1. Political Geography

4. Basic introductory concepts
State
A government with a capitol and border
Examples – the USA, Canada and Russia
Nation
A national group, often the same as “ethnic group” (or linguistic group)
The Pottawatomi “nation”, the Flemish nation, the Thai nation
“nation-state”
When the borders of a “nation” match the border of a single state
Centrifugal forces
Centripetal forces

5. Cooperation among States – the “supranational” institutuion
Political and military cooperation
The United Nations
Regional military alliances
Economic cooperation
The European Union

6. United Nations Members
Fig. 8-1: The UN has increased from 51 members in 1945 to 191 in 2003.

7. The European Union and NATO
Fig. 8-12: NATO and the European Union have expanded and accepted new members as the Warsaw Pact and COMECON have disintegrated.

8. Defining States and the Development of the “State Concept”
Problems of defining states
Korea: one state or two?
China and Taiwan: one state or two?
Varying sizes of states

12. Antarctica: National Claims
Fig. 8-2: Antarctica is the only large landmass that is not part of a state, but several countries claim portions of it.

13. Development of the “state concept”
“City state” emerged with agriculture
Multicultural Empires eventually emerge and become the historical norm
Treaty of Westphalia – 1648 – the establishment of the principle of “sovereignty”
The ideal of the “nation-state” – 19th century

14. The Fertile Crescent
Fig. 8-3: The Fertile Crescent was the site of early city-states and a succession of ancient empires.

15. Colonial Possessions, 1914
Fig. 8-4: By the outbreak of World War I, European states held colonies throughout the world, especially throughout Africa and in much of Asia.

16. Colonial Possessions, 2003
Fig. 8-5: Most of the remaining colonies are small islands in the Pacific or Caribbean.

17. Boundaries and Boundary Problems of States
Shapes of states
Five basic shapes
Types of boundaries
Boundaries inside states
Unitary and federal states
Trend toward federal government
Electoral geography

18. State morphologies: (1) compact, (2) elongated, (3) fragmented, (4) prorupted, and (5) perforated

19. African States
Fig. 8-6: Southern, central, and eastern Africa include states that are compact, elongated, prorupted, fragmented, and perforated.

20. Types of borders: frontier, geometric and contested
Fig. 8-8: Several states in the Arabian Peninsula are separated by frontiers rather than precise boundaries.

21. Aozou Strip: A Geometric Boundary
Fig. 8-9: The straight boundary between Libya and Chad was drawn by European powers, and the strip is the subject of controversy between the two countries.

22. Division of Cyprus: a contested border
Fig. 8-10: Cyprus has been divided into Green and Turkish portions since 1974.

25. European Boundary Changes
Fig. 8-13: Twentieth-century boundary changes in Europe, 1914 to Germany’s boundaries changed after each world war and the collapse of the Soviet Union.

26. Unitary vs. Federal States

28. Electoral Geography

32. “Gerrymandering”
Fig. 8-11: State legislature boundaries were drawn to maximize the number of legislators for Republicans in Florida and Democrats in Georgia.

34. PG Case Study: The EU in 2007
World’s largest supranational union (with 460 million people presently)
25 member states (internally very diverse, multiple languages and ethnicities)
Established officially in 1992 by the Treaty of European Union
Most significant factors
Single common market
Customs union
Single currency managed by the European central bank (Euro)
Common trade policy
Common agricultural policy
Abolished passport and border checks internally for most member states (greater mobility for people, capital, ideas)

35. Institutions of the EU Council of the EU The EU commission
The European Court of Justice
The European Parliament
The European Central Bank
Yet, there is no official capitol like Washington DC in the US
Rather, these institutions are headquartered in various important cities
BRUSSELS: European Commission
STRASBOURG: European Parliament
LUXEMBOURG CITY: European Court of Justice

37. Geographical Expansion of the EU
Founding members (“core members”)
Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg

38. Progressively expansion to Periphery and the East

39. What is the point of the EU? Advantages of the EU…
Peace
Economically-dependent countries rarely go to war with each other
Counterweight to US dominance
Population (it’s bigger)
Economy (about the same size)
Rising importance of the Euro on the global stage
Problem solving abilities
Prosperity – open borders create economic efficiency and economic growth

40. However, there are “Eurosceptics”
REJECTION
of the EURO
Maintain
INDEPENDENCE!!

41. Economic Patterns within the EU

42. What about Culture? People who identify as European first, their nationality second…
Germany 22%
Belgium 21%
Luxembourg 21%
France 20%
Britain 15%
Denmark 6%
Greece 5%