8.2

Define and give examples of countries:

•Nation

•Nation State

•State

•Multi-nation State

•Multi-state Nation

A. Multi-State Nation: Eg. Palestinians have no state. They are spread over Israel, Jordan and Syria.

B. Nation State: Eg. Iceland is a country entirely comprised of Icelanders.

C. Multi-Nation State: Eg. Belgium is made up of Flemings (north) and Walloons (south). Canada can also be considered a Multi-Nation State.

D. Albanians live in Albania, but a number of Albanians also live in a new state called Kosovo (recently part of Serbia)

E. Most of Hungarians live in Hungary, but there is a group that lives in the middle of Romania.

F. Multi-Nation State: Eg. Russia has over 100 different nationalities. The USSR ceased to exist in part because a lot of these nationalities wanted their own country.

G. Eg. The majority of people in France are French but there are two small groups the Bretons and Basques.

H. Eg. There are two German states; Germany and Austria but 70% of Switzerland is German speaking.

Why are nation-states difficult to create?

Nation-states and Multinational States

– A state that contains more than one ethnicity is a multi-ethnic state.

• Multitude of ethnicities in some cases all contribute cultural features to the formation of a single nationality. e.g. United States of America

– A multinational state is a country that contains more than one ethnicity with traditions of self-determination. e.g. Russia

Nation-states and Multinational States– Nation-States in Europe

• Denmark– 90% of population are ethnic Danes– Nearly all Danes speak Danish

» Nearly all world’s Danish speakers live in Denmark

• Slovenia– 83% of population are ethnic Slovenes– Nearly all of the world’s Slovenes live in Slovenia

– Former Soviet Union consisted of 15 republics based on its 15 largest ethnicities.

• 15 republics became15 independent states consisting of five groups.

Independent Nation-States in Former Soviet Republics 1

• Three Baltic States– Estonia

• Mostly Protestant (Lutheran)• Speak a Uralic language related to Finnish

– Latvia• Mostly Protestant (Lutheran)• Speak a language of the Baltic group

– Lithuania• Mostly Roman Catholic• Speak a language of the Baltic group within the Balto-Slavic

branch of the Indo-European language family

Independent Nation-States in Former Soviet Republics 2

• Three European States1. Belarus2. Ukraine3. Moldova– Three states speak similar East Slavic languages– All are predominantly Orthodox Christians.

• Some western Ukrainians are Roman Catholics

• Five Central Asian States– Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan

• Predominantly Muslims• Speak an Altaic language

Independent Nation-States in Former Soviet Republics 3

• Five Central Asian States cont’d– Kyrgyzstan

• Predominantly Muslims• Speak an Altaic language

– Kazakhstan• Predominantly Muslims• Speak an Altaic language

– Tajikistan• Predominantly Muslims• Speak a language in the Indic group of the Indo-Iranian branch

of Indo-European language family.

The Largest Multinational State: Russia 1

• Russia’s 39 ethnicities are clustered in two principal locations.

1. Along borders with neighboring states• Buryats and Tuvinian near Mongolia• Chechens, Dagestani, Kabardins, and Ossetians near the

Azerbaijan and Georgia

2. Clustered in the center of Russia, especially between the Volga River basin and the Ural Mountains.• Most numerous ethnicities include Bashkirs, Chuvash, and

Tatars.

The Largest Multinational State: Russia 2

• Turmoil in the Caucasus– Caucasus region is situated between the Black and

Caspian seas.• Home to several ethnicities including Azeris, Armenians, and

Georgians.• With the breakup of the region into independent countries,

long-simmering conflicts among ethnicities have erupted into armed conflicts.

– Russia has resisted the independence movement in Chechnya:» Feared that other ethnicities would continue to follow» Region filled with resources (petroleum)

Colonies 1• Colonialism

– A colony is a territory that is legally tied to a sovereign state rather than being completely independent.

• Sovereign state may run only its military and foreign policy.• Sovereign state may also control its internal affairs.

– European states came to control much of the world through colonialism/imperialism, an effort by one country to establish settlement in a territory and to impose its political, economic, and cultural principles on that territory.

• Promote Christianity, establish power, access to markets and raw materials

Colonies 2

• The Remaining Colonies– U.S. Department of State lists 68 places in the world

that it calls dependencies and areas of special sovereignty.

• 43 indigenous populations• 25 with no permanent population• Most current colonies are islands in the Pacific Ocean and

Caribbean Sea.– Ex. Puerto Rico, a commonwealth of the U.S., is home to 4 million

residents who are U.S. citizens, but they do not participate in U.S. election or have a voting member of Congress.

Geopolitics

Considers the strategic value of land and sea area in the context of

national economic and military power and ambitions

Geopolitics sometimes refers to how countries, especially world powers are concerned about what other countries are doing in the sense of political ideology and the allies they keep.

Countries will strategically align themselves with others so that they can have influence on other countries.

There are a number of theories, that try and explain why countries do what they do in terms of allies, enemies, trade, embargoes, expansion, influence and conflict.

Geopolitics & the Global Order 1• Geopolitics

– The study of how geographical space—including the types of relationships between states, the different functions of states, and the different patterns of states—affects global politics.

– Key early thinkers were Mackinder, Mahan, De Seversky

– Also many used by Nazis to justify German expansion

• Lebensraum, or living space

Geopolitics & the Global Order 2• U.S. foreign policy

after World War II– Containment to stop

Soviet influence in nonaligned countries

• George Kennan– Belief in the domino

theory, or a fear that if one country became communist, others would follow, like falling dominos

Heartland Theory - Halford Mackinder (1861-1947)

•Eurasia (Europe and Asia) is considered the World Island - it is the largest in area and in population (in the world). Its interior is called the Heartland - it is the most inaccessible area in the world - by water. It’s coastlines are vulnerable - but not the interior which is dominated by Eastern Europe.

•Who rules Eastern Europe commands the Heartland. The Heartland would be the base for world conquest.

•Who rules the Heartland commands the entire World Island.

•Who rules the World Island rules the rest of the World.

Mackinder’s View

•The Heartland Theory is based on Sea Power!

•Not valid today since we can attack with Air Power and ICBM’s (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles)

•But think of History - Think of Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler. They both went after Eastern Europe first.

•Think of the U.S.S.R. and their attempt to expand by taking over Eastern Europe (Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia etc. Think of Vietnam, think of North Korea.

•The USSR tried to set up an Iron Curtain. The USA used a plan called Containment. When the Soviets moved to North Korea the US contained them by moving into South Korea. The Soviets mover to North Vietnam and the US moved into South Vietnam

Heartland Theory

The Heartland Theory

Rimland Theory - Nicholas Spykman (1894-1943)

•Eurasia was the key to world domination, but the coastal regions were more important than the interior (heartland)

•The Coastal regions had a large population, resources, ports and access and control over the seas.

•Control the coast and your control the interior - this was the Rimland Theory.

•Again the Soviet Union has always been desperate to have control over land that has access to water, especially a warm water port. That is why they tried Korea, Vietnam, Cuba and Afghanistan. They want Eastern Europe to get access to the Black Sea.

Rimland Theory

Rimland Theory

Domino Theory

The USA believed that countries and their adjacent neighbours are lined up like dominoes and if one fell to communism the others would follow.

Again that is why the US has intervened in Vietnam, Korea, Central America, The Balkans and now the Middle East. By the way if you look at Iraq - it is in the center of the Middle East - the heartland of the middle east.

Also to maintain the Balance of Power.

Geopolitics & the Global Order 3• Post-Cold War geopolitics:

– Geopolitical regions formed by spatial contiguity and political, cultural, military, & economic interaction

– Shatterbelts• Regions that are politically fragmented and often zones of

competition between ideological or religious realms

• Critical geopolitics:– Used to explain the ways state boundaries are

perceived, relationships between states, and the ways the world is portrayed

The End