2. Centripetal & Centrifugal Forces What forces act to hold a State together and what forces can pull it apart?

3. In Political Geography, Centripetal forces are those forces that bind a country together.

4. Unifying factors such as language and religion that give people a shared, positive vision of what their country is all about. Things like a strong sense of shared history and values and a shared language.

6. Centripetal forces can be reinforced by a threat of foreign aggression. This has always been very effective in unifying a population.

7. The United States has had strong centripetal forces such as shared beliefs in the ideals of our democracy and economic freedom. We are ready to go to war in order to defend these fundamental rights.

8. Centripetal Forces These includes such things as iconography and political pageantry. Examples are: – the flag, –reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, –celebrating Independence Day, –singing the national anthem. A sense of shared history and struggle is also important.

10. Centrifugal Forces Centrifugal forces are forces of disunity – the presence of more than one language or religion are examples

11. Centrifugal Forces Another problem is that of political and economic inequality (economic hierarchy) – Upper, middle and lower class. Many people think that in recent years centrifugal forces have been gaining grounds in the United States. Remember the Vietnam war?

12. Centrifugal Forces All these become centrifugal forces that can kill a Country. In Canada, language is its most centrifugal force. Many French Canadians see themselves as a separate nation and therefore advocate an independent state. Currently in the United States we have opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

13. Strategic Chokepoints STRATEGIC OCEANIC CHOKEPOINTS Interoceanic waterways provide avenues between large bodies of water, thereby enabling easy movement and human exchange across oceans. However, fortifications along narrow waterways can turn these interoceanic avenues into strategic chokepoints by allowing their occupiers to exercise control over warships and merchant vessels passing through them. Some of the most prominent strategic chokepoints include the Strait of Gibraltar, the Bosporus/Dardanelles, the Strait of Hormuz, the Malacca Straits, and the two great man-made canals at Suez and Panama.