GEOG101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 9: Friedrich Ratzel, German Reunification, Geopolitics
11 Dec 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
The development of political geography: aristotle is often considered the first political geographer, political geography the study of how politics is informed by geography, geopolitics foreign policy as a focus of state activity. The geopolitical model of the state: geopolitics - the state"s power to control space or territory and shape international political relations. Friedrich ratzel state behaves like a biological organism, with it growth and change seen as natural and inevitable. Boundaries and frontiers: boundaries enable territoriality to be defined and enforced, and allow conflict and competition to be managed and channelled. Formal boundaries that have some degree of permeability european union. Impermeability does not necessarily mean immutability: the boundary between east and west germany, part of the iron curtain for more than 40 years, was aggressively defended, yet it was removed in 1989 when germany reunified. Frontier regions: occur where boundaries are very weakly developed.
