UNIT 4: POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY
KEY CONCEPTS
A)
Territorial Dimensions of Politics
Students should understand that drawing connections between politics and geography
is not just knowing the location of current events. Instead, they should
understand the ways in which political-territorial arrangements reflect and
influence other aspects of geography. If individuals have any geographic image
of the world at all, it is likely to be an image of a world carved up into
independent countries, with perhaps some capital cities and a few major physical
features sprinkled in the midst. As a result, the world political map has a
certain taken-for-granted quality that provides an easily accessible frame of
reference for students, but that also makes it difficult for them to ask
questions about the political organization of space that go beyond knowing
where things are.
A
major goal of the political geography section is to establish a generalized
understanding of the nature and significance of the political organization of
territory in the contemporary world.
Students
should know:
1. The basic ways in which humans have divided the planet for purposes of
governance and control, as well as the implications of that division for such
fundamental matters as the development of ethno-national conflicts.
2.
The emergence of regional political-economic blocs, and the struggles to develop
coordinated responses to issues that extend beyond the borders of one state.
3.
How and why the political-territorial basis of the modern state system is
changing.
4.
That political geographic processes play out at a variety of scales, from local
to regional to national to supranational to global.
5.
What happens at one scale often influences what happens at other scales.
The
Concept of Territoriality
Human territoriality is the attempt to control what goes on in a specific geographical
area. There are various ways to control space that range from pure physical
force of an individual to organized sets of laws. Most geographers believe
that human territoriality differs from the territorial behavior observed in
other forms of life because human behavior is learned and animal behavior is
instinctive.
Nature
and Significance of Political Boundaries
Political boundaries exist at a variety of scales, and these boundaries
influence how goods and services are distributed, who gets represented and who
does not, and how issues are confronted.
Because
the boundaries that receive the most attention are boundaries between
independent countries, one might begin this discussion by considering the
historical and contemporary role of these boundaries and how they reflect the
distribution of other phenomena. Students can be introduced to the boundaries
identified in the classical political geography literature (antecedent,
geometrical, superimposed, etc,) and they can be encouraged to consider the
relationship of those political boundaries to social, economic, cultural, and
environmental boundaries. For example, one can see some relationships between
maps of precipitation patterns and maps of population density, or between maps
of population density and maps of particular types of economic activities.
But the world political map looks like no other thematic map.
Encourage
students to think about the ways in which political boundaries structure human
affairs and understandings. Political boundaries of significance exist both
'above' and 'below' the state. For 'above' the state, boundaries such
as the former Iron Curtain, the current boundary between NATO (North Atlantic
Treaty Organization) and non-NATO states, or the boundaries that have been drawn
through the world's oceans to demarcate zones of control. For 'below' the
state consider municipalities, voting districts, special districts, and
areas zoned for particular land uses. Focusing attention on smaller-scale
political-territorial units allows students to see how everything from the
delivery of services to the reach of certain laws is affected by the particular
configuration of political territories. Perhaps the most evocative example of
political territory at the local scale is that of the voting district, for it is
here that the significance of political boundaries for questions of
representation can be most clearly demonstrated. Examples of gerrymandering
should be used to highlight the importance of thinking about territory not
simply in locational terms, but as a dynamic force in human affairs.
Influences
of Boundaries on Identity, Interaction, and Exchange …
Borderlands
have often been the locale of major folk cultural achievements. A
line drawn in various ways, a border marks the place where adjacent
jurisdictions meet. This combined conjunction and separation of national laws
and customs creates a zone in which movements of people and goods are greatly
regulated, examined, discussed, and hidden. Commerce attains a higher importance
in border society as does dialogue about the identities of its peoples.
Smuggling, the myriad signs in border towns, legal and illegal immigration, and
the use of unneighborly names between neighbors are parts of this picture of
accentuated concern with the trade in goods and the flow of people.
The
border is an environment of opportunity. Individuals find work enforcing or
avoiding the laws that regulate movement. Companies use national differences in
labor and environmental regulations to pursue their advantage. Border society
thrives on difference, and people and institutions come there to exploit niches
in its environment.
Borders
are artifacts of history and are subject to change over time. When borders
shift, lands and peoples are subjected to different sets of rules; this creates
opportunities for exploitation, conditions of hardship, and motivations for
revolt.
An
approach to describing a society constructed by difference is necessarily
many-voiced. Rather than a central, authoritative perspective, we strive for a
de-centered point of view, one with many authoritative speakers. Of course, this
is more easily achieved in the Festival of American Folklife program, where
citizens of the border region speak and perform for themselves and their
communities. But even in this printed medium, through translation and
transcription, a variety of authorities are represented.
Border
society is an abstract concept compounded of ideas about the sovereignty of
nation-states, the intensification of commerce and social discourse, and
strategies of cultural representation. The U.S.-Mexico border can be understood
in those terms; and in this it is similar to borders like those between the
B)
Evolution of the Contemporary Political Pattern: Link
Internal
Political Boundaries and Arrangements
Students
should understand the different approaches to territorial governance involved in
federal and unitary systems. In addition they should consider of hierarchies
political-territorial organization, from municipalities and special districts,
to counties, states, and provinces, to the state itself. In each case, it is
important to go beyond the simple presence of political territories to consider
the ways the political organization of space influences the distribution of
power and opportunity. It is important to describe territorial arrangements that
may not fit within the usual hierarchy of political-territorial governance-such
as Indian Reservations in the
Electoral
maps should also be discussed and analyzed. Such maps are widely used not just
to show who has won and lost elections, but patterns of support for different
candidates and issues. These maps allow students to consider relationships among
political and cultural patterns. Discussion of formal political-territorial
arrangements, should include geographical influences on internal political
integration such as the impacts of the territorial shape (elongated, fragmented,
or prorupted forms) and geographical situation of countries (landlocked).
Students should understand that territorial shape and situation are but one of
many influences between geography and politics.
C)
Challenges to Inherited Political-Territorial Arrangements: The Changing
Nature of Sovereignty
The concept of sovereignty itself is being questioned, as developments at a
variety of different scales are undermining the state-territorial system. They
range from the expanding scope of multinational corporate activity to the
inability of some states to exert much control over the domestic economy in the
face of international debt payments and the need to sustain the production of
key cash crops for external consumption.
Fragmentation,
Unification,
Challenges
to the inherited political-territorial order do not simply come in spatially
ambiguous economic forms, however. There are concrete examples of fragmentation,
unification, and alliance that are altering the political geographic order. Most
obviously, the growth of increasingly powerful regional political-economic
blocs, including the Organization of African Unity, the Arab League, the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and the European Union (formerly
European Community). The EU is moving toward a time when it will supercede the
traditional sovereign powers of its member states. The EU represents a novel
form of political space in the international arena, with potentially
far-reaching consequences for the global political order.
The
EU has facilitated the development of cross-border cooperation regions that are
reshaping the spatial parameters of
Students
should be made aware of alternative forms of suprastate political-territorial
integration, and of the classic geopolitical doctrines discussed in the major
texts (Mackinder's Heartland theory). They should also know the contemporary
alliances that bring states together largely for geopolitical ends (e.g., the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization), as well as to regional geoeconomic
integration initiatives that are facilitating economic development. In addition,
students can be made aware of the role of global organizations such as the
United Nations in setting up regimes for peace keeping, human rights monitoring,
and management of the world's oceans. Students should become familiar with the
ways in which the international law of the seas treats coastal waters, Exclusive
Economic Zones, and the high seas, as well as the presence of (and reasons for)
jurisdictional conflicts in such high-profile cases as the South China Sea.
Sketching some of the better-known cases of intrastate ethno-nationalist
conflict promotes consideration of the status of the nation-state ideal today.
Spatial
Relationships Between Political Patterns and patterns of Ethnicity, Economy and
Environment
The division of the world into individual states impedes efforts to confront
environment problems such as the depletion of the ozone layer, the loss of
biodiversity, and global warming. This situation provides important insights
into the territorial dynamics of the state system and its limitations as a
decision-making framework. Effective action largely occurs where the economic
stakes are not high (e.g., the regulation of chlorofluorocarbons), but in other
areas, state interests continue to drive the regulatory process (e.g., the
strategy for dealing with carbon emissions under the
CHAPTER 14.
POLITICAL CULTURE AND THE EVOLVING STATE
CHAPTER
OUTLINE
I. Introduction
II. Political culture
A. Boundaries
1. Congressional districts to
international
2. Reflect political culture
B. Territoriality
1. Human territoriality
2. Key element of political
culture
3. Discussion of human
feelings toward state territory
III.
State and nation
A. Terminology
1. State and country are
interchangeable
2. States within a state
3. A nation may be larger than
a state
4. Many countries are states
but not nations
B. Stateless nations
1. Example of the Palestinian
Arabs
2. Example of the Kurds
C. Rise of the modern state
1. The European model
a)
The Norman invasion of 1066 produced a whole new political order
b)
On the European continent, the strength of some rulers produced national
cohesiveness in more stable domains
c)
Economic revival and Dark Ages were over
d)
Treaties signed at the end of the Thirty Years' War contained
fundamentals of statehood and nationhood
2. Power and primacy (in
a)
Mercantilism
b)
Religious wars
c)
During the mid-seventeenth century, instability ruled, and strife
occurred frequently
d)
City-based merchants, not the nobility, gained wealth
e)
As money and influence were concentrated in the cities, land as a measure
of affluence began to lose its relevance
IV. The nation-state
A. Became the world model
1. Some became democratic,
some autocratic, and some parliamentary democracies
2. Sovereignty rests with the
nation–the people
3. A modern state founded on
democratic principles
4. National territories were
clearly defined by boundaries
5. Focus
on: Defining the Model Nation-State
V. Geographic properties of states
A. Physical and cultural properties
1. States differ in as many
ways as they are similar
2. Vast differences in size
and population
3. The state is a complex
system
4. To succeed must foster a
sense of legitimacy
5. Spirit of nationhood is
very fragile
6. Boundaries often throw
together peoples of diverse cultures or divide peoples with cultural affinities
VI. Territory
A. No state can exist without it
1. Large states have a better
chance of having a wide range of environments and adequate natural resources
2. Territorial
morphology–size, shape, and relative location
3. Different territorial
characteristics can present opportunities and challenges
B. Shape
1. Compact –
2. Fragmented –
3. Elongated –
4. Prorupt –
5. Perforated –
C. Exclaves and
enclaves–defined and described:
D. Landlocked countries –
1. Face locational challenges
2. Political instability of
coastal neighbors can be a problem
VII.
Land boundaries of states
A. International boundaries
1. A vertical plane cutting
through the rocks below, and the airspace above
2. Arguments arise over coal,
oil, and gas reserves that lie across boundaries
3. Example of the oil dispute
between
4. Disputes arise over
airspace, and pollutants of one state crossing into another
B. The evolution of boundaries
1. Definition
2. Delimitation
3. Demarcation
4. Not all boundaries are
demarcated
C. Types of boundaries
1. Geometric boundary
2. Physical-political boundary
or natural-political boundary
3. Cultural-political boundary
D. Origin-based classification
1. Genetic boundary
classification established by Richard Hartshorne
2. Hartshorne reasoned that
certain boundaries were defined before present-day human
landscapes developed
a)
Antecedent boundary
b)
Subsequent boundary
c)
Superimposed boundary
d)
Relic boundary
E. Frontiers
1. The terms
"frontier" and "boundary" are not interchangeable
2. A frontier is a zone of
separation
3. Used before boundaries
separated countries
VIII.
Functions of boundaries
A. Introduction
1. Used to keep people from
moving across them
2. Today boundaries mark the
limit of state jurisdiction
3. Serve as state symbols of
sovereignty and foster nationalism
B. Internal boundaries
1. Needed for administrative
purposes, and sometime accommodate cultural regionalism
2. Examples:
3. Some culturally divided
countries have internal boundaries that do not show on a map
4. The former
C. Boundary disputes
1. Can take place for many
different reasons
2. Four principal forms of
boundary disputes
a)
Definitional
b)
Locational
c)
Operational
d)
Allocational
CHAPTER
15. STATE
ORGANIZATION AND NATIONAL POWER
CHAPTER
OUTLINE
I. Organization and population
A. Role of population numbers
1. Example
of
a) Annual economic
growth of 9 to 13 percent
b) People earn just a
tiny fraction per capita of what Americans earn
c) Population more than
1.2 billion and adding 13 million each year
d) Economy cannot keep
up with population growth
2. States
could acquire colonial empires because they were already economically successful
a) Allowed small states
to control human numbers far greater than their domestic
population
b) Colonial acquisitions
produced a multiplier effect
3. Over
half the world's states have populations below 5 million
4. Ministates
have fewer than 1 million citizens
5. There
is no "ideal" or model population size for a state
6. People's
capacities for organization are more important
B. Core areas
1. Play
an important role in a state's development
a) Includes the cities
and usually the capital
b) Densest population
cluster, and most intensive transport networks
c) National economy is
best developed, and often contains the most intensively
cultivated farmlands
d) Examples:
2. Some
states possess more than one core area
a)
b) The
C. Capital cities
1. The
brain of the state–source and symbol of power
2. Many
new developing countries spent lavishly on their capitals in imitation of the
European model
3. Many
newly independent countries moved their capitals
a) To be nearer the
geographic center of their state–called forward capitals
b) Examples:
4. Reunification
of
5. May
be a unifying force that can assert a state's posture internally and externally
D. Unitary and federal systems
1. The
needs of a well-functioning state
a) Clearly bounded
territory served by an adequate infrastructure
b) Effective
administrative framework, a productive core area, and a prominent capital
2. All
states confront divisive forces
3. Early
European nation-states were unitarian
a) Governments were
highly centralized and powerful
b) Capital cities
represented authority that stretched to the limits of the state
4. Federal
states arose in the
a) Newness of the
culture, and emergence of regionalism due to the vast size of
territories
b) Considerable power
was given to states and provinces
5. When
colonialism ended federalism seemed the answer for newly established countries
6.
7. European
states are reconstructing their administrative frameworks–France
E. Opposing forces
1. Centripetal
or binding forces that promote unity
a) Redivision of
b) Governments seek to
nurture nationalism by including minorities in government
c) Need for a
charismatic individual as leader to unite the people
d) Real or perceived
threats to a country can unite
e) Education from
institutions or the church
f) A national
ideology, examples: Nazism, Communism
g) Circulation–people
moving about the country diffusing national norms
2. Focus
on: Electoral Geography
3. Centrifugal
forces
a) States collapse when
they outweigh centripetal forces
b) Examples:
II. Power relationships
A. A state's power directly relates
to its capacity for organization
1. Ability
to use tangible and intangible resources to affect the behavior of other nations
2. States
can win concessions through economic strength
3. Dominant
colonial nations
a) Controlled because of
their economic, political, and military organization
b) The capacity to
install infrastructures for efficient profiteering
c) Evidence of these
economic systems remained after decolonization
B. Geopolitics
1. Ratzel's
organic theory
2. Geopolitics
became a subfield of political geography
3. Heartland
theory–Sir Halford Mackinder
a) Believed a land-based
power, not a sea power, would ultimately rule the world
b) His pivot area, later
he renamed it the heartland (Figure 26-5)
4. Nicholas
Spykman, a critic of Mackinder, argued that the Eurasian rim, not its heart,
held the key to global power
5. Spykman
coined the world "rimland," which is still used today
C. A multipolar world–again?
1. Ours
was a multipolar world until the end of the World War II
2. After
the end of World War II, a bipolar world emerged
3. Two
clear superpowers, the
4. Today
the
a)
b) We may be faced with
an unstable world with great potential for conflict
CHAPTER
16. MULTINATIONALISM
ON THE MAP
CHAPTER
OUTLINE
I. Supranationalism
A. The efforts of three
or more states to forge associations for common advantage and in pursuit of
common goals
1. Today, some 60
organizations exist
2. The more states
involved the less likely they are to act alone in selfish pursuits
B. International
sanctions
1. Can induce a
state to change its behavior
2. Examples:
C. From
1. Supranationalism
began with the forming of the
2. The League,
though unsuccessful itself, spawned other international organizations
3. The League laid
groundwork for maritime boundaries that helped decades later
II. The
United Nations
A. Representation of
countries has been more universal than that of the League (Figure 27-1)
1. Membership of
185 states in 1998
2. Has many
subsidiaries that are very productive
3. Member states
are committed to standards of behavior
B. Peacekeeping
operations
1. Individual
states have asked the UN to intervene in internal conflicts
2. Any UN army is
made up of soldiers from member states
3. Peace-keeping
operations are not always successful–Yugoslavia
4. In early 1998,
more than 70,000 peacekeeping forces served in many different countries
5. The UN
peacekeeping function provides major benefits to the international community
C. Unrepresented peoples
1. Created in
1991, the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO)
2. Applications
for membership in the UNPO came from all over the world
a) Cannot solve
the problems of stateless people itself
b) Gives the
people a platform from which to be heard
c) Has cleared up
misunderstandings and forestalled conflict
III
. The law of the sea
A. After long
negotiations the UN Convention on the law of the sea achieved a treaty in 1982
1. Debates on
national claims to adjacent waters are centuries old
2. Different
countries claimed different numbers of miles of territorial sea
B. The Truman
Proclamation
1. The
2. The
3. This focuses
attention on the potential of the continental shelves
4.
C. Widening maritime
claims
1. In 1947 Chili
and
2. Economic
motives have been the driving force behind maritime expansion
D. The UNCLOS process
1. UNCLOS I,
convened in 1958, was unsuccessful as was the second conference in 1960
2. UNCLOS III
began in 1973 and ended in 1982 with a successful treaty
3. Main provisions
of the treaty:
a) The territorial
sea–12 nautical miles
b) The exclusive
economic zone–200 to 350 nautical miles, depending on the extension
of the continental shelf
4. The
E. Median lines
1. The treaty has
generally been adopted in international relations
2. Figure 27-2
shows the effect of the 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)
3. When states are
closer together than 400 miles a median line is drawn between them
4. Some disputes
have arisen over resources under the sea
IV. Regional
multinational unions
A.
1. Have much in
common including economic complementarity
2. Reduced
divisiveness of their political boundaries
3. Encouraged
other European states to consider economic unions
B. Toward European union
1. Forming the
Organization of the
2.
3. The ECSC
through negotiations and agreement led to the formation of the EEC or
Common Market
4. Expansion
created the European Community (EC)
5. In 1992,
further expansion led to creation of the European Union (EU). See Figure 27-4.
6. The future of
European Supranationalism
a) A difficult
process causing painful adjustments in some states
b) Concern over
c) The EU is still
a patchwork of states
7. Expansion
a) Expansion
eastward may cause strains on the EU
b)
c) Wealthy states
are expected to help support new poorer members
d) Progress toward
supranational goals tends to be cyclic and flourishes when economic
times are good
C. Supranationalism
elsewhere
1. NAFTA–the
North American Free Trade Agreement
2.
3. South
America–Andean Group and Southern Cone Community Market
4. Economic
Community of West African States
5. Today, new
groups are forming in almost all parts of the world
D. Other forms of
Supranationalism
1. Often the
formation of one group spawns another
2. Paralleled by
formation of military alliances, which normally allow use of military bases by
member forces
3. Discussion of
NATO and its growth
3. Other
organizations are based on cultural objectives, some have political overtones
4.
Some organizations are political unions
CHAPTER 17.
THE CHANGING GLOBAL POLITICAL LANDSCAPE
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. Introduction
II. Forces of
devolution
A. The counterforce to
supranationalism
1. Today, many
states are afflicted by internal centrifugal forces
2. No
3. Even some the
world's oldest states are subject to devolution
B. Cultural forces
(Figure 35-1)
1. Time has failed
to submerge regionalism in the
a) Rising tide of
separatism in
b) Underscored the
cultural forces at work in many states
2. Spain–greater
autonomy desired by Basques and
3. Belgium–Flanders
and
4. Czechoslovakia–peacefully
divided into the
5. Discussion on
the break-up of
6. Sudan–Muslim
north and non-Muslim south
7.
C. Economic forces
1.
2. Discussion of
D. Spatial factors
1. Devolutionary
events occur on the margins of states
2. Many islands
are also subject to devolutionary forces
3. Discussion of
devolutionary forces in the
III.
Devolution of the
A. A former world power
1. Caused by the
explosion of centrifugal forces in an already weakened country
2. End of Soviet
domination in
3. Devolutionary
forces grew rapidly as the republics declared their independence
4. Each of the new
15 republics faced centrifugal forces from within
5. Old animosities
between ethnic groups surged to the surface
B. The Near-Abroad
1. Presence of
about 25 million Russians in former
2. Discussion of
3. Discussion of
how the Soviet planners created a doomed economic system and political framework
C. Devolution of
1. Internal
"republics" demanded more autonomy, more control over their own
resources and
facilities, and some wanted more territory
2. Cultural forces
gave rise to an anti-Russian rebellion in
3. The vastness of
the country makes it hard to control faraway republics
4. The new
IV.
The state in the new world order
A. States are vulnerable
to many destructive forces
1. The state's
weaknesses are underscored by growing power of regions, provinces, States, and
other internal entities
2. Powerful
provinces and their thriving urban cores engage in their own foreign commercial
policies
3. Economic
activities are being conducted on a global basis, making national boundaries
less important
4. Yet, states
maintain the armed forces and use them in the national interest
5. Majority of
supranational alliances bind together states within geographic realms, not among
them
6. The
7. A multipolar
world may rise again
B. Toward a
1. Globalization
a) Most commonly
seen as an economic phenomenon
b) States provide
territorial foundation from which producers and consumers still operate
c) Difficult for
states to control economic relations
d) State's
position being eroded by globalization of social and cultural relations
2. Notions of
democracy
a) Definition and
practice may vary
b) A global
democracy movement is under way
c) Some African
rulers see it as a one-party democracy
3. Growing
influence of religion
1. A global
phenomenon
2. Religious
fundamentalism appeals to societies where prospects for democracy are dim
3. There has
been a burst of Shiite fundamentalism
4. Return to
the basics among Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, and others
C. Redrawing the map
1. Factors
affecting the forming of a New World Order
a) Weaknesses of
the state systems
b) Antiquated
boundary framework
c) The flow of
weapons and diffusion of nuclear arms
d) Diffusion of
nuclear arms technology
2. Focus
on: The Domino Theory
3. The foregoing
underscores the risks should a New World Order come about by any
means other than consensus