Chapter 8
“Political Geography”
Political Geography or Geopolitics involves …
The term geopolitics also describes how nations
exert their influence over their own people and
over other nations in order to achieve greater
international power.
A nation's political stance is often dictated by
that countries geographical situation.
Most of the international news these days deals with
issues such as war, conflict, disputes, terrorism,
peacekeepers, and the involvement of international
organizations ie. UN, G8/G20.
Political Geography or Geopolitics involves examining
the political, environmental, social, and economic
interactions within and among countries. Studying the
geopolitics of an issue helps us to understand specific
world events.
Innovative communication technologies, high tech
weapons and surveillance devices, international
agreements and the emergence of globalization is
constantly changing the face of geopolitics.
These changing forces can shape foreign policy and
government decisions. Sometimes these forces can
lead to conflict within or between states as we have
seen in the last few years.
Sometimes these forces lead to extreme frustration
among people that feel they have to take things into
their own hands to achieve a certain goal. This
frustration can take the role of civil war, coup d'état
(overthrow of a government) or terrorism.
We begin by trying to clearly distinguish between a State, a Nation
and a Nation-State.
Define and give examples of countries:
• Nation
• State
• Nation State
•Multi-nation State
•Multi-state Nation
• Ethno-Nationalism
• Regional Autonomy
• Irredentism
• Diaspora
• Unitary State
• Federal State
• Nationalism
• Patrotism
• Homeland
• SupraNationalism
• Devolution
A. Multi-State Nation: Eg. Palestinians have no
nation. They are spread over Israel, Jordan and
Syria.
B. Nation State: Eg. Iceland is a country entirely
comprised of Icelanders.
C. Multi-Nation State: Eg. Belgium is made up of
Flemings (north) and Walloons (south). Canada
can also be considered a Multi-Nation State.
D. Albanians live in Albania, but a number of
Albanians also live in a new state called
Kosovo (recently part of Serbia)
E. Most of Hungarians live in Hungary, but there is
a group that lives in the middle of Romania.
F. Multi-Nation State: Eg. Russia has over 100
different nationalities. The USSR ceased to
exist in part because a lot of these nationalities
wanted their own country.
G. Eg. The majority of people in France are
French but there are two small groups the
Bretons and Basques.
H. Eg. There are two German states; Germany
and Austria but 70% of Switzerland is German
speaking.
How Boundaries are made:
1. Definition - Identify the boundary
- Physical Barrier – mountains, rivers etc.
- Religious, Language, Ethnicity, Historical event
- War
2. Delimitation – Survey the boundary
- Bordering countries have to agree
3. Demarcation – Build an actual marker – start drawing it on
a map
- Fences, Flags, Pillars etc.
4. Neighbouring countries have to agree and accept the new
boundary
5. Global Community (eg. UN) has to recognize it.
6. Administration Defending – Border guards
- Begin administering the area – impose rules and laws
What is the difference between a boundary and a
frontier? What is a DMZ?
There are 6 types of boundaries that can establish a
state:
•Mountain –
•Desert –
•Water –
•Geometric –
•Religious –
•Language –
What is a landlocked country? What is a Frontier?
Once boundaries have been incorporated –
they are 5 shapes that countries can have:
•
•
•
•
•
Compact
Prorupted
Elongated
Fragmented
Perforated
See the next slide for examples.
You can even classify how history plays a role in describing
the boundaries in the following way:
Antecedent – The boundary was set up before a settlement –
Land was surveyed first. Ontario and it’s Concession System.
Subsequent – The boundary was set up after the settlement
established itself. Most of the borders in the world were
established after the fact so to speak.
Superimposed – Another country puts down the boundary.
Colonial powers. Most of Africa was done this way – this is
one of the reasons why Africa has issues
Relict - Boundaries that are no longer there, but still exist in a
cultural sense. French Canada is somewhat like this.
Ever heard of the game called Risk. Geopolitics
sometimes refers to how countries, especially
world powers are concerned about what other
countries are doing in the sense of political
ideology and the allies they keep.
Countries will strategically align themselves with
others so that they can have influence on other
countries.
There are a number of theories (they are old now),
that try and explain why countries do what they do
in terms of allies, enemies, trade, embargoes,
expansion, influence and conflict.
Heartland Theory - Halford Mackinder (1861-1947)
• Eurasia (Europe and Asia) is considered the World Island
-…
•…
•…
•…
Heartland Theory
The Heartland Theory
•…
•…
•…
•…
•…
Rimland Theory - Nicholas Spykman (1894-1943)
• Eurasia was the key to world domination, but the coastal
regions were more important than the interior (heartland)
•…
•…
•…
Rimland Theory
Rimland Theory
Domino Theory - Containment
The USA believed that countries and their adjacent
neighbours are lined up like dominoes and if one fell to
communism the others would follow.
If a country would convert over to communism, the US
would quickly move into adjacent countries and make sure
that they would not change. That is why the US has
intervened in Vietnam, Korea, Central America, The Balkans
and now the Middle East. By the way if you look at Iraq - it is
in the center of the Middle East - the heartland of the middle
east. Maybe that is why the US moved into Iraq - not just the
oil.
Also to maintain the Balance of Power.
This is interesting stuff!
What is Ethnic Cleansing?
Proceed to view the maps……..
Kosovo went
Independent
in 2008
Let’s discuss the following terms from your chapter reading:
•Nationalism/Ethno-Nationalism
•Patriotism
•Supra-Nationalism
•Annexation, Separation, Succession
•Sovereignty
•Regional Autonomy
•Microstate
•Irredentism
•Imperialism/Colonialism
•Diaspora
•Balance of Power
•Unitary State
•Federal State
•Centripetal Force
•Centrifugal Force – Devolution
•Balkanization
•Gerrymandering
Red – words not defined earlier
Terrorism: Systematic use of violence by a group in
order to intimidate a population or coerce a government
into granting its demands. State Terrorism is where the
actual government resorts to terrifying their own citizens.
First Wave - Anarchist - …
Second Wave - …
Third Wave - …
Fourth Wave - …
Read “History of Terrorism’
Environmental scarcity is a scarcity of renewable natural
resources that, if not addressed by technological, social, or
economic means, may cause social disruption or violent
conflict
Thomas Homer-Dixon has identified three main types of
environmental scarcity:
Demand-induced: due to population growth or
increasing per capita consumption
Supply-induced: due to degradation or depletion of
natural resources
Structural scarcity: due to an unbalanced distribution of
resources that affects less powerful groups in society
Vocabulary List
Unit IV. Political Organization of Space—Basic Vocabulary
and Concepts
Annexation
Antarctica
Apartheid
Balkanization
Border landscape
Boundary, disputes (definitional, locational, operational,
allocational)
Boundary, origin (antecedent, subsequent, superimposed,
relic)
Boundary, process (definition, delimitation, demarcation)
Boundary, type (natural/physical, ethnographic/cultural,
geometric)
Buffer state
Capital
Centrifugal
Centripetal
City-state
Colonialism
Confederation
Conference of Berlin
(1884)
Core/periphery
Decolonization
Devolution
Domino theory
EEZ (Exclusive Economic
Zone)
Electoral regions
Enclave/exclave
Ethnic conflict
European Union
Federal
Forward capital
Frontier
Geopolitics
Gerrymander
Global commons
Heartland/rimland
Immigrant states
International
organization
Iron Curtain
Irredentism
Israel/Palestine
Landlocked
Law of the Sea
Lebanon
Mackinder, Halford J.
Manifest destiny
Median-line principle
Microstate
Ministate
Nation
National
iconography
Nation-state
Nunavut
Raison d’être
Reapportionment
Regionalism
Religious conflict
Reunification
Satellite state
Self-determination
Shatterbelt
Sovereignty
State
Stateless ethnic groups
Stateless nation
Suffrage
Supranationalism
Territorial disputes
Territorial morphology (compact,
fragmented, elongated, prorupt, perforated)
Territoriality
Theocracy
Treaty ports
UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the
Law of the Sea)
Unitary
USSR collapse
Women’s enfranchisement
The End