Geopolitics Flashcards
origins of geopol
late 19th century, geog intoduced to higher education
mao making, navigation, exploration, less intellectual discussion
imperialism
Ratzel
Created scientific basis for relationship between states, each state is an organism, engaged in struggle with one another to survive. (no peaceful coexistence, conflict is inevitable, legitimises and depoliticises conflict)
Rudolf Kjellen 1899
coined term geopol, strived for science of political procesess
Mackinder
use geopolitical ideas as mechanism for predicting future
heartland thesis (1904)
sea power waning, land power increasing
eurocentric
Petr Kroptkin
argues Darwinism is as much about cooperation as conflict, pointed out colonial history of struggling nations
Nazi expansionism
Karl Haushofer - Lebensraum, states are like organisms, need space
Germany lacked land and potential
Newspaper for geopol
Post WWII politcal context
geopol as a practice diminished
geog as a discipline moved towards quantification and postivism
Yves Lacoste 1973
criticise US militarism in Vietnam
challenge representations of conflict
went to vietnam to map where dykes have been bombed, concluded US were bombing locations to maximise civillian harm
O Tuathail 1986
laid foundation for critical geopol
critiqued deterministic approach - ignores political and ideological process shaping geopolitical decisions
how discorse, power and ideology shape understanding of global pol
foucault on power
rejected traditional views of power, it operates across networks and institutions
shift from hard power to discourses and norms
“knowlegde is power”, geopolitical knowledge, maps, intelligence reports etc are not neutral, reflect interests of producers
orientalism and discourse
Siad (1978), production od discourse of the orient as backwart, deviant and submissive in european art, literature
legitimised and permitted colonialism
development and geopol
escobar (1995), int dev is a discourse produced after WWII
legitimises intervention in ‘underdeveloped states’
popular geopolitics
explores how geopolitical ideas are conveyed through popular artefacts
top gun - military anxiety, masculinity
sites of geopolitical discourse
formal (academics, intellectuals)
practical (politicians)
popular (musicians, artists, film)
social media branches all three
political context of unipolar world
immediate post cold war
fall of berlin war, ideological struggle of history is over
liberal democracy has won
fragmentation of yugoslavia into 7 states
could be viewed as wars requiring intervention (bosnia - ethnic cleansing, genocide)
humanitarian crisis (refugee)
foreign interention risked involvement in unwinnable conflict (vietnam quagmire)
western militarism
9/11, localised with global impacts
‘war on terror’ 20th september, binary storyline
act of war, legitimising US freedom to respond
connected to attacks on afghanistan 2001 and iraq 2003
alternative discourses to militarism
Treat the act as a crime, rather than act of war. Seek international judicial response, involving a form of patience.
colonial/imperial legacies. A product of the ‘colonial present’
discursive interventions make certain policies appear feasible (Kuus, 2007)
legacies of US militarism
Images and narratives glorify military power.
Continued currency of 9’11 comparison, October 7th compared (Biden, 2023)
Study of newspapers in arab world, cartoonists ridicule moral foundations of US, cartons did not create this view, it already existed
rise of feminist geopol
1960’s, critical geographies splintered, rise of feminist and marxist geog
masculinist rationality must be seperated from field of study to provide independent observation (Rose 1993)
all observations are embodied, therefore contain baises
Women and Geography studdy group (WGSG) in RGS
Interest in positionality, how our own identity shapes experience and topics of research
Concerned with transformation
Should not be thought as separate from mainstream geography
Challenges mainstream geographical accounts
Multiple scales, body, home, locality. How geopolitical ideas present themselves in everyday lives
Situated nature of critical geopolitics
Nioxiolo 2007
Significance of intersectionality, difference between races, class, disability, and how they compound marginalisation - shape unique vulnerabilities
auction block as site designed for commodification of black bodies, scales of plantation, region, and global slave trade.
Koopman 2011
‘alter-geopolitics’, examining grassroots struggles to build solidarity.
Examines protective accompaniment in Colombia, where US citizens accompany activists or threataned communities (foriegn, white, people, whose harm would draw more attention)
White saviour idea.
Intimate geopol
clark 2017 - focuses on refuge, belief, and peace as counterpoints to representations of the region (middle east) in popular geopolitics in terms such as displacement, religious radicalism or violence
neoclassical geopolitics
emphasises structure of international system, distribution of power
includes analysis of geography and resources (classical) , domestic factors, int system
Jeffery, 2023
open-source intelligence, blurred lines between military and civillian actors
Night wolves motorcylcle gang
ultra-nationalist group in rissia
orthodox chrisitan
role as a diplomatic actor
several pilgramages
strenghtens relationship between russia and localised area in serbia
Geopol of deathscapes
Maddrell 2021
access to cemeteries in the UK
inadequate access for certain marginalised groups
prioritisung christian burials
what is a decolonial approach
“Decolonial thinking strives to delink itself from the imposed dichotomies articulated in the West” (Mignolo, 2017)
- fears losing its status of rational mastery by promoting the importance of emotions over reason.
positionality
revising history, forgotten and marginalised works (Du bois)
malcom X, intellectual force, sought to form a geopolitics of global Black solidarity - shifted focus from civil to human rights (casted systemic racism as a global, noral and political crisis
subaltern geopol
lowest rank in colonial military
grassroots, intersectionality
exploring political strategies shown by those who are marginalsied
geopolitical knowledge outside western culture
Zika and Meghan Markle
2016, SA most prominent, Rio Olympics
WHO, public health emergency
Meghan pulled out of trip to Zambia due to concerns, no recorded cases, had visited higher risk areas such as tonga prior
Bias of daily mail, geopol of disease
NZ response
Stopped students, temporary visa holders from entering
By closing the border, the border becomes a vital representation in distinguishing between safe and unsafe
does the disease adhere to sovereign borders?
New spatial units in ANZ
the bubble - geopol unit, official gov messaging, a boundary
cluster - collection of covid cases can allocate as originating from the same spreading event
shatters image of state being single territory with single border, ‘geopolitical nesting’, units stack to have some control over the virus
Iwi-led checkpoints
17% if population identify as Maori
Colonised by britain in 1800’s
Bi-racial postcolonial state
Violent history of colonial harms
Living memories of devastation caused by 1918 pandemic (died at 6-7x the rate)
Maori created their own borders around their communities, in order to protect themselves. A manifestation of Tino Rangatiratanga (self-determination).
Positive example of co-governance, sense of partnership.
Some saw it as an illegitimate act, publicly questioned and criticized.
geopolitics of care
rhetoric of kindness prominent in NZ
focused on the people, rather than the virus as and enemy
reparing broken relationship between state and inhabitants
Dittmer et al., 2014
founders of geopol created view that conflict was imminent, neccesary and inevitable
western media have poor representation of the middle east
imperialism definition
practice of enacting power over group or territory (jeffery 2011)
colonialism definition
stablishment and maintenance of rule, by a sovereign power over a subordinate and alien people that is separate from the ruling power (Watts)
environmental determinism
racist categorisations legitimising imperial conquest
Semple determined that climate and topography of an environment affects the population in uniform ways
Panama canal construction - white people ‘unsuited’ to conduct manual work, natives hired and exploited. (acclimatisation debate)
quantification of geog (jefferey 2014)
Intellectual reasons - expand disciplinary prestige
Political reasons - critique to philosophical assumptions of geography, Ratzel’s role in the rise and justification of Nazi Germany
Barnes, 2001, quantitative revolution introduced a range of new methods and perspective, some accepted some rejected
