GEOG 1HA3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Geopolitics, Economic Globalization, North American Free Trade Agreement
3 Apr 2018
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Document Summary
Geopolitics: the study of the importance of space in understanding international relations: several current important geopolitical dimensions. Consider: the cold war and superpowers (usa, ussr) Consider: economic globalization and concentration of power in global alliances (nafta, eu) Modern countries: a series of geopolitical forces. 1. bringing together of politically diverse nation into one multinational sovereign nation i. e. canada or belgium. 2. the breaking apart of potentially similar nations into town or more sovereign states i. e czechoslovakia or yugoslavia. These geopolitical forces are known as centrifugal (tear apart states) forces & centripetal (bring states together) forces, these are present in every country. If centrifugal forces > centripetal forces the state is unstable & vice versa. Cultural homogeneity: lack of homogeneity leads to weak state identity. Cultural history: lack of collective history (former colonies), a history of mistreatment leading to resentment. State instability: results from cultural/national division within th state.
