1. POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY
Chapter 8

2. Thinking Geographically
Imagine you are the new leader of a newly independent state in Africa or Asia. Determine what your government can do to build a nation that corresponds with the borders of your state. Consider the roles of education, government, military, and culture in your exercise in nation-building.

3. How Is Space Politically Organized into States and Nations?
Political geography: The study of the political organization of the world
Territoriality: “The attempt by an individual or group to affect, influence, or control people, phenomena, and relationships, by delimiting and asserting control over a geographic area”
– Robert Sack

4. Political Organization of Space
Sovereignty: Having the last say over a territory — legally
Territorial integrity: The right of a government to keep the borders and territory of a state intact and free from attack

5. State
A politically organized territory with a permanent population, a defined territory, and a government, and recognized as such by other states

6. The Modern State Idea
The idea of a state that is tied to a particular territory with defined boundaries
Came out of Europe
Diffused through
Mercantilism
Colonialism

7. Nations
Nation: A culturally defined group of people with a shared past and a common future who relate to a territory and have political goals
Constructed by people to make sense of themselves
“Imagined communities” (Benedict Anderson)
Imagined = you will never meet all the people in your nation
Community = you see yourself as part of it
Nations perceived as “natural” and “always existing” but really a relatively recent phenomenon

8. Nation-State
A politically organized area in which nation and state occupy the same space
Rare in practice
An ideal for governments as source of political loyalty and unity
Origins in French Revolution
Democracy: People as sovereign
A territorial state for each nation
Nationalism
Strong sense of loyalty to the state on the part of its people
Government that promotes the nation within the state
Promotion of loyalty to the state in multinational states

9. Europe in 1648

10. Multinational State
A state with more than one nation

11. Stateless Nation
A nation with no state

12. European Colonialism and the Diffusion of the Nation-State Model
Colonialism: A physical action in which one state takes over control of another, taking over the government and ruling the territory as its own
Two Waves of European Colonialism:
1500 – 1825
1825 – 1975

13. Dominant Colonial Influences, 1550–1950
Some places were colonized by more than one power in this time period.

14. The Capitalist World Economy
Result of colonialism
Construction of a world order based on differences in economic and political power
Immanuel Wallerstein’s World-Systems Theory
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.

15. Construction of the World Economy
Capitalism: The system whereby people, corporations, and states produce goods and services and exchange them in the world market, with the goal of achieving profit
Commodification: The process of placing a price on a good and then buying, selling, and trading the good
Colonialism: Brought the world into the world economy, setting up an interdependent global economy

16. Three-Tier Structure Core Periphery Semi-periphery
Processes that incorporate higher levels of education, higher salaries, and more technology
Generate more wealth in the world economy
Periphery
Processes that incorporate lower levels of education, lower salaries, and less technology
Generate less wealth in the world economy
Semi-periphery
Places where core and periphery processes are both occurring
Places that are exploited by the core but then exploit the periphery
Serves as a buffer between core and periphery

17. The Three-Tier System

18. How Do States Spatially Organize Their Governments?
Forms of government
Unitary: Highly centralized government where the capital city serves as a focus of power
Federal: A government where the state is organized into territories, which have control over government policies and funds

19. Nigeria’s Federal System
Allows states within Nigeria to determine
whether to have Shari’a laws (legal systems based on traditional Islamic laws)

20. U.S. Federal System
Allows states to determine “moral” laws such as death penalty, access to alcohol, and concealed weapons

21. Devolution
Movement of power from the central government to regional governments within a state
Causes
Ethnocultural forces
Economic forces
Spatial forces

22. Ethnocultural Devolutionary Movements in Eastern Europe

23. Devolution in Europe

24. DEVOLUTION Slovakia: New Sovereignty

25. Thinking Geographically
Choose an example of a devolutionary movement and determine whether autonomy (self-governance) for that region would benefit the autonomous region, the country in which it is located or both.

26. Electoral Geography
Part of a state’s spatial organization of government
In the United States
Territorial representation
Reapportionment
Voting rights for minority populations

27. Voting Districts
Gerrymandering : Drawing voting districts to benefit one group over another
Majority-minority Districts: Drawn so that the majority of the population in the district is from the minority

28. How Are Boundaries Established, and Why Do Boundary Disputes Occur?
Boundary: A vertical plane that cuts through the rocks below and the airspace above, dividing one state territory from another

29. Boundaries
Boundaries often divide resources, such as oil between Kuwait and Iraq

30. Boundaries Establishing boundaries Define Delimit Demarcate
Administrate
Types of boundaries
Geometric boundaries: Based on grid systems
Physical-political boundaries: Follow an agreed-upon feature in the physical geographic landscape

31. Boundary Disputes Definitional boundary disputes
Locational boundary disputes
Operational boundary disputes
Allocational boundary disputes

32. How Do Geopolitics and Critical Geopolitics Help Us Understand the World?
Geopolitics: The interplay among geography, power, politics, and international relations
Classical geopolitics
German School (Ratzel’s organic state theory)
British /American School (Mackinder’s heartland theory)

33. Ratzel’s Organic State Theory
Based on Darwin’s theories of evolution
Need of a state for territory and overseas connections in order to survive
Described expansion of empires and large states in the 19th century
Eventually contributed to Nazi expansion

34. Mackinder’s Heartland Theory
Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland
Who rules the Heartland commands the World Island
Who rules the World Island commands the world

35. Critical Geopolitics Ideas of intellectuals of statecraft about places
Influence and reinforce their political behaviors and policy choices
Affect how ordinary people process notions of places and politics

36. Us versus Them
Cold War
Evil Empire (Soviet Union)
Shining city on a hill (United States)
Replacement of Soviet Union as “them” by terrorists

37. Geopolitical World Order
Temporary periods of stability in conduct of politics at the global scale
Bi-polar
Multi-polar
Unilateralism

38. What Are Supranational Organizations, and What Is the Future of the State?
Supranational organization: A separate entity composed of three or more states that forge an association and form an administrative structure for mutual benefit in pursuit of shared goals

39. Global Scale: The United Nations

40. Regional Scale: The European Union

41. Supranationalism and the European Union
As you watch the video clip, answer the following questions:
What is unique pr special about the city of Strasburg?
What role doe sit play in the governance of the European Union?
Discuss Strasburg in term of its site and situation.
Contemplate the achievement of the European Union in terms of its porous borders; would such a model be good for North America?
Should the NAFTA countries have equally porous borders that allow for free movement of people as well as goods and services?
Can you imagine a future World Union or United States of Earth scenario (think of Star Wars) in which there would be one global currency and complete freedom to move from one region to another?
Strasburg: Symbol of a United Europe