Brainscape's Knowledge GenomeTM

Browse over 1 million classes created by top students, professors, publishers, and experts.


See full index

Edexcel A Level Geography > Superpowers > Flashcards

Superpowers Flashcards

You may prefer our related Brainscape-certified flashcards:
U.S. Geography flashcards World Geography flashcards
1
Q

How are powers defined demographically?

A
  • Links to the size of the econ by reflecting level of Human Resources (workforce)
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

How are powers defined economically?

A
  • Need a strong econ, high GDP, trade, TNCs
  • Strong currency
  • Large econ = more power as determine most countries’ imports and exports
  • Can spend more on tech + military
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

How are powers defined militarily?

A
  • Can invest more in weapons, research, intelligence networks
  • Have larger global reach through physical force
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

How are powers defined culturally?

A
  • Rich, popular, appealing cultural history

- Cultural diffusion

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

How are powers defined through access to natural resources?

A
  • Secure control in terms of energy and water etc.
  • Resource nationalism or trade to aid economy (high demand)
  • Plus geo-strategic control e.g. Suez Canal
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

How was power maintained by direct colonial control (imperial era and Britain)?

A
  • Colonies extend inland, conquer territories, tech/infrastructure to connect empire together
  • British Empire held 25% of the world’s land area
  • TNCs extracted resources for Industrial Revolution
  • Huge naval power, railway networks, steamships
  • Spread of English language, sports
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

What is the importance of the characteristics defining superpowers in maintaining status?

A
  • The US invests in developing + periphery countries for industrial change/repaying loans
  • Able to control their economic decisions, spread culture through brands, countries feel the need to pay back USA
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

What is Mackinder’s geo-strategic location theory?

A
  • 1900s, the Heartland theory, controlling East Europe = control Heartland and therefore whole world
  • Command of their physical and human resources
  • 1950s, containment of spread of communism via Soviet Union, China, Cuba
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

What is hard power?

A
  • Military action or threats
  • Economic + military alliances to marginalise others
  • Economic sanctions to damage other economies
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

What is soft power?

A
  • Education promotes ideology, media for values and news for messages
  • Religion reinforces politics
  • Cultural hegemony as majority accept it as common sense (can involve global brands)
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

How does the effectiveness of hard and soft power vary?

A
  • BRICS is mainly soft power, popular and widespread culture e.g. Bollywood
  • Still use hard power with high military expenditure, investments, buying land and resources
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

What is BRICS?

A
  • Brazil, Russia, India, China and added S Africa in 2010
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

How are BRICS and G20 important to global economic systems?

A
  • New Development Bank to compete with IMF ($500bn budget)
  • Contingent Reserve Arrangements vs World Bank ($100bn budget)
  • Attempts at reform in IMF and World Bank by G20
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

What is the G20?

A
  • 19 countries plus the EU (excluded Russia)
  • 85% of world’s economy
  • No enforcement, based on peer pressure
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

How are G20 and BRICS important to global env governance?

A
  • Effect of manufacturing and pollution esp China and Amazon deforestation
  • Typically hypocritical as CC agreements are ineffective and leaders are not sustainable (private jets)
  • Brazil, China, Russia didn’t attend Paris CC agreement
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

What is the dependency theory?

A
  • Core and periphery depend on each other but disproportionate power
  • Core receives political support, raw materials, brain drain, debt repayments
  • Periphery receives aid, manufactured goods, polluting industry, political and economic ideas
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

What does multi-faceted, indirect control involve?

A
  • Political: foreign aid to buy support, dominance in international decisions, disproportionate influence
  • Economic: Trade blocs + deals for economic alliance, interdependency, IMF/WTO/World Bank
  • Military: joint operations, global threat of armed forces, selective arms trading to allies
  • Cultural: global media + TNCs to spread ideology, values through consumer culture
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

What is the neo-colonial mechanism of poor terms of trade?

A
  • Developing countries export low value goods

- Import expensive, manufactured goods

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

What is the neo-colonial mechanism of a debt-aid relationship?

A
  • A country owes money for past loans

- But their poverty means they’re dependent on foreign aid (country giving aid can control them)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
20
Q

What is the neo-colonial mechanism of brain drain?

A
  • The brightest and most productive people migrate to developed countries
  • Makes economic development harder as this creates a further disadvantage
  • Don’t have a solid workforce
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
21
Q

What environmental weaknesses inhibit Russia’s future geopolitical role? (maybe an emerging power now)

A
  • Threat of deforestation caused by extensive logging
  • Rate has increased due to foreign logging operations
  • Lack of adequate funding for parks and other personnel
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
22
Q

What cultural weaknesses inhibit Russia’s future geopolitical role?

A
  • Tension between legitimacy of central government across vast spaces
  • Competing ethnic claims to chunks of national territory
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
23
Q

What military weaknesses inhibit Russia’s future geopolitical role?

A
  • NATO is Russia’s no. 1 military threat

- Considering broader use of precision weapons to deter foreign aggression

24
Q

What political weaknesses inhibit Russia’s future geopolitical role?

A
  • Russia could be flooded with European goods without tariffs due to existing free trade regime between Kiev and Moscow
25
Q

What are the Kondratiev cycles?

A
  • They look at world history in 50-60 yr cycles
  • 4 stages: prosperity, recession, depression, improvement (prosperity from investment/wealth with infrastructure projects)
  • Chinese investment changes power rship
26
Q

What cycles have the UK gone through?

A
  • Growth: based on telecommunications and social inequality
  • Stagflation: inefficient work with high unemployment, spending on wars
  • Deflationary: careful public spending = protectionism = LT unemployment
  • Depression: need to resolve social shift, public sector to kickstart investment with new tech
27
Q

What is the World Systems Theory?

A
  • Objects to Marxist 2 tier world, static of rich-poor

- Believes in 3 tiers where change occurs in (semi)periphery through class struggle and social change

28
Q

How do superpowers influence the global economy? (IGOs)

A
  • World Bank: assistance to developing countries, end poverty
  • WTO: manage global rules of trade
  • IMF: economic reform, TNCs access developing countries
  • World Economic Forum: promote globalisation w annual meetings
29
Q

How superpowers influence economy through free trade and capitalism?

A
  • Promoting no taxes or quotas that restrict volumes of trade, encourages others to trade with them
  • Capitalism promotes wealth creation + accumulation, people make profits for themselves
  • Creates wealth disparity and countries/individuals struggle financially with little to no help
  • Equals disproportionate power
30
Q

Public vs state-led TNCs

A
  • Public: shareholders own, benefit and profit from operations
  • State-led: states sometimes control operations e.g. Emirates, not typically global brands
31
Q

How do TNCs dominate the global economy and cultural globalisation?

A
  • Economies of scale can outcompete
  • Free market means selling goods to new consumers in emerging countries
  • Change consumer mindset
  • Appeal with brand value (consumerism, capitalism + absorbing best aspects of another culture)
32
Q

What does global cultural influence involve?

A
  • Glocalisation but retain significant elements

- e.g. McDonalds fast food culture but different menus

33
Q

What is westernisation?

A
  • Adoption of Western culture

- Form of soft power

34
Q

How is global cultural influence linked to economic influence and tech?

A
  • Vertical integration, buy small/local companies (can change some values to make them more western)
  • Importance of having latest tech and solving problems
  • Tech facilitates trade and exchange, reinforcing cultural message
35
Q

What is intellectual property licensing?

A
  • Patents for new inventions, technology and systems
  • Copyright for artistic work
  • Trademark for designs e.g logos
36
Q

How do TNCs dominate economies through terms of technology? (Intellectual property)

A
  • Leads to westernisation as patents mean no local reproduction
  • Superpowers are paid for inventions they created decades ago
  • Developed TNCs can invest in research+development so patent holders become patent developers
  • Over 85% of royalties are paid to US, EU, Japan
37
Q

What is the global system of intellectual property rights?

A
  • Run by the WIPO, part of the UN
  • Prevents stolen ideas
  • Incentive to innovate and justifies initial costs of R+D
38
Q

How are intellectual property rights undermined by counterfeiting?

A
  • Includes pharmaceuticals, electrical goods and software
  • Costs up to $80 bn/yr
  • 75% is Chinese production, lack cooperation w US State Department
39
Q

What resource demands are there from superpowers?

A
  • Food: deforestation for crops/pastures, agriculture = 20% of GHG emissions
  • Fossil fuels: industrial pollutants high in atmosphere = acid rain, used in industry + domestically
  • Minerals: China manufacturing cheap goods that others depend on
40
Q

How do resource demands cause environmental degradation?

A
  • Over intensive farming without crop rotation means declining soil quality (same nutrients all year)
  • Atmospheric pollution + GHGs
  • Oil spills as extract more quickly to keep up
41
Q

How do superpower carbon emissions contribute disproportionately to CC?

A
  • Brazil’s food production increased 25% from 2002-12
  • China is the main importer and consumer of coal (makes up 50% of global consumption)
  • China responsible for 30% of emissions in 2015
42
Q

What are China’s and Russia’s willingness to reduce carbon emissions?

A
  • Countries need to be willing but tragedy of the commons = self interest
  • China: doesn’t want economic ruin or famine but poor env reputation needs to be challenged
  • Russia: surplus of carbon credit, focusing on nanotechnology but natural gas surplus
43
Q

What are USA’s and the EU’s willingness to reduce carbon emissions?

A
  • USA: wants liberalism not government intervention, influential CC sceptics
  • EU: want to protect farmers and manufacturers but does enforce carbon markets
44
Q

What do global agreements on environmental issues depend on?

A
  • Requires shame and peer pressure
  • One country acts selfish/selfless, others follow
  • Need tech, income, political partners
  • World follows superpowers due to markets/innovation, maybe should act independently
45
Q

How does the growing middle-class in emerging superpowers affect key resources?

A
  • Begin to spend more on tech but west already did so no longer invest as much
  • Non-renewable resources so high demand pressures supply
46
Q

What is the availability and cost of rare earths?

A
  • Superpowers extract materials from overseas through TNCs to fuel supply
  • China produces 85% of world’s supply
  • Rare earth’s toxic content seeps into groundwater
  • 2000 tonnes of waste for every tonne produced
47
Q

What is the availability and cost of oil?

A
  • Direct political challenge over key resources as middle class requires more energy until efficiency increases
  • Political damage to developing/emerging countries from extraction
48
Q

What is the availability and cost of staple grains and water?

A
  • China and India increase demand (wheat, rice etc)
  • Transition to western diets = more meat and dairy
  • Use of appliances e.g. dishwashers
  • 70% used for agriculture
49
Q

What implications does a growing emerging middle-class have for the environment?

A
  • Problem disposing consumer waste
  • Consumption = resource extraction = ST challenges e.g. pollution and LT e.g. habitat destruction + degradation
  • CO2 emissions with more energy consumption
50
Q

How does acquisition of Arctic oil and gas create tensions?

A
  • Oil been exploited since its discovery
  • Because economic growth is needed to legitimise power
  • And depleting source of non-renewables so need to find more
  • Supply and demand in market, energy security
51
Q

How is ownership in the Arctic disputed?

A
  • TNCs and negotiation with foreign governments ignores indigenous wishes (40 groups)
  • Ocean territory of 200 nautical miles north of coastline overlap
  • Some use military power
52
Q

What disagreements exist over acquisition of physical resources?

A
  • Green politics with environmental activists
  • Pollution, GHGs, habitat destructions
  • Environmental limitations influence political legitimacy in local areas
53
Q

What forms of exploitation do tensions arise over?

A
  • Increase in tourism especially with sea ice cover retreating
  • Icebreaker vessels creates routes for shipping, leading to pollution of water and atmosphere
  • Over fishing and under reporting
54
Q

What are political spheres of influence?

A
  • Spatial extent of level of control
  • Reference from colonialism, areas of the world linked by same culture
  • Hard and soft power
55
Q

How are spheres of influence contested?

A
  • Over new resources that are found
  • Exaggerated military threats, a changed balance of power
  • Those on the edge/periphery can become contested e.g. A8
56
Q

How is there open conflict over territory and physical resources?

A
  • China is developing nuclear armed power
  • Threaten aircrafts in international airspace
  • China and Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zones overlap
57
Q

What implications do contested spheres of influence have for people and the environment?

A
  • China still has rural poverty, pollution and HRs issues
  • Money invested in open conflict rather than people and env
  • Derails progress as emerging power, less GDP invested in services and env protection

Edexcel A Level Geography (15 decks)

Brainscape helps you reach your goals faster, through stronger study habits.
© 2024 Bold Learning Solutions. Terms and Conditions