UNIT 4 VOCAB QUIZ APHG

choke points

geographic features on land or sea that is much narrower than the overall landscape and causes decreased combat power militarily; as such, these are strategic targets for terrorism or colonial control.

demilitarized zones

an area in which treaties or agreements between powers or contending groups forbid military installations, activities or personnel.

devolution

the process whereby regions within a state demand and gain political strength and political autonomy at the expense of the central government

economics of scale

cost advantages that businesses and enterprises obtain through the scale of the operation, typically with per cost unit decreasing with an increasing scale.

exclusive economic zones

coastal waters extending no more than 200 nautical miles from the territorial sea baseline and adjacent to 12 nautical mile territorial sea of a country within which the country claims exclusive rights for fishing, drilling, and other economic activities.

failed states

a political body that has disintegrated to a point where basic conditions and responsibilities of governance cease to exist or operate normally.

federal states

governing systems that operate with a division of power that is shared among various levels of governance (for example: state and federal levels).

gerrymandering

the reapportionment of political boundaries that benefit or favor one political party or class over another.

irredentism

a policy of attempting to establish cultural cohesion and potential political expansion by a country aimed at a group of nationals living in a neighboring country.

multinational state

a country whose people derive from many different national backgrounds

multistate nation

a group of nationals who are living within two separate states

nation

a group of people who share a common ethnic background (history, language, culture, heath), and who seek or hold political self-determination

nation-state

a state whose borders coincide with the current distribution of the nationals of that state

shatterbelt

a region whose internal geographical, cultural, religious, and political fragmentation is compounded by pressures from external powers attracted to the region’s strategic location and/or economic resources

state

a politically organized body of people that occupies a defined territory and includes sovereignty, circulation of money, permanent populations, and internal recognition

stateless nation

an ethnic group that is potentially dispersed between multiple state and that does not have a state of their own

supranationalism

political, economic, cultural, or military cooperation among multiple states to promote shared objectives through the ceding of some authority to a higher power.

territoriality

attitudes and behavior held by a person or group that is based on perceived, attempted, or actual control of a physical space, object, or idea, which may involve habitual occupation, defense, personalization, and marking of the territory.

unitary state

a country whose governing power is related to a central body