PGE - Political Theories and State Cooperation Lesson

Political Theories and State Cooperation

Geography in Politics

• There are two main approaches to government:
  • Better in a nation-state setting with one main ethnicity
  • Some states have decided to ease tensions within their boundaries by using devolution to transfer power from a central government to regional governments - this can provide smaller ethnicities with the ability to rule themselves locally
  • UK to Scotland
• Unitary state - central government holds all power
• Federal state - central power allocates some power to smaller units within the state
• Democratization is occurring in regions all around the world through a number of government structures - it is believed that increasing democracies will increase human rights and economic development

• US electoral government
  • The US has a federal government with a representative democracy
  • The power within the country is given to the people within their federal, state or local district
  • The district lines within regions and areas are redrawn every 10 years - this reapportionment or redistricting occurs to allow for shifts in population to change the number of votes or size of a voting district
    • This can lead to political parties redrawing to help themselves, gerrymandering (illegal in the US)

Political Development Theories

• Geopolitical theorists have created three different models to explain the development of world powers over the last 200 years:
  • The organic theory was proposed by Friedrick Ratzel and was used by the Nazi leaders to explain the need for the Nazis to invade and expand into surrounding countries
  • This theory has been reputed and is no longer supported
  • During WWII and other time periods, countries have claimed land from other countries because people of the same culture live in that region - this is known as irredentism
  • For example, Palestinian claims to land within Israel
• Organic Theory - this theory states that a country must continue or grow and expand or risk weakening and losing power

• As powerful nations grew over the last 200 years, geographers and political scientists crafted theories about the balance of power on the world stage
  • The concept of world domination includes military, social, economic and cultural powers
• Heartland theory – this theory states that whichever powers or nations control the Eurasian landmass (prime agricultural land) will have the path towards world domination (Sir Halford Mackinder)
• Rimland theory – this theory states that whichever powers or nations control the waterways and islands around Eurasia will have the path towards world domination (Nicholas Spykman)

International Affairs

• International Organizations - alliances of two or more countries without giving up any autonomy

• Supranational Organizations - alliance of two or more states that are willing to give up some degree of sovereignty to benefit the shared goals of the group

United Nations

• • Following WWII the nations of the world came together to prevent a third world war and created the United Nations 
    • Membership is now at 193 countries
      • There are four nations that are recognized by the UN, but do not participate in voting or are stateless nations: Vatican City, Palestine, Kosovo and Taiwan
  • Once WWII was over, the only two remaining superpowers were the US and USSR - this made the balance of power reliant upon alliances
    • These countries fought for control during the Cold War
      • This included supporting other forces in wars in Vietnam and Korea
      • Closest to a direct war was the Cuban Missile Crisis
      • The US used containment to stop the spread of communism out of Eastern Europe and East Asia (with the exception of Cuba) – the fear was that if Southeast Asian countries began to fall they would become communist one after another (domino theory)
        • USSR put in governments in Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan and claimed the nations of Eastern Europe as Soviet satellite states (states controlled by a more powerful country)
        • US helped allies take control in the Dominican Republic, Grenada and Panama as well as helping throughout the Americas
  • During the Cold War the world was separated by the East-West divide (with communism in the east and capitalism in the west)
  • In current times the divide is more economic in nature, with the North-South divide (with more economically and technologically powerful countries located in the northern hemisphere)

Organization of the United Nations

• • The UN is divided into five main bodies (with the main offices located in NYC)
  • The Security Council has the most power and decides how to react to diplomatic, political and military disputes
    • Has 15 members – ten rotate every two years and represent different regions of the world
    • 5 permanent members can veto any decision
    • USA, Great Britain, France, Soviet Union and China
  • General Assembly is the policy making body and each nation has one vote

The 62nd General Assembly of the United Nations begins on September 25, 2007. According to tradition since the 1970's, a Brazilian gives the inaugural speech.

Alliances

• Military Alliances
  • The US headed the military alliance of NATO with Canada and Western European Members
  • (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
  • The USSR headed the Warsaw Pact with Eastern European (communist) nations
  • Also formed the COMECON to promote alliances among communist nations worldwide
  • Both groups were trying to keep the other from spreading (feared the domino effect)
  • The USSR wanted to build a buffer zone (two or more countries between conflicting states) between themselves and the west
  • • Buffer state is just one state between enemies
    • Sometimes these zones turn into shatterbelts which are fought over by the two enemies
  • At the end of the Cold War (1991) the Warsaw Pact was disbanded and NATO opened its membership to its old enemies

Terrorism

• The use of violence to intimidate or coerce desired actions - terrorism targets military and civilians alike
  • Domestic terrorism - i.e. Timothy McVeigh (federal building in Oklahoma City)
  • International terrorism – i.e. al-Qaeda, ISIS
  • There is state (government) sanctioned terrorism and countries such as Iraq, Iran, Libya and Afghanistan have been accused of supporting or hiding terrorists

Modern Alliances

• • The Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) works towards ending conflicts in Europe
  • The Organization of American States (OAS) works towards links among members
  • The Organization of African Unity (OAU) works to end colonialism and expand self-determinism in Africa
  • The Commonwealth of Nations seeks cooperation between former members of the British Empire
  • The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) are former Soviet territories seeking to aid each other
  • The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to support the growth and development of SE Asian countries

Economic Alliances – European Union

• • Since the last world war international power has shifted from solely military powers to include economic power as well
    • The European Union (EU) promotes development through economic cooperation with the 28 member states (built from the Benelux)
    • Establishing free trade protocols (reduced taxes and tariffs), open borders, and the euro (single official currency of 19 countries)
  • Members were originally simply western and wealthy (France, UK, etc) and there have been some repercussions for letting in weaker Eastern European nations
  • One of the strongest nations is Germany, who switched to an economic focus after losing both world wars
  • In 2017 the UK voted to leave the EU (the UK never adopted the euro as its official currency)

Economic Alliances - NAFTA

• • The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) promotes economic cooperation between the US, Canada and Mexico

Economic Alliances - OPEC

• • The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is an intergovernmental organization
    • There are 12 member countries and together they control over 40% of the world's oil supply - this allows the group to set prices internationally

Flash Cards

Select 'Turn' to see the hidden portion of the flash card. Select the arrows to move through the flashcard set.

Video Review

View the video below to learn more. To make the video full screen, Select the double arrows at the bottom right corner of the object.

IMAGES CREATED BY GAVS (General Assembly 1970's by Marcello Casal, Jr., Used under a CCBY Brazil license, via commons.wikimedia.org, Creative Commons License Attribution)