POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY
Political Geography

Geographic concepts helps
us to understand the
changing political
organization of Earth’s
surface


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Can use geographic
methods to examine the
causes of political change
and instability and to
anticipate potential trouble
spots throughout the world
When looking at earth, it’s
easy to distinguish places
What we cannot see are
boundaries
One of Earth’s most
fundamental cultural
characteristics is the division
of our planet’s surface into a
collection of spaces occupied
by individual countries
Political Geography

Study of human political
organization of the Earth
at various levels

Studied at three scales
• Supranational scale

Ex. United Nations
• Country/nation scale

How government is
organized
• Sub-national (local) scale

Boundaries for voting
districts

Political geographers
also study the changing
role of the country in the
world’s political affairs

Geopolitics
• The state’s power to control
space or territory and shape
international political
relations
Political Geography

Today Globalization means
more connections among
states
 Individual countries have
transferred military,
economic, and political
authority to regional and
worldwide collections of
states
 Power is exercised through
connections among states
created primarily for
economic cooperation
Human Territoriality


Territoriality is creating
ownership over a defined
space
Territoriality can apply to
your bedroom or an entire
country

Often evokes emotional
response
• Ex. Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait
triggered the Gulf War
• Ex. Germany’s invasion of
Poland triggered WWII

Personal Space


Territoriality can also be
applied to personal space
Personal space is the area we
claim as our own territory into
which others may not enter
without our permission
• How much is personal varies
Sovereignty

Definition:

Internationally recognized
control a place has over
the people and territory
within its boundaries
• Nearly 200 countries on
earth with sovereignty
• Disputes


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Sovereignty of Taiwan
Sovereignty of Kurdistan
Sovereignty of Kosovo
Oceans
States and Nations

State refers to:


Arguably most powerful
institution in globalization
To be a state:
• Political unit with permanent
population

citizenship
• Territorial boundaries that
are recognized by other
states
• Effective government
• Working economy
• Sovereignty

Nation refers to:

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a group of people who
share a common culture
and identity as a cohesive
group
Needed:
 Language
 Religion
 Shared history
 Territory (not always)

Example: Jewish nation
Multinational States vs. Nation-States

Multinational state

Country that includes more
than one nation within its
borders
• Ex. Soviet Union

Nation-state

State with only one nation in its
borders
• Ex. Japan, Iceland

Stateless nation

When a nation does not have
territory to call its own
• Assyrian Christians of Iraq
• Kurds of Iraq, Turkey, Iran
• Ughirs of Western China
History of Nation-State Concept
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Humans have organized political
space in different forms throughout
their existence
Early humans organized into clans
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Political space revolved around a
central city and surrounding farmland
After fall of Roman Empire,
Western Europe was divided into a
feudal structure

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Mainly based on religion
Eventually faded, strong monarchies
emerged
Stronger monarchies led to
more internal cohesion and
rise of nation-states

When conquered became
kingdoms and empires
Ancient Greeks and Romans
created city-states
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Pattern diffused throughout
Europe
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More cohesive group of people
linked to their territory through
a shared government and
common goals
Goal of WWII
Idea of linking people who
share strong send of unity a
way to prevent ethnonational
violence
Ethnonationalism and Conflict

Definition

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A powerful emotion attachment
to one’s nation that occurs
when a minority nation within a
state feels different from the
rest of the state’s people
When a minority feels that
they do not have enough
self-determination, or the
power to control their own
territory and destiny,
ethnonationalism can lead to
conflict

Example
• The Chechen people
comprise a minority nation
that live in Russia and have
a strong sense of
ethnonationalism that has
led to violent conflict with
the Russian government.
Ethnonationalism and Conflict

Irredentism

Members of a nation do
not always live in just one
place
• The Serbs are a nation, but
they exist in several countries,
not just the land that is
considered Serbia

Conflict can arise when a
nation’s homeland is
spread into the territory of
another state or several
states

Definition
• A movement by a nation to
reunite its parts when they
have spread across other
borders

Ex. Irredentism occurred
when Hitler believed that
the German nation had
spread into
Czechoslovakian territory,
he wanted to take control
of that land to reunite
Germans into one state
Examples of Ethnonational Conflict
Place
Conflicting Parties
Reason
South Asia
India and Pakistan
Two parties are fighting over
control of Kashmir
Palestine,
Southwest
Asia
Jewish Israelis vs Muslim
The stateless nation of
Palestinians and Arab allies Muslim Palestinians and
their Arab allies are warring
against the Jewishcontrolled state of Israel for
autonomy
Southeast
Asia
Mainland China and Taiwan Taiwan founded in the
1940s. China does not
recognize Taiwan as a
sovereign state
Former
Yugoslavia
Serbs vs all the other
nationalities that were once
part of “Yugoslavia”
In the 1990s different
nations in the multinational
state of Yugoslavia warred to
break away from the Serbdominated government in
Belgrade.
Russia
Russia vs Chechnya
Chechnya is a state in the
Russian republic, governed
by Moscow.
Ethnonationalism and Conflict
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Buffer States and Zones

A buffer state is an independent
country located between two
larger countries that are in conflict
• Russia and China have warred
over boundaries for centuries, but
Mongolia, a buffer, has helped
reduce direct confrontation
between the two states
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Satellite States

Countries controlled by another,
more powerful state
• During the Cold War, the Soviet Union
worked to dominate the Eastern
European buffer zone and install
Communist satellite states there

Called the “Iron Curtain”

Shatterbelts

State or group of states that
exists within a sphere of
competition between larger
states and is often culturally,
economically, and politically
fragmented and splintered
• Eastern Europe

Existed as a sphere of
competition between U.S.S.R.
and western powers
Types of Boundaries

Three types of boundaries
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Geometric
Physical
Cultural
Best boundaries are those to
which all affected states
agree, regardless of the
rationale used to draw the
line
Geometric

Straight-line boundaries that do
not related to the cultural or
physical features of the
territories involved
 Ex. North/South Korea 38th
parallel

Physical (or natural)

Separate territories according
to natural features in the
landscape, such as mountains,
deserts, or rivers
 Ex. France and Spain are
divided by the Pyrenees
Types of Boundaries

Cultural Boundaries


Mark changes in the
cultural landscape, such
as boundaries that divide
territories according to
religion or language
Sometimes drawn
according to geometric
straight lines

Religious
• Only a few cases where
religion has been used to
select the actual boundary
line
• Example:


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South Asia, partition of
India and Pakistan
Ireland and North Ireland
Language
• Europe best example
• Idea spread during 20th
century

Versailles Conference
Cyprus “Green Line” Boundary

Contains two nationalities

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Turkish= north, eastern
• 18% of population

Greek= south
Series of Coups led to
Turkish section declaring
itself independent in 1983

• 78% of population

Cyprus gained independence
in 1960


Constitution guaranteed Turkish
minority rights
Cyprus never peacefully
integrated the Greek and Turkish
nationalities

no one except Turkey
recognizes independence
Wall constructed between
two areas

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Buffer zone patrolled by UN
Accepted to EU in 2004
Frontiers

Frontier:

Tangible geographic area
whereas a boundary is a
infinitely thin, invisible,
imaginary line

A frontier area is uninhabited
or sparsely settled by a few
isolated pioneers

19th Century (1800s)
Region where no state
exercises complete and
political control or boundaries
are weakly developed
 Antarctica
 Saudi Arabia and Yemen

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Frontier provides an area of
separation but a boundary
brings two neighbors into direct
contact

Vast amounts of frontiers
•
•
•
•
Australia
American West
Canadian North
Sub-Saharan Africa
Boundary Evolution
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Evolution

Another way to classify
boundaries depends not on
how they were created, but
how they evolved over time
• Antecedent boundaries
 Existed before humans
cultures developed into
current forms
• Subsequent boundaries
 Grow to divide space as
result of human interaction
• Superimposed boundaries

Boundary Creation

Several steps on the growth of
boundaries into final form
• Definition

• Delimitation

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Forcibly put on the landscape
No longer functions has a
boundary
Is the step when the boundary’s
definition is drawn onto a map
• Demarcation
• Relict boundary

Phase in which the exact location
of a boundary is legally described
and negotiated
• De Jure
• De Facto
Is the visible marking of a
boundary on the landscape with a
fence, line, sign, wall, or other
means
• Administration

Is the enforcement by a
government or people of the
boundary that has been created
Boundary disputes

Conflicts over boundaries are
divided into different categories

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Type of Disputes

Definitional disputes
• Fight over the language of border
agreement in a treaty or contract
Can include mix of categories


Japan and Russia
Locational disputes
• Occur when conflicting parties
agree on the definition but not on
where the boundary exists on a
map

Operational disputes
• Conflicts over the way a boundary
should operation or function

Allocational boundary disputes
• Fights over resources that may by
Territorial Morphology

Territorial Morphology

Relationship between a state’s
geographic shape, size, relative
location, and it’s political
situation

5 basic shapes
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Shape of states
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Controls the length of its
boundaries with other states
 Shape affects potential for
communication and conflict with
neighbors
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Shape is part of its identity
Shape can determine the
difficulty or ease of internal
administration and social unity
Compact
Elongated
Prorupted
Perforated
Fragmented
Compact States

Definition:

the distance from the center to
any boundary does not vary
significantly
• Theoretically would be shaped
in a circle or square
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Capital at center and shortest
boundaries to defend
Often the political ideal
Compactness is a beneficial
characteristic for most smaller
states
• Good for communications
• Does not necessarily means
peace
Elongated States
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Definition:
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Problems:
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states with long and narrow
shape
May suffer from poor internal
communications and
transporation
Region at north or south end
may be isolated
Capital may lose influence over
one end of the elongation
Examples:

Chile, Malawi, Italy, Gambia
Prorupted States

Definition:

Also called protruded
• compact state with large protruding
extension

Proruptions created for two
reasons
• Can provide access to a
resource
• Separate two states that would
otherwise share a boundary

Problems

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Protruding piece might be
separated from core
Examples:

Congo, Namibia, Afghanistan,
Thailand
Perforated States

Definition:

A state that completely
surrounds another one
• “has a hole punched out”

Problems

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Relationship between the
perforated state and perforating
state can cause tension
Example

South Africa
• Completely surrounds state of
Lesotho

Depends entirely on South
Africa for import and export of
goods
Fragmented States

Definition:

includes several discontinuous
pieces of territory
• Most extreme example

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Problems

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Indonesia
Maintaining unity
Two kinds of fragmented states
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Those with areas separated by
water
• Tanzania, Indonesia
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Those separated by an
intervening state
• Angola, Russia, Panama, India
Panama

Was an example of a
fragmented state until
US signed a treaty with
Panama turning over the
canal zone to the
country of Panama
Landlocked States
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Lacks a direct route to the
sea because it is completely
surrounded by several other
countries
Most common in Africa
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
14 countries landlocked
Remnant of colonial era
• Built railroads, but now they
run through several
independent countries

Direct access to ocean is
critical for trading

Must use another country’s
seaport
Internal Political Organization of States

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A state’s size and cultural
composition are also factors
in its political situation and
internal organization
States are smaller in
geographic size and
population may be more
politically unified, but not
always

Microstate is a very small state
• Such as Singapore

Often have a unitary
government structure

The governments of states
are organized according to
one of two approaches

Unitary state
 Power is concentrated in the
central government

Federal state
 Allocates strong power to units
of local government within the
country
Unitary vs. Federal

Unitary state

Works best in nation-states
with few cultural differences

Federal state

 Strong sense of unity

 Can empower nationalities in
multinational states
 Different names
Requires effective
communications

 Smaller states more likely to
adopt it
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Common in Europe
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Kenya, Rwanda
States, provinces, estados
Suitable for larger states
 United States, Russia,
Canada, Brazil, India
 Where capital is far away
Some multinational states have
adopted it
 Can impose value of
nationality
Federal states have local
governments that adopt their
own laws

Size doesn’t matter though
• Belgium= federal
• China= unitary
Confederation Structure

Definition


Structure in which a weak
central government exists with
regional governments holding
the majority of power
Or a group of states united for
a common purpose
• Articles of Confederation was the
first document binding together the
13 American colonies
• Confederacy during Civil War
Trend toward Federal Government

In recent years there has
been a strong global trend
toward Federal government.

France

Good example of nation-state

Poland

 Long tradition of Unitary
government

Switched from Unitary to
Federal government after fall of
Communist rule
 Lack of local government led to
breakdown of infrastructure
Recently giving more authority
to departments and communes


1999 adopted a three-tier
system of local government
Transition difficult
 Lack of experience
 Thousands of positions
Political Enclaves and Exclaves

Enclaves

Territorial enclave is a state, or
part of a state, surrounded
completely by another state
• Lesotho is an enclave
surrounded by South Africa
• West Berlin was an enclave
within the state of East
Germany

Exclaves

When an enclave is land that is
a political extension of another
state, then it is called an
exclave
• Alaska is an exclave of the
United States because it is cut
off from the rest of the country
by Canada