Political Geography Warm Up Thinking like a political

Political Geography Warm Up: Thinking like a (political) geographer… What does political organization of space mean?

What is a “political” geographer? Studies human claims and conflicts concerning the use, patterns, and ownership of the land its resources

The World As We See It?

The World In Reality What is the difference?

Geography Where? Why there? Consequences? Politics How to influence decision making? Political Geography

People and Their Competing Needs Political Identity 6 Themes of Political Geography Resources and Power Authority and Sovereignty Institutions Role of Strategic Action

Defining States and Development of the State Concept Problems of defining states ◦ Almost all habitable land belongs to a country today 1940, there were about 60 countries Today, there are 193 countries (as evidenced by United Nations membership) ◦ Some places are difficult to classify Korea: one state or two? Western Sahara (Sahrawi Republic) or Morocco? Claims to polar regions: Many claims. China and Taiwan: one state or two?

Watch videos on Countries that do not exist and Sealand.

The term country is a synonym for state 4 elements: ◦ People – contains a permanent population ◦ Territory – occupies a defined territory on the earth’s surface ◦ Government – rules people ◦ Sovereignty - control over its internal and foreign affairs, independent from other states Concept of dividing world into independent states is recent What is a state?

A social/cultural concept, more so tied to ethnicity Historical community that shares common ancestry; a people with a sense of union with one another Not every nation has a state ◦ Kurds, Palestinians Some states contain more than one nation ◦ Belgium, UK, Canada Some nations are larger than one state ◦ About 4 millions Jews live in Israel, many members of the Jewish nation living elsewhere in the world (US/Eastern Europe) What is a nation? http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=r. Nu 8 XDBSn 10

The “Perfect” European Model of State: Nation-state: A political unit wherein the territorial state coincides with the area settled by a certain national group or people. Nation: Nation-State: Laws -------------

Nation-state? Self-determination – concept that every nation/ethnicity has the right to govern themselves Very few, if any, nation-states ◦ Iceland, Sweden, Japan, Greece are mostly culturally homogenous with few minorities Advantages of a nation-state? Why is the idea of a nation-state not necessarily realistic?

What would Africa look like if divided by Ethnicity? How many Nation-States would there be?

Multistate nation ◦ Example? ISRAEL Multiethnic state ◦ Example? USA Multinational state ◦ Examples? RUSSIA Stateless Nation ◦ Example? Tibetans How would you define the following and give an example?

Match the descriptions (1 -8) to the corresponding graphic (A-H) Next to each graphic, write how many states are present and how many nations are present If possible, identify the states based on the description We’ll do the first one together Take your time and discuss with your group Geographic Relationships between States and Nations WS

A) B) C) D) E) F) G) H) Palestinians, 3 states (Israel/Jordan/Syria), 1 nation Icelanders, 1 state (Iceland), 1 nation Flemings and Walloons, 1 state (Belgium), 2 nations Albanians, 2 states (Albania/Kosovo), 1 nation Hungarians, 2 states (Hungary, Romania), 1 nation USSR, 1 state, over 100 nations Bretons and Basques, 1 state (France), 2 nations Germans, 3 states (Germany/Austria/Switzerland), 1 nation Answers