Nelson Brown Frank Popieski Natascha Stafford (R.I.P) Meredith Nacke

 Subdivision of human geography  Focused on the nature and implications of the evolving spatial organization of political governance and formal political practice on the Earth’s surface.  Affects social, political, economic, and environmental understanding and practices.

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 State is a politically organized territory with a permanent population, a defined territory, and a government.  Nation is a culturally defined term, and few people agree on exactly what it means.  A nation-state is a politically organized area in which nation and state occupy the same space.

 A multinational state is a state with more than one nation inside its borders.  Ex: Former state of Yugoslavia  A multistate nation is a nation that stretches across borders and across states.  Ex: The states of Romania and Hungary and their overlapping nations.  A stateless nation is a nation that does not have a state.  Ex: The Palestinians

 The World economy has one market and a global division of labor.  Although the world has multiple states, almost everything takes place within the context of the world economy.  The world economy has a three-tier structure.

 Core : incorporate higher levels of education, higher salaries, and more technology—core processes generate more wealth in the world economy.  Ex: USA, England, Germany  Periphery : incorporate lower levels of education, lower salaries and less technology—peripheral processes generate less wealth in the world economy.  Ex: Sudan, Iraq, Haiti  Semi-periphery : places—places where core and periphery processes are both occurring—places that are exploited by the core but in turn exploit the periphery.  Ex: Mexico, Russia, Brazil

 Economic Power-one’s wealth.  Political Power-the ability to influence others to achieve your goals.  Not the same but economic power can bring political power.  A wealthy country can establish a mighty military, but political power not simply militaristic, it is also diplomatic.  Ex: Switzerland

 Forces within a state that unify people are centripetal and forces that divide them are centrifugal.  Common forms of government-  Unitary- highly centralized governments  Federal- organizing state territory into regions, substates (states), or provinces.  Devolution is the movement of power from the central government to regional governments within the state

 Boundary- vertical line between states, below and above ground.  Establishing Boundaries  Types of Boundaries  Geometric- based on longitude and latitude  Physical political boundaries- based on physical features

 Definitional- legal boundary agreement.  Ex. river  Locational-delimitation of a boundary.  Ex: colonizing  Operational- differ over the way their border should function  Ex: limitation of migration  Allocational- over resources.  Ex: Iraq and Kuwait over oil

Heartland Theory A geopolitical hypothesis proposed by British geographer Halford Mackinder Any political power based in the heart of Eurasia to gain sufficient strength to dominate the world He further proposed that since Eastern Europe controlled access to the Eurasian interior, it’s ruler would command the vast “Heartland” to the East Map.png&imgrefurl= xmcARgusscVQUCJQOi4=&h=742&w=1427&sz=53&hl=en&start=3&itbs=1&tbnid=i gxmmozYe6sa5M:&tbnh=78&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dunited%2Bnation% 2Bmap%26hl%3Den%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1

 A supranational organization is a separate entity composed of three or more states that forge association and formed an administrative structure for mutual benefit and in pursuit of shared goals.  Over 60 major supranational organizations exist today.  Ex: United Nations, European Union, The League of Nations

Territorial Morphology Compact Elongated Prorupt- panhandle Fragmented- bits and peices Perforated- within another country _asia.jpg