POLITICAL
GEOGRAPHY
Interaction
of politics
and place
• A subfield within the human branch of geography.
• The study of the interaction of geographical area and
political process.
• It is the formal study of territoriality.
U.S.Canada
boundary
AlbertaMontana
U.S.Mexico
boundary
Calexico, CaliforniaMexicali, Mexico
Politics of Geography
Effect of place on politics
and effect of politics on place
Example:
Making political boundaries
Politics on place
Place on politics
Political Geography
• Economics supposedly eroding
significance of national borders.
• However, many ethnic
minorities feel they deserve
states of their own.
• States under attack from above
(global economics) and from
below (ethnic communities).
• Yet states are still powerful, and
can respond.
STATE
• A politically organized territory
• Administered by a sovereign government
• Recognized by a significant portion of the
international community.
A state must also contain:
– a permanent resident population
– an organized economy
NATION - STATE
• A country whose population
possesses a substantial
degree of cultural
homogeneity and unity.
• Stems from European
Renaissance idea
(Rousseau) of the “social
contract” as highest moral
order.
• Imposed on much of the
world by the West.
Classic Example of
a Nation-State:
Japan
Multi-ethnic States
Every U.S. citizen = American nationality
Every American = belongs to a “race” (though
this has no scientific meaning)
Some Americans = identified with ethnicity
Geographic Characteristics
of States
• SIZE
– What role does size play in the economy of a
state? In government services? In nationalism
and patriotism?
– Does shape have any effect?
– What are the most powerful nations on earth
today?
– What were the most powerful nations on earth
200 years ago?
Geographic Characteristics of States
Shape
•
•
Compact - smaller states, especially if they are simply shaped.
Prorupt are nearly compact but possess one or sometimes two narrow
extensions of territory.
•
•
•
Elongated – thin, narrow, long shapes.
Fragmented – islands or other fragments.
Perforated – “holes” cut into the state.
On the next slide, match the
term to the State.
Shape
•
•
•
•
•
Compact
Prorupt
Elongated
Fragmented
Perforated
African
colonies
Decolonization, 1940s-1990s
Types of territoriality
State
Ethnic
Religious
Racial
Fears of
“Balkanization”
(splitting state)
But common
defiance of
outsiders
Kurds – “Nation Without a State”
Ethnic group in
Turkey, Iraq,
Iran, Syria.
Many Kurds
want to create a
state of
“Kurdistan”
States pit Kurds
against each other.
Iraq
Ethnic:
Arabs vs.
Kurds
Religion:
Sunnis vs.
Shi’as
Rulers were
Sunni Arab
Armenia-Azerbaijan
War, 1988-94
ARMENIA (Christian) vs.
AZERBAIJAN (Shi’a Muslim)
Yet Shi’a Iran stayed neutral,
fearing ethnic Azeris in NW Iran
(Ethnic territoriality won)
Armenian (above)
and Azeri views
Kashmir conflict
KASHMIR
(CHINA)
PAKISTAN
CHINA
INDIA
INDIA (Hindu) vs.
PAKISTAN (Muslim)
British India partitioned
into two states, 1948.
Kashmir had Muslim
majority but Hindu ruler.
Indian and
Pakistani
propaganda
maps
Wars split Kashmir
between India,
Pakistan, and China
(all now have nukes)
GEOPOLITICS - State’s power to control
territory, shape international policy
and other states’ foreign policy.
Cold War propaganda map: “Red menace”
Growth of Russian Empire
Enlargement of
Soviet bloc after
World War II
Berlin
Wall,
1961-89
NATO and Warsaw Pact, 1945-89
View of Communist “Red Bloc” during Cold War
Lumping failed to recognize
differences among Communists,
or local causes of conflict
Terrorism, Al-Qaeda, and
“The Axis of Evil”
• President G.W. Bush used this phrase in 2002 to describe
Iraq, Iran, and North Korea (formerly called “rogue
states”) to suggest that post 9-11 geopolitics is best
understood as capitalist democracies versus dictatorships
and the terrorists they sponsor.
• PBS NewsHour discussion of the speech.
How Many Americans View the World
Cartoon:
Bush’s View
of the World?
Problem:
some former
allies later
seen as “evil”
United Nations Member States (191)
Switzerland 2002
European
Union
Began as
European
Economic
Community
(EEC), 1957.
Stronger in 1994
10 new members
joined, 2004
Turkey, Greece,
Romania,
Bulgaria want to
join.
Levels of
administrative
regions
ELECTORAL GEOGRAPHY
Political Geography of Elections
Variation of voting districts
and voting patterns
U.S.
congressional
delegation
redistricting
Reapportionment :
allocating seats to
a geographic area
(after every census)
“Gerrymandering”
Redistricting for
partisan purposes
1860 Presidential Vote
Led to Southern secession, Civil War
1996 Presidential Vote
Congressional reapportionment
2004 Presidential Vote
2004 Presidential Vote
2004 Presidential Vote
Davis (D)
Simon (R)
Camejo (G)
Copeland (L)
48%
42%
5%
2%
I
205
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