4.3 Political Power and Territoriality

Territoriality

  • The effort to control pieces of the Earth's surface for personal, political, and social ends.

  • Reflects attitudes toward land and territory defined by the political culture of a place.

    • Examples: Personal space, Owned space, Political space

  • A country's sense of property and attachment toward its territory, as expressed by its determination to keep it inviolable and strongly defended.

  • Political power is control over people, land, and resources.

    • Doesn't necessarily correspond to a specific geographic area with defined boundaries.

Colonialism

  • The process by which one nation exercises near-complete control over another country that it has settled and taken over.

Neocolonialism

  • The use of economic, political, cultural, or other pressures by rich countries to control or influence other countries.

  • Some examples are:

    • Semi-Periphery and Periphery Countries

    • Former African colonies - reliant on outside investments for economic security

    • Political Influence - U.S. Wars in the Middle East

    • U.S. Banana Republics

Shatterbelts

  • A region caught between stronger colliding external forces, under persistent stress, and often fragmented by aggressive rivals.

    • Examples: Germany during the Cold War

After the spread of communism into Eastern Europe and China in the 1940s, the democratic West became concerned that communism would continue to work its way through Asia. This was called the Domino Theory.

  • Fighting took place in the 1950s and 1960s, centered on Korea and Vietnam

  • The Korean conflict ended with the line between North and South Korea being essentially the same place as it was before, the 38th parallel.

  • The West was unable to hold back communism.

Chokepoints

  • A strategic strait or canal that is narrow, hard to pass through, and has competition for use.

    • It could be closed/blocked to stop sea traffic and strategically show political power or territoriality.

    • Essential to shipping oil, food, and consumer products around the world.

    • Examples: Strait of Malacca (Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia), Strait of Hormuz (Iran), Suez Canal (Egypt)

  • Who controls chokepoints controls resources

  • Chokepoints are vital for the trading of resources (like oil) in certain areas

  • Control chokepoints = control trade and other countries

Types of Boundary Disputes

Positional Disputes

It occurs when states argue about where the border is actually located

Example: Several different countries argue about what the South China Sea's border actually is.

Territorial Disputes

These arise over the ownership of a region, usually around mutual borders.

Conflicts arise if people of one group want to annex territory whose population is ethnically related to them.

Example: Russia took Crimea from Ukraine because there were many Russians in Crimea who wanted to be annexed.

Resource (Allocational) Disputes

These disputes involve natural resources that lie in border areas.

Include mineral deposits, fertile farmland, and rich fishing groups.

Example: The oil fields that lie on the Sudan/South Sudan border are argued about by the two parties, because they extend across both sides.

Functional (Operational) Disputes

These arise when neighboring states cannot agree on policies that apply in a border area.

Example: Mexico and the U.S. have had disputes on what the border should be/is between their two countries.