The stray ways of geopolitics. Rudolf Kjellén’s posthumous world-wide reputation.The text is an overview and analysis of how Kjellén’s concept of geopolitics has beeninterpreted and valued. After his death in 1922, Kjellén’s repute grew in Germanythrough the translations of his The State as a form of life and the last version ofThe Great Powers with Karl Haushofer’s revisions using Kjellén’s name. With theNazi take-over Kjellén’s legacy waned but was kept alive by geographers in Estonia,Denmark and Switzerland.After World War II, two scholars, Grabowsky and Kristof, both in 1960, publishedreviews of Kjellén’s work, explaining his world view and freeing him from allegationsof being a proto-Nazi. In Scandinavia and Finland his ideas were only occasionallymentioned.With the resurgence of geopolitics, Kjellén has been cited and evaluated indiverse ways. In Russia, Central Europe and Latin America Kjellén has for better orfor worse been mentioned as giving the state a wider role beyond its constitution,including that of performing geopolitics. In the English-speaking world Kjellén has,with some remarkable exceptions, only been given a short reference as the creatorof the concept of geopolitics, often misinterpreted as something fundamentallyaggressive, territorial states fighting for power.