GEOG 329 Midterm Flashcards

Political geography

The study of the relationship between space, power, and politics.

Kurdish population

The distribution of the Kurdish population in different countries, such as Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and others.

Referendums in the UK

A comparison of the referendums in the UK in 1975 and 2016 regarding European Union membership.

Luhansk, Kiev oblast, Donetsk, Crimea

Regions in Ukraine discussed in relation to space, power, and politics.

Perspective in political geography

Influenced by historical, socio-cultural, and individual contexts.

Geographical representations

Influence politics and the spatial organization of power.

Political geography as a field of study

Theoretical and empirical focus on the interaction between geography and politics.

Maps and politics

The role of maps in representing power relations and influencing politics.

Types of maps

Topographic maps and thematic maps.

Scale of a map

Determines the level of detail and what features are shown.

Visual representations

Can be biased, partial, and influenced by political interests.

Projections

Different ways of representing the Earth's surface on a flat map.

Ownership and property

Mapping the land as a means of establishing ownership and legitimacy.

Dispossession

The displacement and dispossession of indigenous peoples through mapping.

Settler-colonial project

Attracting settlers and establishing territorial claims through mapping.

Propaganda maps

Maps used for propaganda purposes to shape public opinion.

Critical cartography

Engaging with maps critically and creating alternative maps to challenge dominant power structures.

Non-Hispanic white population

The population of individuals who identify as white and are not of Hispanic or Latino origin.

Participatory mapping

A process that involves the active participation of local communities in creating maps, allowing them to represent their own knowledge and perspectives.

Land grabs

The acquisition of land, often by powerful actors, without the consent or fair compensation of local communities who have traditional rights to the land.

Maps as cultural documents

Maps are not just objective representations of geographic features, but also reflect specific perspectives and raise questions about what is included or excluded.

Political maps

Maps that show political boundaries, such as national borders or administrative divisions, and are used to understand spatial identities and power relationships.

Power relationships

The capacity to act and exert control over others and oneself, satisfy interests, and gain recognition for identities.

Coercive power

The ability to apply force, often with impunity, to exert control over others.

Reward power

The ability to control resources or provide rewards to influence others.

Legitimate power

Power derived from one's institutional position or authority.

Information power

Power derived from holding important information.

Expert power

Power derived from recognized expertise or ability to make sound judgments.

Referent power

Power derived from personal charisma or self-identification.

Michel Foucault's conception of power

Power is diffuse, embodied, enacted, and discursive, constituting agents rather than being solely deployed by them.

Political perspectives

Different ways of understanding politics, including statist, liberal, and political economy critiques.

Autonomy

The ability of a community or group to govern itself and make decisions about its own development.

Location

The absolute or relative position of a place in geographic space.

Distance

The measurement of space between two locations, which can be absolute, relative, or functional.

Distribution

The arrangement or location of people, things, ideas, or events in space.

Location Theory

A theoretical framework that seeks to explain the location of economic activities based on rational economic behavior and historical context.

Diffusion

The spread or transmission of a phenomenon across space and over time.

Space and Place

Space refers to the physical location, while place refers to the occupation or personal relation to that space.

Spatial analysis

The examination and interpretation of patterns, relationships, and processes in geographic space.

Scale and Hierarchies

The level or resolution at which something is represented, and the complex relations across different scales.

Territory and Territoriality

Territory refers to a portion of space occupied by a person, group, or political unit, while territoriality refers to the practice of creating bounded social spaces through the exercise of power and control.

Territorial sovereignty

The claim of exclusive legitimate control over a given area, such as the territorial basis of state sovereignty or territorial jurisdiction of a court.

Boundaries

Dividing lines between one spatial unit or group and another, such as sovereign borders.

Frontiers

Zones or areas of transition from one spatial unit to another, often implying inequality in status.

Nations

Groups of people defined by shared culture, religion, language, and ethnicity, reflecting a specific socio-cultural and ethnic identity.

States

Institutions recognized by international law as sovereign political units with recognized sovereignty over a territory, representing an independent political identity.

Government

The organization in charge of conducting the policy, actions, and affairs of a state.

Sovereignty

The supreme authority within a territory, representing the authority and supremacy of a sovereign state.

Territoriality

The concept that sovereign states have exclusive jurisdiction over their territory, encompassing both internal and external aspects of sovereignty.

Realism

A theoretical perspective that emphasizes relative power in international relations.

Idealism

A theoretical perspective that emphasizes shared norms in international relations.

Sphere of influence

A region under the political influence of a third party, entailing a degree of control by one state or organization over another.

Core and periphery

A political economy concept that reflects relative power and degree of autonomy, characterized by unequal terms of trade and trade/financial flows.

Marxism

A theory that seeks to explain how capitalism and other economic systems arrange space to support themselves and potentially lay the seeds of a crisis.

Humanism

An emphasis on the exploration of the meanings that people give to their surroundings.

Poststructuralism

A perspective that points out how power relations in society produce and are produced by discourses that define the "truth" about our world.

Postmodernism

A critique of generating all-encompassing theories and a focus on diverse local forms of resistance.

Actor-network theory

A perspective that criticizes the sharp division often drawn between people and nature and portrays all things as agents with a network of influences.

Pragmatism

A reminder to focus on how knowledge is useful rather than whether it's the one and only truth.

Geopolitics

The understanding and representation of politics influenced by geographical factors, shaping political relations and reflecting geopolitical imaginations.

Civilizational geopolitics

A periodization of modern geopolitical imagination from 1815-1875, where Europe understood itself as a unique civilization with a civilizing mission for the rest of the world.

Naturalized geopolitics

A periodization of modern geopolitical imagination from 1875-1945, characterized by the domination supposedly natural given the understanding of states as competing predators and aggressive nationalisms.

Ideological geopolitics

A periodization of modern geopolitical imagination from 1945-1990, marked by competing ideas about how to best organize society, contrasting capitalism and socialism in a bi-polar competition.

Geopolitical imaginations

Perspectives, assumptions, and representations shaped by geographical perspectives that shape politics and reflect their context.

Political geography

The study of relationships between (physical) geography and politics, focusing on the diversity of economic productions, facility of communications, and divisions of states.

Geopolitical narratives

Narratives that construct and shape geopolitical imaginations, often reflecting the theories, values, historical antecedents, interests, knowledge, and technologies of their proponents.

John Agnew's Three Ages of Geopolitics

A framework that categorizes modern geopolitical imaginations into civilizational geopolitics, naturalized geopolitics, and ideological geopolitics.

Cartography

The practice of creating maps and the use of maps to understand and represent the world.

Race and geopolitics

The intersection of race and geopolitical imaginations, including scientific racism and the belief in the superiority of certain races in relation to space and territorial expansion.

Friedrich Ratzel

A German geographer who influenced geopolitical thinking, viewing states as organisms obeying the laws of evolution and advocating for territorial expansion as a means of survival.

Mitteleuropa

The idea of a strong, united Germany extending to include all German-speaking people in order to preserve German culture and prevent attacks from hostile neighbors.

Geopolitics

The study of how geography and territory influence politics and international relations.

Topopolitik

The position of a state in relation to other states.

Physiopolitik

The territory of a state, including its physical characteristics.

Morphopolitik

The shape of a state, including its borders and boundaries.

Geographical Pivot of History

The concept, proposed by Halford Mackinder, that the balance of power shifted from sea-based to land-based powers, with the central landmass of Eurasia being the key to global dominance.

Heartland

The central landmass of Eurasia, including Central Asia and Siberia, which Mackinder argued was the natural center of land power.

World Island

The combined landmass of Europe, Africa, and Asia, which Mackinder argued was the key to global dominance.

Lebensraum

The concept, popularized by Karl Haushofer, of the need for living space for a nation or people, often used to justify territorial expansion.

Domino theory

The belief that if one country in a region falls to communism, neighboring countries will also fall like a row of dominoes.

Non-alignment movement

A political movement of countries that did not align themselves with either the Western or Eastern bloc during the Cold War.

Truman Doctrine

A policy announced by President Truman in 1947 that pledged support to countries threatened by communism, marking the beginning of a worldwide anti-communist policy.

Universalist vision

The idea, promoted by the US during the Cold War, that its ideals of freedom and democracy should be applied universally.

Mirror images

The contrasting perspectives of the US and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, often characterized by sharp moral dualism and dualist representations of international and domestic politics.

Buffer area

An area, such as Eastern Europe for the USSR, that serves as a protective barrier against perceived threats from neighboring regions.

Containment policy

The US policy during the Cold War of preventing the spread of communism, particularly by containing the influence of the Soviet Union and its allies.

Manichean categories

The categorization of the world into sharp moral dualisms, such as 'good' vs 'evil', 'democracy' vs 'totalitarianism', and 'capitalism' vs 'communism'.

Stalinist bureaucracy

The bureaucratic system established under the leadership of Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union, characterized by strong central control and coercion.

Gulags

Forced labor camps in the Soviet Union where political dissidents and other prisoners were interned and subjected to harsh conditions.

Domino theory

The belief that if one country in a region falls to communism, neighboring countries will also fall like a row of dominoes.

Containment policy

The US strategy to confront Soviet expansionism by countering their encroachment on global interests.

Domino theory

The belief that the fall of one country to communism would lead to the fall of its neighboring countries.

Proximity

The physical closeness between countries, which is a factor in the spread of communism according to the domino theory.

Non-alignment

The goal of developing an independent political space secure from superpower interference, different from neutrality.

Deterrence

The use of military threat to deter adversaries, often through the fear of nuclear escalation.

Geopolitical reductionism

The simplification of the world into first world (capitalist), second world (communist), and third world (developing) during the Cold War.

Post-Cold War

The period after the end of the Cold War characterized by the breakdown of the Soviet empire, post-communist transitions, and globalization.

New Security

The emergence of new security agendas such as human security, terrorism, climate change, Sino-US rivalry, and conflicts in Ukraine.

Multipolar world

The shift from a bipolar world (US-USSR) to a multipolar world with the rise of emerging economies like China.

Contemporary geopolitics

The current practice of geopolitics that focuses on capitalist expansion and perpetuation of conflicts, according to Jairus Grove.