “political theories” because there are only two classes, the bourgeois and the proletarian. Fascism and liberalism are just different manifestations of the same bourgeois ideological framework.