Political Organization of Space

UNIT IV

Political Geography

• The study of human political organization of the earth at various geographic levels

Key Questions

• How do political patterns reflect ideas about how the earth should be organized?

• How do political patterns affect human activities and understandings?

• What is the evolution of the nation-state from its original form to its modern form?

• What forces have shaped the world political map into its current form? How are those forces related to the rise of the modern state in Europe and to colonialism?

• How do political boundaries relate to economic, cultural, and environmental boundaries?

Key Questions cont…• What is the role of the modern country in the

contemporary political landscape? How do forces such as ethnic separation, economic globalization, regional supranationalism, and regional environmental problems affect the role of the country in the modern world?

• What are the forms and roles of political units above and below the country level?

• How do specific political policies, such as racial segregation, affect the organization of spatial and cultural life?

Human Territoriality

• Territoriality– Creating ownership over a defined space– Can apply to your bedroom or an entire country and

often evokes an emotional response

– Ex. Iraq invading Kuwait that triggered the 1st Gulf War

– Germany invading Poland in 1939… France and England join Poland

– Is it like animal territoriality?

Personal Space

• The area we claim as our own territory into which others may not enter without our permission– How many times have you accidently brushed

against someone’s arm and said “Sorry”… this indicates you knew you had invaded their personal space

– In Japan’s subway you might be less likely to say that

States and Nations

• State– A political unit with a permanent population,

territorial boundaries that are recognized by other states, an effective government, a working economy, and sovereignty

– Used interchangeably with “country”

• Sovereignty– Internationally recognized control a state has over

the people and territory within its boundary

Nations

• Nation– Refers to a group of people who share a common

culture and identity as a cohesive group– Maybe the USA is a Nation… we are all Americans

• Multinational State– A state that includes more than one nation within its

borders– Some say the USA has a Mexican American Nation, an

Islamic Nation, a Jewish American Nation, etc…– Russia is a Multination State

Nation-State

• A state with only one nation in its borders• Japan and Iceland are examples

• Contrasts with STATELESS NATIONS– When a nation does not have a territory to call its

own– Kurdish people– Assyrian Christians of Iraq– Ughirs of Western China

Ethnonationalism and Conflict

• Ethnonationalism– A powerful emotional attachment to one’s nation

that is a minority within a state and feels different from the rest of the state’s people

– SELF-DETERMINISM• Power to control their own territory and destiny• Can lead to conflict• Ex. Chechen people comprise a minority in Russia and

have strong feelings of Ethnonationalism… they are a republic within Russia and have tried to secede from Russia leading to conflict/violence

Irredentism

• A movement to reunite a nation’s homeland when a part of it is spread into another state’s borders– Hitler believed the German people had spilled into

Czechoslovakian territory and wanted to reunite them

– Albania’s people live mainly in Albania but a large pocket also live in Serbian territory called Kosovo… lead to violence and Serbia tried to “ethnically cleanse” Kosovo of all Albanians.

Recent Examples of Ethnonational conflicts

• S. Asia/Indian subcontinent– Indians vs. Pakistanis

• Fighting over Kashmir (overlaps each country’s territory)• Palestine/SW Asia– Jewish Israelis vs. Muslim Palestinians/Arab Allies

• Stateless nation of Muslim Palestinians and their Arab allies are warring against the Jewish-controlled state of Israel for autonomy in a deeply layered historical conflict

• Southeast Asia– Mainland China vs. Taiwan

• Taiwan was founded in the 1940s after anticommuntists fled the communist government established on mainland China. China does not recognize Taiwan as sovereign but Taiwan does.

Cont…

• Former Yugoslavia– Serbs vs. ALL other nations once part of Yugoslavia

• Former Yugoslavia comprised many nations, including Serbs, Croats, Kosovar Albanians, Bosnian Muslims.

• Serbs dominated the government others wanted to break away

• Several new states were created as a result of that war

• Russia– Russia vs. Chechnya

• Chechnya is a territory in the Russia Republic, governed by Moscow

• Chechen people want independence from Russia which has caused conflict

Buffer States

• Buffer state– An independent country located between two

larger countries in conflict• Ex. Mongolia in between China and Russia (war over

boundaries)

Buffer Zone

• Exists when two or more countries sit between two larger countries in conflict – Ex. Eastern Europe was a buffer zone in between

Western Europe and Russia after WWII

– May lead to SATELLITE STATES• A country that revolves around the ideas of another

country

Shatterbelt

• A state or group of states that exists within a sphere of competition between larger states

• Often they are victims of invasion, boundary changes, and poor economic development

Boundaries

• Are at the root of many conflicts and shape our lives

• International boundaries– Separate states’ territories… defines what the

state owns above and below the ground

Types of Political Boundaries

• Geometric boundaries– Straight line boundaries– Do not relate to cultural or physical features

• Physical political boundaries– Natural boundaries

Cont…

• Cultural political boundaries– Mark changes in the cultural landscape– Ex. Dividing by religion or language– Ex. Pakistan and Bangladesh were created to give

Muslims a territory

Frontiers

• Regions where boundaries are very thinly or weakly developed

• Territoriality is unclear

Cont…

Boundary Creation

• Definition– The phase in which the exact location of a boundary is

legally described and negotiated• Delimitation– When a boundary is drawn on a map

• Demarcation– Visible marking in the cultural landscape

• Ex. Great wall of China (but now is a RELICT BOUNDARY)

• Administration– Enforcement by a government or people of the

created boundary

Ocean Boundaries

• Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS)– Coastal states can stake their claims to the sea up to

12 miles from shore but other countries ships have the right to pass

– Coastal states can claim up to 200 nautical miles as an EXCLUSIVE ECONOMIC ZONE• Has economic control… to explore and mine natural

resources– When there is not 400 nautical miles or more

between two countries they will split it (MERIDIAN LINE PRINCIPLE)

Types of Boundary Disputes

• Definitional boundary dispute– Fight over language of the border– Ex. Japan and Russia have not agreed on borders

surrounding islands North of Japan

• Locational boundary dispute– Conflict over location… NOT the definition– They agree on the definition but not on where it

exists on the earth or map

Cont…

• Operational boundary dispute– A conflict over the way a boundary should operate

or function– Ex. Disagreement over migration over the border

• Allocation boundary dispute– A fight over resources that my not be divided by

the border– Ex. Natural gas or Oil beneath the border

Territorial Morphology

• Territorial morphology– Relationship between a state’s geographic shape,

size, relative location, and political situation– 5 classifications• Fragmented state• Elongated state• Compact state• Prorupt (or protruded) state• Perforated state

Unitary and Federal States

• A state’s size and cultural composition are also factors in its political situation and internal organization

• MICROSTATE– A very small state (can be size wise or population

wise)– Ex. Singapore

• Often microstate can come together to form a UNITARY GOVERNMENTAL STRUCTURE– One main decision making body governs the entire

state– It can be…

Federal Governmental Structure

• Federal Governmental Structure– Has a central government and strong regional

governments that share power with the central government

• Ex. US (States) and Germany (States)• Ex. Canada (provinces)• Ex. Mexico (estados)• Works well with countries that have regions

desiring power however it may lead to secession

Cont…

• Landlocked– Countries without coastal access to a body of

water– Forced to depend on their neighbors for trade

• CONFEDERATE GOVERNMENTAL STRUCTURE– Weak central government with regions holding

the most power– Ex. US under the Articles of Confederation

Political Exclaves and Enclaves• ENCLAVE– A state, or part of a state, surrounded completed by

another state– Ex. Lesotho– The surrounding state is called a Perforated state

• EXCLAVE– When an enclave is land that is a political extension of

another state– Ex. Alaska and the USA– Ex. Russia– Ex. Azerbaijan

In Azerbaijan…

• Muslim majority• Neighboring Armenia has a Christian majority• In Azerbaijan, a Armenian Christian enclave

exists• Armenians have fought to control this enclave

and have created an exclave of Azerbaijan in the process

• Azerbaijan is therefore a perforated state

Rise of the Nation-State concept• Humans have always seemed to organized their

political space• Clans, tribes, villages• CITY-STATE– Greeks and Romans– Political space revolved around a central city and

surrounding farmland– Prior to consolidation of Nation-States in Europe

• Sovereignty relied on loyalty• Feudal Structures

– Typically religious in nature– Before 1500 Europe was not Centralized

Cont…

• 1500s Europe integrated Feudal structures • Monarchies grew– Strong monarchies eliminated feudalism

• Nation-States rise• Led to conflict even though it seemed to

eliminate a lot of it

Colonialism and Imperialism

• 16thcentury world empires emerge• COLONIALISM– The control by a state over another area or people– Usually the more dominant is more industrialized

• Mercantilism– A state acquires colonies that provide it with raw

materials– Creation of favorable trade balances– Tariffs imposed

Other motives to colonize…

• Religion• More land

2nd Wave of colonialism

• 1800s• Europe carved up Africa• England and France controlled 70% of

Colonized Africa• Colonialism fuels IMPERIALISM– The process of establishing political, social, and

economic dominance over a colonized area

Dependency Theory

• Many countries are poor because of their colonization by European powers

• Former colonies not able to “heal” since they still depend on the colonial power

• Boundaries during this time was drawn based on resources not religion… leads to conflict as seen in Nigeria and Sudan

Cont…

• Infrastructure not built• Only there for colonizers benefit• Had to borrow from former colonizers and left

them in deep debt• NEOCOLONIALISM– The continued economic dependence of new

states on their former colonial maters

World systems analysis• IMMANUEL WALLERSTEIN• Looks at the world as a capitalistic system of

interlocking states• Posits that the situation in one country is directly

linked to that country’s role in the greater capitalistic system

• Therefore neocolonialism is not just a result of internal struggle but of the country’s relationship in the overall system

• Argues that the world is divided into three categories

Three categories

• Core is MDCs• Periphery is LDCs• Semiperiphery is the third… sits in the middle

Geopolitics• Analyzes how states behave as political and

territorial systems• ORGANIC THEORY– States are living organism that hunger for land and,

like organisms, want to grow larger by acquiring more nourishment in the form of land

• HEARTLAND THEORY– The era of sea power was ending and the control of

Eurasia would be key to power– Influenced DOMINO THEORY

• RIMLAND THEORY– Must balance Eurasia to keep major powers from

developing

Mackinder’s Heartland theory

Spykman’s Rimland theory

Core and Multicore states

• CORE– The region in a state wherein political and economic

power is concentrated, like the nucleus of a cell– A healthy core helps expand a state

• Multicore states– Have more than just one core region– If they fight for control and no one in dominant is can

result in division– Ex. Nigeria… several cores all fighting for control…

jeopardizes unification

Capital cities

• PRIMATE CITY– Not only the political nucleus but is many more time

more powerful that any other city in the state– Often are found in LDCs where resources are drawn

to it and OLD NATION-STATES like Britain and France– Ex. Paris, France– Ex. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia– Governments may try to limit this focus of resources

Forward Capital

• A capital city built by a state to achieve some national goal

• Ex. St. Petersburg• Ex. Brazilia• Ex. Berlin after the fall of the Berlin wall in

1990

Gerrymandering

• Redrawing electoral boundaries to give a political party an advantage

• Always considerable debate surrounding the placement of electoral district boundaries

Centrifugal and Centripetal Forces

• Centrifugal forces divide– “F” means FRACTURE– Ex. Separatism in a region, Internal boundary

conflicts, different religions

• Centripetal forces unify– “T” means TOGETHER– Ex. Unifying symbols, a national pledge, same

language, same religion

Cont…

• Centrifugal forces broke up Czechoslovakia in 1993 when Czechs and Slovaks each wanted their own region

• Centrifugal forces in Canada and the Quebecois• BALKINIZATION– Occurs when centrifugal forces break apart a state

into small pieces– Term is rooted in the violent breakup of the Balkan

region of Yugoslavia into smaller autonomous states

Devolution

• The process of transferring some power from the central government to regional governments

• Ex. In the 1990s England DEVOLVED to give more power to Scotland

• France devolved to give more power to Corsica• They do it to avoid conflict but it doesn’t always

work– Ex. Serbia devolved to give more power to

Montenegro and in 2006 Montenegro still declared independence

Supranationalism

• The growing trend of three or more countries forming an alliance for cultural, economic, or military reasons

• Done so they can reach a goal they could not reach alone

• If a country threatens other states, the affected SUPRANATIONAL organization may impose INTERNATIONAL SANCTIONS (punishments)– Ex. Iraq

Cont…

• United Nations– Predated by the failed LEAGUE OF NATIONS

• Warsaw Pact– Supranational organization of Communist states

• NATO (north atlantic treaty organization)– Formed to combat spread of communism

United Nations• 1945• “World Government”• Located in NYC• 200 member states• “to maintain international peace and security; to

develop friendly relations among nations”• General assembly, Security council (15 member states

including the 5 permanent members), Economic and Social council, International Court of Justice, Secretariat (executive branch…leader is the secretary general)

Critics of UN

• May need to be restructured since no Arab representation exist in the UN security council’s permanent members

• Others call for reducing UN’s bureaucracy and distribution of $

European Union

• Economic Supranationalism• Formally developing since the 1950s • Started with BENELUX– Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg– Before WWII

• Next… EUROPEAN ECONOMIC COMMUNITY– Also called the common market

Other Supranational Organizations• Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)

– 1975• Latin American Integration Association (LAIA)• Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)

– 1960 (Founding members: Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Jordan)

• Organization of African Unity (African Union)– Tried to be similar to the European Union and free Africa of its

problematic colonial roots• Arab League

– 1945• NAFTA

– USA, Canada, Mexico– Attempt to remove tariffs and trade barriers

New World Order

• After WWII the world was bipolar (communist/democratic)

• It is no longer like that… international relations are multilayered and complex

• Superpowers still exist but they are routinely challenged