UNIT 4_POLITICAL PATTERNS

Islamic culture was imposed on many of the people in Albania, Kosovo, and present-day Bosnia and Bulgaria.

At the same time, a majority of the Slavic-speaking people retained their Christian religion, but even Christianity was divided between Roman Catholicism and Orthodox Christian. The relationships between these different groups of people were frequently antagonistic and led to continuous conflict in the region.

Shatterbelts are regions of continuing and persistent fragmentation due to devolution.

Shatterbelts sometimes act as buffer zones between independent states that are hostile to one another.

They typically have a high level of religious, linguistic, and ethnic diversity, combined with a high level of hostility among the groups living there.

Buffer states are independent but politically and economically weak countries lying between the borders of two powers, potentially belligerent empires or countries.

The Balkan Peninsula is bordered by the Adriatic Sea on the east and the Black Sea to the west with two great empires, Austria-Hungary to the north and the Ottoman Empire to the south.

Some boundaries are created by treaties. For example, the boundaries of many African nations were created by the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885.

In the early 1880s, European interest in Africa increased dramatically when the European powers became aware of Africa’s valuable resources.

This period of colonialization eliminated or overrode most existing forms of African autonomy and self-governance, and it formed boundaries that mostly stayed in place after World War II.

4.10 Consequences of Centrifugal and Centripetal Forces

Enduring Understanding: Political, economic, cultural, or technological changes can challenge state sovereignty.

Learning Objectives: Explain how the concepts of centrifugal and centripetal forces apply at the state scale.

Essential Knowledge: Centrifugal forces may lead to failed states, uneven development, stateless nations, and ethnic nationalist movements.

Centripetal forces can lead to ethnonationalism, more equitable infrastructure development, and increased cultural cohesion.

Terms to Know:

centripetal force

centrifugal force

failed state

uneven development

infrastructure

nationalism

iconography

A failed state is one whose political or economic system has become so weak that the government is no longer in control.

Centrifugal forces are political variables that disrupt internal order, feed devolutionary forces, and encourage territorial fragmentation, threatening the cohesion of a country.

A demilitarized zone (DMZ) is an area in which treaties or agreements between nations, military powers, or contending groups forbid military installations, activities, or personnel.

When the government is unable to control its people or resources, the political system collapses, and civil liberties and human rights go unprotected.

Yemen was the most fragile state in 2019 as a result of its civil war, which pits the Iran-aligned Houthi movement again Yemen’s Saudi-backed government.

For your project you must answer the following questions.

1. Identify the issue to be addressed?

2. Explain the significance of the issue to the region/world?

3. Describe the two sides of the issue?

4. Describe how the international community views the issue?

5. Identify and explain potential impacts if the issue cannot be resolved?

6. Identify and explain potential impacts if the issue can be resolved?

You must provide an outline of your project and a bibliography with five sources, a minimum of two cannot be a website reference. PDF article, from the Internet, does not count as a website reference.

You may use any style of citation, for your bibliography.

In other cases, the state breaks apart peacefully, forming new countries—for example, the Czech Republic (Czechia) and Slovakia.

However, when a majority ethnic group controls the state, minority ethnic groups can be economically, politically, and culturally marginalized, producing strong centrifugal forces.

Define and Explain how gerrymandering can occur during a state's redistricting process.

Identify and discuss TWO forms of gerrymandering that could result from redistricting.

Ultimately, the conference led to the colonial partitioning of Africa and heightened colonial activity by European powers.

From the beginning of European colonialism, rival empires have sought to protect their territories.

The historical result was the maintenance of weak states that served the interests of more powerful states.

Two specific colonial strategies were the creation and maintenance of buffer states and satellite states that protected the boundaries of empires.

The existence of two or more culturally distinct regions with national boundaries can be a centrifugal force.

In some instances, the groups coexist somewhat peacefully—for example, the Walloons and Flemish in Belgium.

Uneven development refers to the situation in which core states have advanced economies and a high standard of living while peripheral states have relatively little industrial development, simple production systems based mostly on raw materials, and low levels of consumption of manufactured goods.

Centripetal forces include nationalism and ethnonationalism, infrastructure development, and cultural cohesion.

Stateless nations, such as the Kurds in Central Asia, can be a centrifugal force in the nations whose territory they occupy.

Uneven development at the region or country level can and does cause unrest within a country or a region, but uneven development occurs on the local scale as well.

Most democratic countries divide their territories into voting districts or precincts as a way to organize voting.

Ethnonationalism is a form of nationalism in which the nation is defined in terms of ethnic identity.

Nationalism is a sense of belonging to and self-identifying with a national culture; people with a strong sense of nationalism derive a significant part of their social identity from a sense of belonging to a nation.

Oct 31 - Mon: Review Unit 3 Test

Nov 1 - Tue: Topic 4.1 Intro to Political Geo/ Project Requirements

Nov 2 - Wed: Topic 4.2 Political Processes/Seminar Reading

Nov 3 - Thu: Topic 4.3 Political Power & Territoritality/Awards

Nov 4 - Fri: Topic 4.4 Defining Political Boundaries/ 2period (Topic 4.3)

Nov 7 - Mon Socratic Seminar: Sovereignty vs Globalization Group 1 2period (Topic 4.4)

Nov 8 - Tue Socratic Seminar: Sovereignty vs Globalization Group 2 2nd Period

Nov 9 - Wed Topic 4.5 The Function of Political Boundaries/ Reading Quiz

Nov 10 - Thu Topic 4.6 Internal Boundaries

Nov 11 - Fri /Outline and Bibliography Due

Nov 14 - Mon Topic 4.7 Forms of Governance/ Practice FRQ

Nov 15 - Tue Topic 4.8 Defining Devolutionary Factors/ Map Quiz

Nov 16 - WedTopic 4.9 Challenges to Sovereignty/Vocab Quiz

Nov 17 - Thu Topic 4.10 Consequences of Centrifugal & Centripetal ForcesReading Quiz

Nov 18 - Half Day Gallery Walk/ Rough Draft

Nov 28 Mon Socratic Seminar Group 2

Nov 29 Tue Progress Check

Nov 30 Wed Half Day/First Draft of Project

Dec 1 - Thu FRQ Test

Dec 2 - Fri MCQ Test

Another important centripetal force is cultural cohesion, which occurs when the members of a society are culturally united.

In a nation-state, cultural cohesion is easier to attain than in most multicultural modern states.

The governments of multicultural societies promote nationalism to integrate different groups into a unified population, often by using iconography, a set of traditional symbols or symbolic forms associated with the country and its citizens.

The best-known symbols of nationalism for most any country are its flag and national anthem.

In some countries, a state religion is a unifying force, such as Buddhism in Thailand, Hinduism in Nepal, Judaism in Israel, and Islam in Pakistan.

The importance of these symbols is the recognition that together they work as centripetal forces that unite the people as citizens of a specific country.

Unifying institutions are also important to cultural cohesion.

Students in school learn about the history, values, and traditions of their country.

Usually, instruction is given in a common language, which is usually the country’s official language.

Nationalism helps integrate different groups into a unified population that accepts the ideologies and laws of the state and participates in a way of life that is different from life in other countries.

Communication systems, can be a factor in devolution, can also work to a country’s advantage.

A good communication system is an important centripetal force that, like transportation, promotes interaction between areas.

During elections for congressional and senate representatives, the votes from all the local voting districts are tallied for each specific district, and the winner is the person who received the most votes.

United States as an example, we know that it is a federation of 50 states and that each state is subdivided into counties or parishes. These divisions are further broken down into municipalities, townships, and special districts such as school districts and voting districts.

Transportation systems today promote interaction between areas, joining them economically and socially, and unifying the country.

Infrastructure refers to the high-cost investments, such as airports, interstate highways, and power plants, that are vital to a country’s economic and social development and prosperity.

The national election to select a president of the United States is handled differently. The president is not elected directly by popular vote, but rather by the Electoral College.

Enduring Understanding: Political boundaries and divisions of governance, between states and within them, reflect balances of power that have been negotiated or imposed.

Learning Objectives: Explain the nature and function of international and internal boundaries.

Essential Knowledge: Voting districts, redistricting, and gerrymandering affect election results at various scales.

4.6 Internal Boundaries

4.5 The Function of Political Boundaries

Enduring Understanding: Political boundaries and divisions of governance, between states and within them, reflect balances of power that have been negotiated or imposed.

Learning Objectives: Explain the nature and function of international and internal boundaries.

Essential Knowledge:

Boundaries are defined, delimited, demarcated, and administered to establish limits of sovereignty, but they are often contested.

Political boundaries often coincide with cultural, national, or economic divisions. However, some boundaries are created by demilitarized zones or policy, such as the Berlin Conference.

Land and maritime boundaries and international agreements can influence national or regional identity and encourage or discourage international or internal interactions and disputes over resources.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea defines the rights and responsibilities of nations in the use of international waters, established territorial seas, and exclusive economic zones.

As the number of states has increased, so have boundary disputes

• There are four main disputes

• Definitional- disagreement about treaty

• Locational - disagreement about location

• Operational - disagreement about how it is administered (open vs closed borders)

• Allocational - disputes over access to natural resources

Boundaries mark the limits of state sovereignty.

Boundaries are

• defined (by treaty),
• delimited (mapped),
• demarcated (marked), and
• defended(administered)

to establish limits of sovereignty, but they are often contested.

Terms to Know:

• voting districts
• redistricting
• gerrymandering
• electoral college

Key Terms to Know:

• demilitarized zone
• Berlin Conference
• buffer state
• satellite state
• United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
• territorial seas
• exclusive economic zones
• contiguous zone
• high seas

Defining the State: A country is a state. A politically organized territory, occupied by a permanent population that is administered by a sovereign government and is recognized by a significant portion of the international community.

Multinational State is a State with more than one nation within its borders.

Examples include the United States, Canada, Nigeria, & Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

Territoriality is the attempt by an individual or group to affect, influence, or control people, phenomena, and relationships, by delimiting and asserting control over a geographic area.

Territoriality can lead to conflicts as states disagree about borders, overlapping claims, differing cultures, or competing economic interest.

TOPIC 4.1 – Introduction to Political Geography

A Stateless Nation is a nation of people without a state that it considers home. 

Examples: Kurds, Basques, Palestinians, the Hmong and the Welsh

Autonomous regions have a high degree of self-government and freedom to govern themselves.

Example: Hong Kong

Semi-Autonomous regions have a moderate degree of self-government and freedom to govern themselves.

Example: US Indian Reservation

Canada is a multinational state with an Indeginous population, English and French populations as well.

Multistate Nation is a Nation that stretches across borders and across states.

Examples: Basque, Russian, Korean, Kurds, Arabs

A multinational states is a sovereign state which is viewed as comprising two or more nations. Which is an example of this definition?

A. Iceland

B. Japan

C. Canada

D. Ethiopia

A Nation State is a state where the borders coincide with a national group’s homeland

Population is connected culturally; Small and isolated

Examples: Japan, Iceland, Denmark

Enduring Understanding: The political organization of space results from historical and current processes, events, and ideas.

Learning Objectives:

Define the different types of political entities.

Identify a contemporary example of political entities.

Essential Knowledge: Independent states are the primary building blocks of the world political map.

Types of political entities include nations, nation-states, stateless nations, multinational states, multistate nations, and autonomous and semiautonomous regions, such as American Indian reservations.

A Nation is a tightly knit homogenous ethnic  group of people possessing bonds of language, ethnicity, religion, and other shared cultural attributes.

Example: Basque, Japanese, French

Terms to Know:

• nation
• nation-state
• stateless nation
• multinational state
• multi-state nation
• autonomous region
• semiautonomous region

Terms to Know:

• sovereignty
• self-determination
• colonialism
• imperialism

A state that

completely surrounds another one is a perforated state.

The one good example of a perforated state is South Africa, which

completely surrounds the state of Lesotho.

Lesotho must depend

almost entirely on South Africa for the import and export of

goods.

COMPACT STATES: EFFICIENT.

In a compact state, the distance from the center to any boundary does not vary significantly.

Compactness can be a beneficial characteristic for smaller states, because good communications can be more easily established to all regions, especially if the capital is located near the center.

However, compactness does not necessarily mean peacefulness, as compact states are just as likely as others to experience civil wars and ethnic rivalries.

A handful of elongated states have a long and narrow shape.

Elongated states may suffer from poor internal communications.

A region located at an extreme end of the elongation

might be isolated from the capital, which is usually placed near

the center.

Countries have one of five basic shapes—compact, prorupted,

elongated, fragmented, or perforated

UNIT 4: POLITICAL PATTERNS &

PROCESSES

A compact state with a large projecting extension is a prorupted state.

Proruptions are created for two principal reasons:

1. To provide a state with access to a resource, such as water.

2. To separate two states that otherwise would share a boundary.

A fragmented state includes several discontinuous pieces of territory.

Technically, all states that have offshore islands as part of their territory

are fragmented.

There are two kinds of fragmented states:

1. Fragmented states separated by water.

2. Fragmented states separated by an intervening state.

A consequent boundary is drawn to accommodate existing cultural differences. The boundary coincides with some cultural divide, such as religion or language.

For example, the boundary between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom. The border can be identified as a division between Protestant and Catholic religions.

Sovereignty

The right of a state to rule over itself.

A principle of international relations that holds that final authority over social, economic, and political matters should rest with the legitimate rulers of independent states.

A state is defined by its territory, a permanent population, established government and international recognition.

A state is defined as a region that has all of these characteristics except...

A. Guaranteed Rights

B. Defined Territory

C. Permanent Population

D. Acknowledged Sovereignty

E. Established Government

The French people have one language, a common history, and culture, making France a nation-state.

A nation is a group of people with common cultural characteristics. Which of the following fits the term?

A. United States

B. Singapore

C. Canada

D. France

Israelis - Israel was established as the Jewish homeland in 1948, giving the Jewish nation a state, therefor they are not a stateless nation.

Self-determination, the process by which a group of people, usually possessing a certain degree of national consciousness, form their own state and choose their own government.

As a political principle, the idea of self-determination evolved at first as a by-product of the doctrine of nationalism, to which early expression was given by the French and American revolutions.

A stateless nations is an ethnic group or nation that does not possess its own state and is not the majority population in any current nation state. Which does not fit this description?

A. Kurds

B. Israelis

C. Palestinians

D. Catalans

Enduring Understanding: The political organization of space results from historical and current processes, events, and ideas.

Learning Objectives: Explain the processes that have shaped contemporary political geography.

Essential Knowledge: The concepts of sovereignty, nation-states, and self-determination shape the contemporary world.

Colonialism, imperialism, independence movements, and devolution along national lines have influenced contemporary political boundaries.

Topic 4.2 Political Processes

Colonialism - Rule by an autonomous power over a subordinate and alien people and place.

Through colonialism states took over territories across the world and ruled them for their benefit.

The American Revolution was the first in the Americas.

The French Revolution had profound effects with

a revolutionary wave following and resulting in the creation of several independent countries in Latin America.

The end of the colonial period and the establishment during 1957–76 of all the colonies in Africa, was attributable to a change in European attitudes toward Africa and the possession of colonies and to an African reaction to colonial rule born of the economic and social changes, in Europe and Africa, it had produced.

Geometric boundaries are regular, often perfectly straight, lines drawn without regard for an area’s physical or cultural features.

Imperialism, state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas.

Terms to Know:

• relic boundary
• superimposed boundary
• subsequent boundary
• antecedent boundary
• geometric boundary
• consequent boundary
• compact state
• prorupted state
• elongated state
• fragmented state
• perforated state

In general, a unitary system works best with smaller countries that have few internal cultural differences and a strong sense of nationalism.

A federal state is an independent country that disperses significant authority among subnational units. A unitary state is an independent state that concentrates power in the central government and grants little or no authority to its subnational.

A federal system works well with larger countries because the national capital may be too remote to effectively govern more isolated regions.

In general, a federal system of government can more easily accommodate different nationalities, particularly if they live in separate regions of the country, than a unitary system can.

However, consider China, a large country that is home to several ethnic groups that live in different regions.

While politically it might be to China’s advantage to govern as a federal state because of its size and the number of areas remote from the national capital of Beijing, it is governed as a unitary state to advance Communist values.

4.4 Defining Political Boundaries

An antecedent boundary is a boundary that was identified before an area was settled. For example, the 49th parallel, the line of latitude used to delimit the boundary that separates the western United States from Canada, is an antecedent boundary that was negotiated between Great Britain and the United States in 1846.

Enduring Understanding: Political boundaries and divisions of governance, between states and within them, reflect balances of power that have been negotiated or imposed.

Learning Objectives: Define types of political boundaries used by geographers.

Essential Knowledge: Types of political boundaries include relic, superimposed, subsequent, antecedent, geometric, and consequent boundaries.

Relic Boundary: A relic boundary is one that no longer functions as an international border. Nevertheless, relic boundaries often leave behind identifiable features in the cultural landscape.

two examples: Hadrian’s Wall from the distant past and the Berlin Wall from the more recent past.

Terms to Know:

federal state

unitary state

ethnic separatism

ethnic cleansing

genocide

terrorism

irredentism

Superimposed Boundary: A superimposed boundary is one that is placed on an area without regard to existing boundaries. Superimposed boundaries almost always ignore the different cultures already occupying the area.

Subsequent Boundary: A subsequent boundary is a political boundary that developed with the cultural landscape.

In other words, as groups of people settled in new territories, boundaries were set to divide territories among groups.

Unitary states tend to have a top-down centralized government.

All major decisions come from the central government.

France, Japan, the Republic of Ireland, Saudi Arabia, and China have unitary structures.

A federal state disperses significant authority among subnational units.

By allowing more subnational self-rule, the federal system can help reduce centrifugal forces and undermine public support for separatist movements.

The United States, Canada, Germany, Australia, and Switzerland are examples of federal states

Advances in communication technology have facilitated devolution, supranationalism, and democratization.

Overall, modern communication technology has diminished the power of states.

Many countries try to restrict citizens’ access to technological hardware such as satellite dishes, computers, phone lines, and cell phones, but doing so is becoming increasingly difficult for even the most authoritarian regimes.

4.7 Forms of Governance

Enduring Understanding: Political boundaries and divisions of governance, between states and within them, reflect balances of power that have been negotiated or imposed.

Learning Objective:

Define federal and unitary states.

Explain how federal and unitary states affect spatial organization.

Essential Knowledge: Factors that can lead to the devolution of states include the division of groups by physical geography, ethnic separatism, ethnic cleansing, terrorism, economic and social problems, and irredentism.

Supranationalism occurs when a collection of nation-states and their citizens relinquish some sovereign rights to a larger-scale political body that exercises authority over its member states.

Supranational organizations are international political bodies that nation-states establish in cooperation with their neighbors for mutual political, military, economic, or cultural gain.

Military operations and security are key goals of some supranational organizations. For example, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an intergovernmental military alliance between 29 North American and European countries. The alliance is both political and military, and its purpose is to guarantee the freedom and security of its members.

In 1982, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) territorial boundaries and rights to the sea through the establishment of four zones: territorial sea, contiguous zone, exclusive economic zone (EEZ), and the high seas

Chokepoints are geographical feature on land such as a valley, defile or a bridge, or at sea such as a strait which an armed force is forced to pass, therefore greatly decreasing its combat, in order to reach its objective.

Chokepoints limit access to people, land and resources making control of the access points crucial for countries.

Democratization occurs when a sovereign state moves from a non- democracy to a democracy.

For example, in Egypt and Tunisia, pro-democracy activists used Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook to organize street protests, ultimately toppling two authoritarian governments.

Terms to Know:

Devolution

Ethnonationalism

Ethnic Separatism

Supranational

Democratization

Economies of Scale

Devolution is the movement of power from the central government to regional governments within the state.

A Shatterbelt is a region caught between stronger colliding external cultural-political forces, under persistent stress, and often fragmented by aggressive rivals.

4.8 Defining Devolutionary Factors

Enduring Understanding: Political, economic, cultural, or technological changes can challenge state sovereignty.

Learning Objectives: Define factors that lead to the devolution of states.

Essential Knowledge: Factors that can lead to the devolution of states include the division of groups by physical geography, ethnic separatism, ethnic cleansing, terrorism, economic and social problems, and irredentism.

Shatterbelts contain:

Weak and often recently-formed states; governments are ineffective and national unity hasn't been achieved.

Within their borders, states contain ethnic nations or religious groups with long-term mutual animosity (e.g., Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda; Muslims and Christians in the Central African Republic; Serbs and Croats in Bosnia).

International borders partition groups among more than one country leading to attempts to create new ethnic states and often involving ethnic cleansing.

Global rivals such as the US and Russia state the need to "protect" groups in the region that share their cultural identity or desired form of government.

At least two global rivals have strong diplomatic and even military presences in the region.

• The breakup of a state

• The movement of power from a central government to regional governments within the state

• The transfer of some central powers or ceding of authority to regional or local governments

• Transfer of some power from a state to a self-identified community within it to accommodate separatist pressures

• The process whereby regions within a state demand and gain political strength and growing autonomy at the expense of the central government

• Recognition or creation of regional governments with varying degrees of autonomy and local administrative control (multilevel government) while the state retains authority over countrywide concerns such as monetary policy, defense, and foreign relations

Geostrategic locations: these regions straddle globally critical trade routes, meaning if conflict happens, the world economy can be harmed by the choking off flows of goods and people (choke points).

There are globally-significant reserves of natural resources such as oil, diamonds, gold, rare earths, etc.

When conflict breaks out and spreads, it is more intense, with more episodes of ethnic cleansing and genocide, than in non-shatterbelt areas.

Devolution can occur when a country alters its constitution and establishes a federal system that recognizes the authority of regional governments, as in the case of Catalonia, which has a certain degree of autonomy in Spain.

Ethnonationalism is support for the political interests of a particular ethnic group that has a strong feeling of belonging to a minority nation within a state, especially its national independence or self-determination.

Countries do not exist in an environmental vacuum. Individual communities or countries may not be equipped to deal with environmental challenges or recognize that the impact is more than a local problem in our interconnected world.

Regional trading blocs often try to achieve economies of scale, which are the cost advantages that can come with a larger scale of operations. The idea is that the cost per unit decreases as more output is produced.

The North American Free Trade Agreement was an agreement signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States that created a trilateral trade bloc in North America. In 2017, negotiations between the United States, Mexico, and Canada resulted in some changes to the original agreement, including a new name: United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

Devolution can also be achieved by granting power to a region without altering the constitution; such was the case in the United Kingdom when it formed the Northern Ireland Assembly. Devolutionary forces can arise from several sources of internal division: ethnocultural, economic, and territorial.

The experiences of Spain, Italy, and Brazil provide examples of economic forces of devolution within states.

Catalonia produces 25 percent of the value of all Spain’s exports and 40 percent of the value of Spain’s industrial exports.

Catalan separatists frustrated by the management of the Spanish economy argue that the revenue from these exports should stay in Catalonia and not be filtered through Madrid.

The Mediterranean island of Sardinia accuses the Italian government in Rome of perpetuating regional inequalities between northern Italy and southern Italy that cause hardship on Sardinia.

Similarly, in Brazil in the 1990s, the economically richer region in the south believed that the Brazilian government misspent tax money on economic assistance for the northern part of the country.

An important supranational organization is the regional trading bloc, a multi-country agreement that reduces or eliminates taxes to promote the free flow of goods and services across international borders.

Territorial forces of devolution almost always occur on the margins of states or islands.

Distance from the capital city or wealthier regions of the country often strengthens devolutionary tendencies.

In the United Kingdom, three regions that are distant from London—Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland—have been granted some autonomy.

Terrorism is the use or threat of unpredictable acts of violence, usually against non-military/civilian populations, to achieve a political or religious goal.

Ethnic nationalism is the result of an ethnic group making tangible efforts to assert its importance and rights.

Ethnic nationalism may become a project promoted by governments when it serves the interest of the state; or, it may become a threat to the state for a variety of reasons.

One of these reasons is ethnic separatism.

Ethnic Cleansing is the planned and organized elimination of a cultural group from a geographic area.

Genocide is the systematic killing of members of a racial, ethnic, or linguistic group

Topic 4.3 Political Power & Territoriality

Nationalism, usually ethnicity-based is the primary driver of irredentism.

Irredentism is the theory and practice of restoring territories that are claimed to have once belonged to a (usually ethnic or ethnoreligious) nation.

Nazi Germany, Israel, and the Caliphate are examples of irredentist claims and actions.

Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine is widely interpreted as irredentism.

4.9 Challenges to Sovereignty

Enduring Understanding: Political, economic, cultural, or technological changes can challenge state sovereignty.

Learning Objectives: Explain how political, economic, cultural, and technological changes challenge state sovereignty.

Essential Knowledge: Devolution occurs when states fragment into autonomous regions; subnational political territorial units, such as those within Spain, Belgium, Canada, and Nigeria; or when states disintegrate, as happened in Eritrea, South Sudan, East Timor, and states that were part of the former Soviet Union.

Advances in communication technology have facilitated devolution, supranationalism, and democratization.

Global efforts to address transnational and environmental challenges and to create economies of scale, trade agreements, and military alliances help to further supranationalism.

Supranational organizations—including the United Nations (UN), North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), European Union (EU), Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Arctic Council, and African Union— can challenge state sovereignty by limiting the economic or political actions of member states.

There are hundreds of ethnic separatist movements in the world.

While some of these employ violent tactics such as armed confrontations with their country's military, or terrorism against civilians,

the majority are peaceful and seek greater autonomy or independence through the ballot box.

Enduring Understanding: The political organization of space results from historical and current processes, events, and ideas.

Learning Objectives: Describe the concepts of political power and territoriality as used by geographers.

Essential Knowledge: Political power is expressed geographically as control over people, land, and resources, as illustrated by neocolonialism, shatterbelts and choke points.

A. Define unitary state and identify the country shown that fits the definition of a unitary state.

B. Identify and explain ONE reason why some countries are governed as federal states.

A satellite state is a nominally independent country that is politically, militarily, and economically controlled by a more powerful state.

Poland is an example. A buffer state between Austria, Prussia (Germany), and Russia until the end of the eighteenth century, it became a Soviet satellite state after World War II, when Stalin created a Russian empire in eastern Europe.

Ethnic Separatism is the process whereby an ethnic group (nation) dissatisfied with any combination of social, economic, and political conditions in the country in which it is located undertakes moves toward greater autonomy from the central government of a state, or even secession.

Key Terms to Know:

• territortality
• neocolonialism
• shatterbelts
• choke points

Neocolonialism, the control of less-developed countries by developed countries through indirect means.

The term refers to a form of global power in which transnational corporations and global and multilateral institutions combine to perpetuate colonial forms of exploitation of developing countries.