1. Conflict Between States

2. Multistate Nations
Ex: Romania and Hungary are two separate states with overlapping nations.
Transylvania is currently within Romania, but includes both Romanians and Hungarians.
Both H. & R. have the desire to control the territory.
George White describes “Nations will defend their territories as strongly as they defend their language, religion, or way of life.”

3. Stateless Nations
Palestine is a Stateless Nation, they hold control over the Gaza Strip and some of the West Bank.
Their people live in other states such as Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, etc. and the lands they do occupy are not recognized as a state.
Kurds are a larger nation without a state.

5. The Kurds
The Kurds are a non-Arab people who generally practice Sunni Muslim. Their language is related to Persian.
Traditionally they were a nomadic people moving through the Caucasus Mountains. Due to their lack of state-hood and subjugation by other states (namely Turkey) they have had to abandon their nomadic way of life.

6. From WashingtonPost.com
“During the early 20th century, Kurds began to consider the concept of nationalism, a notion introduced by the British amid the division of traditional Kurdistan among neighboring countries. The 1920 Treaty of Sevres, which created the modern states of Iraq, Syria and Kuwait, was to have included the possibility of a Kurdish state in the region. However, it was never implemented. After the overthrow of the Turkish monarchy by Kemal Ataturk, Turkey, Iran and Iraq each agreed not to recognize an independent Kurdish state.”

7. Turks The Turks treated the Kurds the most poorly.
They were called "Mountain Turks," outlawing their language and forbidding them to wear traditional Kurdish costumes in the cities.

8. Capitalism and Colonialism
Colonialism allowed Europe to extract wealth and resources form subservient colonies.
This allowed Europe to become dominant in the world economy.
In fact, the creation of a world economy is the direct result of colonialism and the knitting together of widely separated areas.

9. World Systems Theory Wallerstein
World economy has one market and a global division of labor.
Although there are multiple states, everything takes place in the context of the world economy.
The world economy has a 3 tiered structure.
According to Wallerstein the creation of the world economy occurred with the start of capitalism.

10. Capitalization
The advancement of capitalism has allowed greater commidification to occur.
This is the creation, pricing, marketing, and sale of a product.
The ability to purchase a bottle of water is an example of commidification.
The economies of the world are highly tied together, there is no way to gain independence.

11. Shape of States
The shape of a state affects the length and location of its border.
Borders can affect trade, conflict, and inter-state relationships in addition to internal structure and social unity.
Chile v. the UK

12. Compact States
These are states where the distance from the center to any boundaries doesn’t vary much.
Benefits:
Good communication
Short boundaries to protect

13. Elongated States Long Narrow Shape: Malawi, Chile, Italy, Gambia
Can suffer from poor communication
Isolation

14. Prorupted States An otherwise compact state with a projection.
These usually exist for one of two reasons:
Access to a resource: water
Separating two states that would otherwise share a border: Namibia

15. Perforated States A state that completely surrounds another.
The state relies completely on the surrounding state for resources.

16. Fragmented States Several discontinuous pieces of territory. 2 kinds:
Separated by water: Tanzania, Indonesia
Separated by an intervening state.

17. Landlocked States
Lacks a direct outlet to the sea: most common in Africa (14/54 are landlocked)
What are some disadvantages of land-locked states?