Essential Vocabulary Unit 4

1. Defined Boundary

• Boundaries established by a legal document

2. Delimited Boundary

• Boundaries drawn on a map

3. Demarcated Boundary

• Boundaries defined by physical objects (walls, signs, fences)

4. Administered Boundary

• Government administered/ maintained boundary

5. Supranationalism

• The process of nation states organizing politically or economically into an alliance/ organization

6. UN

• United Nations. An intergovernmental organization that aims to maintain international peace and security, and serve as a center for coordinating the actions of member states.

  • Permanent council members: China, France, Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States

7. EU

• European Union. A political and economic union of 27 European countries that are committed to promoting integration and cooperation among its member states.

  • Members of the EU: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

8. NAFTA

• North American Free Trade Agreement. Established a free-trade zone in North America; it was signed in 1992 by Canada, Mexico, and the United States and took effect on Jan. 1, 1994. NAFTA immediately lifted tariffs on the majority of goods produced by the signatory nations.

9. NATO

• North Atlantic Treaty Organization (AKA North Atlantic Alliance). A political and military alliance of countries from Europe and North America. Its members are committed to protecting each other from any threat.

10. Autonomous Regions

• Areas within a country that have a degree of self-governance and independence, allowing them to manage their own affairs while still being part of the larger state.

11. Chokepoints

• Geographic locations where the flow of people and goods can be constricted and choked off in the event of a conflict. A choke point can be a strait, a mountain pass, a tunnel, or even a bridge.

12. Democratization

• The process of establishing representative and accountable forms of government led by popularly elected officials.

13. Devolution

• The delegation of legal authority from a central government to lower levels of political organization, such as a state or country.

14. Gerrymandering

• The process of manipulating electoral district boundaries to favor a particular political party or group.

15. Law of the Sea

• Each coastal nation has territorial sovereignty over 12 miles of water off their coast and maintains exclusive economic rights over 200 miles of water off their coast.

16. Federal States

• A country where governmental authority is shared among a central government and various other smaller, regional authorities.

17. Unitary States

• A state where laws are administered uniformly by one central government. There are no regional authorities who compete for power (like the United States)

18. Shatterbelts

• Regions that are politically fragmented and often subject to external pressures and conflicts, typically located between larger, more powerful nations.

States

19. Multinational States

• A state that is comprised of more than one nationality.

20. Multistate Nations

• Ethnic or cultural groups that exist across multiple state boundaries, forming a cohesive identity despite being divided by political borders.

21. Municipalities

• A city or town that has corporate status and local government.

22. Nations

• A group of people bound together by some sense of a common culture, ethnicity, language, shared history, and attachment to a homeland.

23. Nation-states

• A state in which the cultural borders of a nation correspond with the state borders of a country (ex. Japan, Iceland, Denmark)

24. Stateless Nations

• A nation of people without a state that it considers home (ex. Palestinians)

25. States

• A politically bound area controlled by an established government that has authority over its internal affairs and foreign policy.

26. Sovereign State

• When a state has total control over its internal and foreign affairs. A location claimed by such is called a territory.

27. Sovereignty

• The political authority of a state to govern itself.

Ethnicity

28. Apartheid

• The physical separation of different races into separate geographic areas.

29. Balkanization

• The breakup of a larger country into smaller independent states, often hostile to one another.

30. Centrifugal Force

• A force that brings people apart from one another in a nation.

31. Centripetal Force

• A force that brings people together in a nation.

32. Ethnic Cleansing

• The process by which a more powerful ethnic group forcibly removes a less powerful one in order to create their own nation or nation-state.

33. Ethnic Enclave

• A geographical area where a particular ethnic group is spatially clustered, and socially and economically distinct from the majority group.

34. Ethnicity

• Identity with a group of people who share a common identity with a specific homeland or hearth.

35. Genocide

• The deliberate, systematic destruction of a group of people because of their ethnicity, nationality, religion, or race.

36. Ghetto

• An area of a city in which people of an ethnic minority are confined either by official government policy or by economic and social obstacles that make it difficult for people of that ethnicity to exist outside of the ghetto.

37. Nationality

• Identity with a group of people who share legal attachment and personal allegiance to a country.

38. Race

• The categorization of humans into groups based on physical characteristics or ancestry.

39. Segregation

• The enforced separation of different racial, ethnic, or social groups within a society, often resulting in unequal access to resources and opportunities.