1. Political Geography

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

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

4. The World As We See It?

5. The World In Reality What is the difference?

6. Why do we divide the world?

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

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

9. Defining States and Development of the State Concept Problems of defining states ◦Almost all habitable land belongs to a country today  In 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?

12. What is a state? state 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

13. What is a nation? A social/cultural concept, more so tied to ethnicity people 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) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNu8XDBSn10

14. Nation-state: Nation-state: A political unit wherein the territorial state coincides with the area settled by a certain national group or people. A political unit wherein the territorial state coincides with the area settled by a certain national group or people. Although seldom achieved in practice outside of European core, it is the standard to which other global states are compared today. Although seldom achieved in practice outside of European core, it is the standard to which other global states are compared today. nationalism The “Perfect” European Model of State State: Nation: Laws ------ ------- -------- Nation-State:

15. 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?

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

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

19. Geographic Relationships between States and Nations WS 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

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