Transcript 8.2 - sarahhennard

8.2
Define and give examples of countries:
•Nation
•Nation State
•State
•Multi-nation State
•Multi-state Nation
A. Multi-State Nation: Eg. Palestinians have no
state. They are spread over Israel, Jordan and
Syria.
B. Nation State: Eg. Iceland is a country entirely
comprised of Icelanders.
C. Multi-Nation State: Eg. Belgium is made up of
Flemings (north) and Walloons (south). Canada
can also be considered a Multi-Nation State.
D. Albanians live in Albania, but a number of
Albanians also live in a new state called
Kosovo (recently part of Serbia)
E. Most of Hungarians live in Hungary, but there is
a group that lives in the middle of Romania.
F. Multi-Nation State: Eg. Russia has over 100
different nationalities. The USSR ceased to
exist in part because a lot of these nationalities
wanted their own country.
G. Eg. The majority of people in France are
French but there are two small groups the
Bretons and Basques.
H. Eg. There are two German states; Germany
and Austria but 70% of Switzerland is German
speaking.
Why are nation-states difficult to
create?
Nation-states and Multinational States
– A state that contains more than one ethnicity is a
multi-ethnic state.
• Multitude of ethnicities in some cases all contribute
cultural features to the formation of a single
nationality. e.g. United States of America
– A multinational state is a country that contains
more than one ethnicity with traditions of selfdetermination. e.g. Russia
Nation-states and Multinational States
– Nation-States in Europe
• Denmark
– 90% of population are ethnic Danes
– Nearly all Danes speak Danish
» Nearly all world’s Danish speakers live in Denmark
• Slovenia
– 83% of population are ethnic Slovenes
– Nearly all of the world’s Slovenes live in Slovenia
– Former Soviet Union consisted of 15 republics
based on its 15 largest ethnicities.
• 15 republics became15 independent states consisting
of five groups.
Independent Nation-States in
Former Soviet Republics 1
• Three Baltic States
– Estonia
• Mostly Protestant (Lutheran)
• Speak a Uralic language related to Finnish
– Latvia
• Mostly Protestant (Lutheran)
• Speak a language of the Baltic group
– Lithuania
• Mostly Roman Catholic
• Speak a language of the Baltic group within the Balto-Slavic
branch of the Indo-European language family
Independent Nation-States in
Former Soviet Republics 2
• Three European States
1.
2.
3.
–
–
Belarus
Ukraine
Moldova
Three states speak similar East Slavic languages
All are predominantly Orthodox Christians.
• Some western Ukrainians are Roman Catholics
• Five Central Asian States
– Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan
• Predominantly Muslims
• Speak an Altaic language
Independent Nation-States in
Former Soviet Republics 3
• Five Central Asian States cont’d
– Kyrgyzstan
• Predominantly Muslims
• Speak an Altaic language
– Kazakhstan
• Predominantly Muslims
• Speak an Altaic language
– Tajikistan
• Predominantly Muslims
• Speak a language in the Indic group of the Indo-Iranian
branch of Indo-European language family.
The Largest Multinational State:
Russia 1
• Russia’s 39 ethnicities are clustered in two
principal locations.
1. Along borders with neighboring states
• Buryats and Tuvinian near Mongolia
• Chechens, Dagestani, Kabardins, and Ossetians near
the Azerbaijan and Georgia
2. Clustered in the center of Russia, especially
between the Volga River basin and the Ural
Mountains.
• Most numerous ethnicities include Bashkirs, Chuvash,
and Tatars.
The Largest Multinational State:
Russia 2
• Turmoil in the Caucasus
– Caucasus region is situated between the Black and
Caspian seas.
• Home to several ethnicities including Azeris, Armenians, and
Georgians.
• With the breakup of the region into independent countries,
long-simmering conflicts among ethnicities have erupted into
armed conflicts.
– Russia has resisted the independence movement in Chechnya:
» Feared that other ethnicities would continue to follow
» Region filled with resources (petroleum)
Colonies 1
• Colonialism
– A colony is a territory that is legally tied to a sovereign
state rather than being completely independent.
• Sovereign state may run only its military and foreign policy.
• Sovereign state may also control its internal affairs.
– European states came to control much of the world
through colonialism/imperialism, an effort by one
country to establish settlement in a territory and to
impose its political, economic, and cultural principles on
that territory.
• Promote Christianity, establish power, access to markets and
raw materials
Colonies 2
• The Remaining Colonies
– U.S. Department of State lists 68 places in the world
that it calls dependencies and areas of special
sovereignty.
• 43 indigenous populations
• 25 with no permanent population
• Most current colonies are islands in the Pacific Ocean and
Caribbean Sea.
– Ex. Puerto Rico, a commonwealth of the U.S., is home to 4 million
residents who are U.S. citizens, but they do not participate in U.S.
election or have a voting member of Congress.
Geopolitics
Considers the strategic value of land
and sea area in the context of
national economic and military
power and ambitions
Geopolitics sometimes refers to how countries,
especially world powers are concerned about what
other countries are doing in the sense of political
ideology and the allies they keep.
Countries will strategically align themselves with
others so that they can have influence on other
countries.
There are a number of theories, that try and
explain why countries do what they do in terms of
allies, enemies, trade, embargoes, expansion,
influence and conflict.
Geopolitics & the Global Order 1
• Geopolitics
– The study of how geographical space—including
the types of relationships between states, the
different functions of states, and the different
patterns of states—affects global politics.
– Key early thinkers were Mackinder, Mahan, De
Seversky
– Also many used by Nazis to justify German
expansion
• Lebensraum, or living space
Geopolitics & the Global Order 2
• U.S. foreign policy
after World War II
– Containment to stop
Soviet influence in
nonaligned countries
• George Kennan
– Belief in the domino
theory, or a fear that if
one country became
communist, others
would follow, like
falling dominos
Heartland Theory - Halford Mackinder (1861-1947)
•Eurasia (Europe and Asia) is considered the World Island it is the largest in area and in population (in the world). Its
interior is called the Heartland - it is the most inaccessible
area in the world - by water. It’s coastlines are vulnerable but not the interior which is dominated by Eastern Europe.
•Who rules Eastern Europe commands the Heartland. The
Heartland would be the base for world conquest.
•Who rules the Heartland commands the entire World
Island.
•Who rules the World Island rules the rest of the World.
Mackinder’s View
•The Heartland Theory is based on Sea Power!
•Not valid today since we can attack with Air Power and
ICBM’s (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles)
•But think of History - Think of Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf
Hitler. They both went after Eastern Europe first.
•Think of the U.S.S.R. and their attempt to expand by taking
over Eastern Europe (Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia etc.
Think of Vietnam, think of North Korea.
•The USSR tried to set up an Iron Curtain. The USA used a
plan called Containment. When the Soviets moved to North
Korea the US contained them by moving into South Korea.
The Soviets mover to North Vietnam and the US moved into
South Vietnam
Heartland Theory
The Heartland Theory
Rimland Theory - Nicholas Spykman (1894-1943)
•Eurasia was the key to world domination, but the coastal
regions were more important than the interior (heartland)
•The Coastal regions had a large population, resources,
ports and access and control over the seas.
•Control the coast and your control the interior - this was the
Rimland Theory.
•Again the Soviet Union has always been desperate to have
control over land that has access to water, especially a warm
water port. That is why they tried Korea, Vietnam, Cuba and
Afghanistan. They want Eastern Europe to get access to the
Black Sea.
Rimland Theory
Rimland Theory
Domino Theory
The USA believed that countries and their adjacent
neighbours are lined up like dominoes and if one fell to
communism the others would follow.
Again that is why the US has intervened in Vietnam, Korea,
Central America, The Balkans and now the Middle East. By
the way if you look at Iraq - it is in the center of the Middle
East - the heartland of the middle east.
Also to maintain the Balance of Power.
Geopolitics & the Global Order 3
• Post-Cold War geopolitics:
– Geopolitical regions formed by spatial contiguity and
political, cultural, military, & economic interaction
– Shatterbelts
• Regions that are politically fragmented and often zones of
competition between ideological or religious realms
• Critical geopolitics:
– Used to explain the ways state boundaries are
perceived, relationships between states, and the
ways the world is portrayed
The End