Political Geography

1. Political Geography Sabiha Zaman

2. What is political geography? • It concerns: • why political spaces emerge in the places that they do • how the characteristics of those spaces affect social, political, economic, and environmental practices.

3. Sovereignty, States, and Nations • Sovereignty: • Internationally recognized control a place has over the people and territory within its boundaries • State: • Political unit with permanent population • Requires citizenship, territorial boundaries that are recognized by other states, sovereignty, effective government, and a working economy • Nation: • a group of people who share a common culture and identify as a cohesive group • Requires language, religion, shared history, and sometimes territory

4. Types of States and Nations • Nation-state • State with only one nation in its borders • Multinational state • Country that includes more than one nation within its borders • Stateless nation • When a nation does not have territory to call its own

5. Types of States and Nations Multinational State Stateless nation Nation state

6. Ethnonationalism • Ethnonationalism- identification or loyalty someone may feel to their nation • Often occurs when a minority nation within a state feels different from the rest of the state’s people • Irredentism- A movement by a nation to reunite its parts when they have spread across other borders • Example of ethnic conflict: • South Asia; India and Pakistan fighting over control of Kashmir

7. Boundaries • Geometric • Straight lines that serve as political boundaries; aren't related to physical or cultural differences • Physical • A political boundary that follows a feature of the natural environment • Cultural • A political boundary that follows some cultural border, such as religion or language • Frontier (not a boundary): • Area where boundaries are weakly developed, no state exercises complete political control

8. Creation of Boundaries • Antecedent boundaries: existed before human cultures developed into current forms • Subsequent boundaries: grew out of human interaction • Superimposed boundaries: forcibly put on the landscape • Relict boundaries: no longer used as boundaries • Steps to creating a boundary: • Definition: the exact location of a boundary is legally described and negotiated • Delimitation: the boundary’s definition is drawn onto a map • Demarcation: the visible marking of a boundary on the landscape (fence, wall, etc) • Administration: the enforcement by a government or people of the boundary that has been created

9. Shapes of States • Compact- the distance from the center to any boundary does not vary significantly • Capital at center and shortest boundaries to defend • Elongated- long and narrow shape • May have poor internal communications and transportation • Fragmented- includes several discontinuous pieces of territory • Separated by other states or by water • Perforated- a state that completely surrounds another one • Can cause tension between the perforated state and perforating state • Prorupted/protruded-compact state with large protruding extension • Can provide access to a resource • Protruding piece might be separated from core

10. Shapes of States Compact Elongated Protruding Perforated Fragmented

11. Unitary and Federal States • States are either of unitary or federal governments • Unitary-power is concentrated in the central government • Works best in nation-states with few cultural differences; strong sense of unity • Requires effective communications; more common in smaller states • Federal-power is in units of local government within the country • local governments that adopt their own laws • Can empower nationalities in multinational states • Suitable for larger states where capital is far away • United States, Russia, Canada, Brazil, India

12. Confederations, Enclaves, and Exclaves • Confederation • governmental structure that has a weak central government and majority power in regional governments • Enclave • a state or part of a state that is completely surrounded by another state • Exclave • land that is a political extension of another state

13. Colonization • Control of one state by another; the colonizing state has a more industrialized economy than the one it is taking over • First period of colonization • after Columbus discovered the western hemisphere in the 15th century • Second period of colonization • late 1800s, when the western European powers competed for Africa in order to appear more powerful and gain more resources/land for industrial economies • Mercantilism- economic system in which a state gets raw materials from its colonies to ship back to its mother country and use in making products for its country

14. Imperialism • Fueled by colonization • The process of establishing political, social, and economic dominance over a colonized area • Europeans imposed their culture on the people and landscapes • Dependence Theory • many countries are poor today because of their colonization by European powers • They were unable to recover from imperialism and are still dependent on the colonizers

15. Neocolonialism • Based on Dependence Theory • Continued economic dependence of new states on their former colonizers • Education, health care, roads, communication, etc were not set up in colonies to thrive on their own when colonizers left • New states had to turn back to colonizers and ask for loans to start their economies

16. Geopolitics • How states interact and compete in the political landscape • Organic Theory- FreidrichRatzel • States are living organisms that want land and grow larger through acquiring more nourishment in the form of land • Heartland Theory- Halford Mackinder • The era of sea power was ending and control over land was key to power • Control over Eurasia was the key to dominating the world • Domino Theory • Democratic allies must protect lands from falling into the Communists • Rimland Theory- Nicolas Spkyman • Built on Mackinder’s theory • Includes Western Europe, and Southeast, South, and East Asia in order to balance power in the rimland to prevent a global power from emerging

17. Political-Territorial Arrangements • Primate cities • A capital city that is not only the political nucleus but is also more economically powerful than any other city in the state • Gerrymandering • Redrawing electoral boundaries to give a political party an advantage • Illegal in 1985 • Three types of gerrymandering • Wasted vote • Opposition voters are spread across many districts • Excess vote • Opposition voters are concentrated into fewer districts • Stacked vote • Like-minded voters are linked together in oddly shaped boundaries

18. Centripetal and Centrifugal Forces • Centripetal- unifies a state’s people and regions • Unifying symbols, pledge of allegiance, strong identity based on cultural traits • Centrifugal- divides a state’s people and regions • Leads to Balkanization; the break down of a nation • Separation in regions, boundary conflicts, religions divisions • Devolution- transferring some power from the central government to regional governments

19. Supranationalism • Organization of three or more countries for cultural, economic, or military reasons. • Created so that states can collectively reach a common goal they may not be able to reach independently • International and regional organizations were made to prevent a third world war and to protect countries from a foreign attack • The United Nations (UN); established at the end of WWII • Has peacekeeping forces, usually involved in separating warring groups • Tries to maintain neutral

20. Regional and Military Alliances • Many states joined military regional alliances after WWII • Led to the era of two superpowers; U.S. and U.S.S.R., and the Cold War • Examples of regional alliances • Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) • Organization of American States (OAS) • Promotes social, cultural, political, and economic links among member states • Africa Union (AU) • Founded to end colonialism and apartheid in Africa • More emphasis on promoting economic integration in Africa

21. Economic Supranationalism • Integration of three or more states in order to achieve collective economic goals • European Union (EU)- 1958 • Main goal is to promote development within the member states through economic cooperation

22. Terrorism • The use of violence by a group in order to intimidate a population or coerce a government into granting its demands • Terrorist attacks against the US: • 1988: Pan Am Flight 103 • 1993: World Trade Center • 1995: Oklahoma City • 1996: Saudi Arabia • 1998: US Embassies • 2000: USS Cole • 2001: World Trade Center and Pentagon • Al Qaeda- Founded by Osama bin Laden in 1990 • Bin Laden was a Saudi billionaire • Around 20,000 members • Not a single unified organization • Located in 34 countries • Members are called “cells” • Responsible for most attacks in 1990s and 9/11

23. Geometric boundary Multinational state Compact Fragmented Unitary State Sovereignty Federal Terrorism Centrifugal Devolution Primate city Domino Theory Elongated Antecedent Gerrymandering Relict Exclave Superimposed Enclave Neocolonization Subsequent Heartland Theory Imperialism Nation Physical boundary Irredentism Centripetal