Political Geography

Political Geography

• the way governments organize and administer space

• Conflict• Cooperation

State

• area organized into a political unit (defined borders)

• ruled by an established government• Sovereignty (control)• permanent population.

Sovereignty

• independence from control of its internal affairs by other states.

Microstates

• Extremely small states (usually islands, many of which were former European colonies)

UN -- Creation

• Created at end of World War II to serve the role of a facilitator for discussions regarding international problems.

UN-Mission

• To promote international cooperation • address global economic problems• promote human rights• provide humanitarian relief.

UN-Members

• Exceptions: Taiwan, Kosovo, and Vatican City

UN Security Council

• Permanent Members: U.S., U.K., China, France, Russia

UN – Effective?

• Must rely on individual countries to supply troops

• Any one of the five permanent members can veto an operation

• Must be neutral between warring factions

League of Nations

• world’s first attempt at an international peacekeeping organization.

• was never effective at peacekeeping• the U.S. never joined• fell apart in the 1930s.

Korea

• Divided in half into two occupation zones by the United States and the former Soviet Union after they defeated Japan in World War II.

• One ethnicity divided between 2 states• admitted to the United Nations as separate

countries.• Progress toward reuniting Korea was halted by

North Korea’s decision to build nuclear weapons.

China & Taiwan

• Most countries consider them two states• China does not consider Taiwan to be a

separate state but part of China.• Taiwan is now the most populous state not in

the United Nations.

Western Sahara

• Most African countries consider it a sovereign state.

• Morocco now claims most of the territory and has built a wall around it to keep the rebels out.

• The United Nations has tried but failed to reach a resolution in this situation.

Polar Regions

• Only large landmass on Earth’s surface that is not part of a state.

• Claim portions: Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.

• The United States, Russia, and other countries do not recognize the claims of any countries in Antarctica.

• States may establish research stations there for scientific investigations, but no military activities are permitted.

Ancient

• The state concept developed in the Middle East

• Fertile crescent extending from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea had the first city-states

City States

• a sovereign state that comprises a town and the surrounding countryside.

• Walls • The countryside--defense against attack and

food supply• One city may gain military dominance over the

others and form an EMPRIE.

Medieval States

• The Roman Empire was the largest unified political territory of the preindustrial times

• Controlled most of Europe, North Africa, and Southwest Asia.

• Collapsed in the fifth century.• Portions of the empire became estates• Kings emerged• Kings took on multiple estates that became the

basis for modern countries.

Nation-States

• a state whose territory corresponds to that occupied by a particular ethnicity.

Self-Determination

• the concept that ethnicities have the right to govern themselves

Nation-States in Europe

• Many created by the breakup of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia during the 1990s.

• Small ethnic groups were left out.

Nation State- Europe Examples

• Denmark (99% of Danes live in Denmark)• Slovenia

Independent Nation-states in Former Soviet Republics

• The Soviet Union consisted of 15 republics, based on its 15 largest ethnicities which are now 15 independent countries.

• smaller ethnicities are now divided among these states.

Baltic States (Former USSR)

• Estonia• Latvia • Lithuania

European States (Former USSR)

• Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine

Central Asian (Former USSR)

• Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan

Caucasus (Former USSR)

• Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia (not a peaceful area, lots of ethnic hatred)

Modern Day Russia- Multinational

• Russia officially recognizes the existence of 39 nationalities, many of which are eager for independence.

Chechens in Russia

• Independence movement: Chechens, a group of Muslims declared independence in 1991, but Russia ignored their declaration.

• The Russians fought hard to retain control of the territory because it contains large petroleum deposits and they did not want other ethnicities to also try to break away.

Caucasus- Location

• The Caucasus region is situated between the Black and Caspian seas and gets its name from the mountains that separate Azerbaijan and Georgia from Russia.

Caucasus- Issues

• Every ethnicity in the Caucasus wants to carve out a sovereign nation-state, but none has fully achieved it, resulting in violence.

Azerbaijan

• Muslim• Descend from Turks and Persians

Armenia

• Christians• History of being massacred by the Turks

Georgia

• Many ethnicities who want to break away• Oil in the area complicates the situation

Colony

• a territory that is legally tied to a sovereign state rather than being completely independent.

Colonialism

• an attempt by one country to establish settlements and impose its political, economic, and cultural principles in another territory.

Imperialism

• Control of a territory already occupied.

Colonial Powers

• The United Kingdom • France

Remaining Colonies

• Most current colonies are islands in the Caribbean Sea.

• Puerto Rico (US) is most populous

Boundary

• an invisible line that marks the extent of a state’s territory.

Frontier

• a zone where no state exercises complete political control.

Physical Boundaries

• deserts, mountains, and water

Cultural Boundaries

• religious and language

Geometric Boundaries

• straight lines

Aozau Strip

• Geometric boundary between Libya and Chad• Libya seized the territory from 1973-1987• Chad controls the strip post 1987, but Libya

thinks they should have control of it.

Cyprus Green Line

• divided between Turkish and Greek control

Compact States

• the distance from the center to any boundary does not vary significantly.

• efficient communication and transportation

Elongated

• long and narrow shape • Poor communication and isolation

Prorupted State

• has a large projecting extension• Could be used to access a resource, such as

water

Perforated

• A state that completely surrounds another one

• Problems: dependence on, or interference from, the surrounding state

Fragmented

• several discontinuous pieces• Problems maintaining national unity

Landlocked

• lack direct access to the ocean• completely surrounded by multiple other

countries• most common in Africa

Regime Types

Vary by:How they select leaderscitizen participationchecks and balances

Autocracy defined

• a country that is run according to the interests of the ruler rather than the people

Autocracy Examples

• Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, etc.

Democracy Defined

• Citizens elect leaders and can run for office

Democracy Examples

• U.S., Australia, Italy, Spain, etc.

Anocracy Defined

• country that is not fully democratic or fully autocratic, but rather displays a mix of the two types

Anocracy Examples

• Russia, Iraq, Jordan, Yemen, most countries in Africa

Unitary State

• strong central government• Works well in small states and nation-states

Federal State

• strong local and regional government• Local governments can adopt laws• Best for large states and multinational states

Gerrymandering

• redrawing legislative boundaries for the purpose of benefiting the party in power

Era of two superpowers

• During the Cold War era, The United States and Soviet Union were the world’s two superpowers.

Supranationalism

• When three or more countries come together for a common goal (political, military or economic)

NATO

• a military alliance • 16 democratic states, including the United

States and Canada plus 14 European states. • objective was to prevent the Soviet Union

from overrunning West Germany and other smaller countries.

Warsaw Pact

• a military agreement among seven communist Eastern European countries to defend each other in case of attack.

European Union

• promote development through economic and political cooperation.

• turned Europe into the world’s wealthiest market

COMECON

• Council for Mutual Economic Assistance Formed in 1949 with 10 members (communist countries of Warsaw pact, Cuba, Mongolia, Vietnam)

• Disbanded in the 1990s after the fall of communism

Euro

• a common currency created for electronic transactions beginning in 1999

• For the first few years it made the countries stronger

• The severe global recession that began in 2008 has forced economically strong countries, especially Germany, to subsidize the weaker states.

European Central Bank

• A single bank that was given the responsibility of setting interest rates and minimizing inflation in the EU countries.

OSCE

• Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe

• Concerned with ending conflicts in Europe

OAS

• Organization of American States• Promotes links among members – Cuba was

suspended

AU

• African Union- promotes economic integration in Africa

The Commonwealth

• UK and their former colonies (52). Economic and cultural cooperation.

Terrorism

• The systematic use of violence by a group in order to intimidate a populace or coerce a government into granting demands

• Terrorists attack common citizens instead of military personnel or political figures.

September 11, 2001

• The twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City were the two tallest buildings in the United States before they were destroyed in the attacks.

• The Pentagon was also damaged.• The attacks resulted in nearly 3,000 fatalities. • The al-Qaeda network led by Osama bin Laden

was implicated in the 9/11 attacks.

Al-Qaeda Network

• is not a single unified organization and the number of people involved is unknown.

Osama Bin Laden• Osama bin Laden moved to Afghanistan from Saudi

Arabia in the mid-1980s to support the fight against the Soviet army and the country’s Soviet-installed government.

• Osama used his several hundred million dollar inheritance to fund al-Qaeda around 1990 to unite jihad fighters in Afghanistan.

• In 1996, he issued a declaration of war against the United States because of U.S. support for Saudi Arabia and Israel.

• Killed in a compound in Pakistan by US troops

Afghanistan

• Taliban ruled from 1995-2001• Soviet Union sent troops in 1979 to put down a

rebellion against their pro-soviet government• They defeated the Soviet troops with weapons

from the U.S.• They used those weapons against the U.S.

during our 2001 invasion to remove the Taliban

Pakistan

• Bin Laden hid for 5 years in a compound close to their capital and military academy, however their leaders claim to have not known this was going on.

• Navy SEALS attacked the compound and killed him.

Desert Storm

• 1991 U.S.-led Gulf War- drove Iraq out of Kuwait, but failed to remove Hussein from power. Supported by UN because Iraq invaded Kuwait.

Iraq

• 2003 attack by U.S.• Secretary of State Colin made a case at the

UN, however most countries did not agree they had weapons of mass destruction

• Regime change– removed Hussein • Did not expect the long, complex struggle

Iran

• 1979 revolution forced out the pro-US Shah• Hostage Crisis in 1979– they held 62

Americans hostage for 444 days• Fought Iraq in an 8 year war over a waterway

that ended in a stalemate• Bad relations with the U.S.– we are concerned

about their nuclear program.

Libya

• Long history of terrorism against the U.S. (Berlin Nightclub, U.S. aircraft, Lockerbie Bombing)

• UN launched an attack against the pro-Qadaffi forces

• Qaddafi was killed

Lockerbie Bombing

• Bomb destroyed Pan Am Fight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland killing all 259 on board and 11 on ground where it landed (Libyan terrorist). Plane was heading to U.S. from U.K with Americans on board.

WTC- Parking Garage

• 1993-- Car bomb parked in an underground garage killed 6 injured 1,000 at NYC World Trade Center

Oklahoma City

• Car bomb set by American (Timothy McVeigh) killed 168 people in a federal building in 1995

Truck Bombing- Saudi Arabia

• Apartment complex killing 19 U.S. soldiers in 1996

• Injuring 100 people

Embassies- Kenya/Tanzania

• 1998 Bombing• Killed 190• injured 5,000

USS Cole

• Ship bombed in 2000 while in port (Yemen)• Killed 17 US servicemen