Tensions within Nations

7 Key excerpts on "Tensions within Nations"

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  Human Geography

  People, Place, and Culture

  • Erin H. Fouberg, Alexander B. Nash, Alexander B. Murphy, Harm J. de Blij(Authors)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  These contradictions, and many more, are the focus of political geographers as they engage in the study of boundaries, borders, and borderlands. NATIONS The popular media and press often use the words “nation,” “state,” and “country” inter- changeably. Political geogra- phers use “state” and “country” interchangeably (often prefer- ring “state”), but the word “nation” is distinct. “State” is a legal term in international law, and the international political community has some agreement about what this term means. “Nation,” on the other hand, is a culturally defined term, and few people agree on exactly what it means. Definitions are important as few words are as politically charged as the concept of nation. The Dictionary of Human Geography (4th edition) defines a nation as a community of people whose members are bound together by a sense of solidarity rooted in an historic attachment to a homeland and a common culture, and by a sense of con- sciousness of being define from other nations. (p. 532) definitions. Boundaries can be defined as physical or imagi- nary lines of contact between states, including the institu- tions and symbols that exist and are reproduced in social practices and discourses. Borders are understood as the adjacent areas lining boundar- ies. Borderlands are the transition zones within which a boundary (line) is located. Finally, a frontier is a category that usually refers to political divisions (zones) between states or to divisions between settled and uninhabited areas within a state. Since the 1980s, we have witnessed tremendous changes to the borders and boundaries that shape the modern world, such as the taking down of the Berlin Wall (1989) (Figure 3.13), the collapse of the former Soviet Union (1991), the formation of the European Union (1993), the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (1993), and the myriad terrorism-related security concerns after 9/11 (2001).

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  Impediments to Regionalism in Southeast Asia

  Bilateral Constraints Among ASEAN Member States

  • Hans H. Indorf(Author)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • ISEAS Publishing

    (Publisher)

  3 The Geographic Dimensions of Intra-ASEAN Conflict Among the various factors which could contribute to the evolution of conflict between states are the physical environment, socio-cultural and politico-economic considerations, as well as institutional aspects. All of the elements can place limits upon the extent of co-operation, yet their inherently constraining function can also be facilitating. Thus, ethnicity can lead to conflict but can equally induce common agreement. Regional organization has encouraged this feature to dominate, thereby making open conflict less likely. Yet the issues with dispute-potential remain. None is stronger than the claims to territoriality. They appeal directly to the forces of nationalism; they challenge the jealously guarded right to sovereignty; and they have an immediate impact upon adjacent forces as most borders are defined by the prevalence of other borders. The territorial imperative is still the greatest disruptive element in Southeast Asia today. Despite the existing harmony in ASEAN relationships, the thrust of national boundary claims and counter-claims has in no way been ameliorated. The reason is that territorial rights are the very essence of statehood. Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs) such as ASEAN rein-force the concept of the state and fossilize its prerequisites. Thus, border disputes are likely to persist among ASEAN member states; only the form of their settlement will be influenced by the pattern of past co-operation. Some studies contradict even this assumption. 1 They maintain that statistical evidence supports the conclusion of more conflictual activities within regions because of geographic proximity. Social assimilation through co-operation will only affect the least controversial issues. Apparently, only total territorial integration could prevent disputes over territorial sovereignty ~ a rather unlikely event in the case of ASEAN.

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  Peace Science

  Theory and Cases

  • Partha Gangopadhyay, Manas Chatterji, Manas Chatterji(Authors)
  • 2009(Publication Date)
  • Emerald Group Publishing Limited

    (Publisher)

  CHAPTER 6 SNARES AND QUICKSAND ON THE PATHWAY TO PEACE: ROLE OF INTERNATIONAL TENSION IN LOCAL CONFLICTS 6.1. INTRODUCTION TO INTERNATIONAL TENSION: GLOBAL ROOTS OF LOCAL CONFLICTS The fundamental idea that we seek to establish in this chapter is that the establishment of regional or local, peace calls forth global peace. In other words, our argument is that local and regional conflicts are partly driven by global factors, especially what is commonly known as international tension. In order to achieve meaningful and sustained peace, there is a reason to believe that it is mandatory to manage and contain international tensions. The main thesis of this chapter is to explain or posit, conflicts as a product of continuing international chasms, splits and differences of political and social ideologies in our modern world. Thus, we argue that conflicts are, to some extent, driven by international tension or global, ideological and geo-political factors. Notwithstanding the global influence, local factors – such as income inequality, income growth or lack of it, political institutions – can and do exacerbate conflicts and a peaceful resolution of conflicts becomes a difficult phenomenon. In order to drive the point home, we will start our discussion with a detailed glimpse at the great global conflicts. Our main argument is that our current conflicts still have some roots of global origin, which is a product of what is known as international tension. In this chapter, we will offer comprehensive models to capture the feedback between local factors and international tension, which can explain various subtle and intertemporal dynamics involving conflicts, violence and terrorist activities. 171 The idea of ideological chasms and international/global tension is not new: Rattinger (1975) introduced an idea of international tension into the basic Richardson-type model.

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  The SAGE Handbook of Political Geography

  • Kevin R Cox, Murray Low, Jennifer Robinson, Kevin R Cox, Murray Low, Jennifer Robinson(Authors)
  • 2007(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications Ltd

    (Publisher)

  28 Re-Bordering Spaces J o u n i H ä k l i THE NATION-STATE AND THE LEGACY OF BORDER STUDIES Borders and boundaries are everywhere. Individ-uals and human communities define and structure the social world by making distinctions between groups, spaces, times, objects and meanings. We encounter borders constantly in our everyday lives, and know how to respect or transgress them by intuition, experience or reasoning. Broadly speak-ing, borders and boundaries represent an immense area of research including almost everything that pertains to humans and societies. In the context of political geography, the topic is much more focused. The sub-discipline’s tradition has typically approached borders through a geopo-litical prism, typically as part of nation-state territo-riality, or as dividers between geopolitical blocs. In retrospect, the involvement of political geography with states and their geopolitics may seem obvious. The twentieth-century was characterized by the rise into prominence of the nation-state as the most powerful political organization defining the fate of individuals and communities. Rivalry between states and the striving to establish new nation-states caused major international conflicts throughout the century. To overcome the sources of such conflicts, states have sought to create international mecha-nisms of political and economic regulation, such as the United Nations, the European Union and the North American Free Trade Area. The minds of practitioners of statecraft, as well as many intellectuals, were preoccupied with ques-tions of territoriality and borders. Among the most crucial geopolitical questions of the twentieth-century, linking power and space intimately together, was that of the territorial congruence, or incongruence, between national homelands and emerging state territories (Herb, 1997).

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  A Companion to Political Geography

  • John A. Agnew, Katharyne Mitchell, Gerard Toal, John A. Agnew, Katharyne Mitchell, Gerard Toal(Authors)
  • 2008(Publication Date)
  • Wiley-Blackwell

    (Publisher)

  All this will provide an interesting challenge for the geographic imagination of political geographers and others dealing with the spatialities of power. BIBLIOGRAPHY Agnew, J. 1994. The territorial trap: the geographical assumptions of international relations theory. Review of International Political Economy , 1(1), 53±80. Agnew, J. 1998. Geopolitics: Revisioning World Politics . London: Routledge. Agnew, J. 2000. Territory. In R. J. Johnston et al. (eds.) The Dictionary of Human Geography . Oxford: Blackwell. Amin, A. and Thrift, N. 1995. Territoriality in the global political economy. Nordisk Sam-ha È llsgeografisk Tidskrift , 20, 3±16. Anderson, B. 1991. Imagined Community . London: Verso. Anderson, J. 1988. Nationalist ideology and territory. In R. J. Johnston et al. (eds.) National-ism, Self-Determination and Political Geography . London: Croom Helm. Anderson, J. 1996. The shifting stage of politics: new medieval and postmodern territorial-ities? Environment and Planning D: Society and Space , 14, 133±53. Anderson, M. 1996. Frontiers: Territory and State Formation in the Modern World . London: Polity. Becher, T. 1989. Academic Tribes and Territories: Intellectual Enquiry and the Cultures of Disciplines . Stratford: Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press. Bierstaker, T. J. and Weber, C. (eds.). 1996. State Sovereignty as Social Construct . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Billig, M. 1995. Banal Nationalism . London: Sage. Christopher, A. J. 1999. New states in a new millennium. Area , 31, 327±34. Clark, G. L. and Dear, M. 1984. State Apparatus: Structures and Language of Legitimacy . Boston, MA: Allen & Unwin. Connor, W. 1992. The nation and its myth. International Journal of Contemporary Sociology , 33, 48±57. Duchacek, I. 1975. Nations and Men . Hinsdale, IL: Dryden. 120 ANSSI PAASI Entrikin, J. N. 1999. Political community, identity and cosmopolitan place. International Sociology , 14, 269±82. Giddens, A. 1987.

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  Visualizing Human Geography

  At Home in a Diverse World

  • Alyson L. Greiner(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  Thinking about the variations from one country to another in terms of voting and electoral practices is just one dimension of political geography. We will say more about electoral geography later in the chapter; first we want to introduce you to the development of our political map, its states, and contemporary geopolitics. AFP/Getty Images GLOBALLOCATOR 1. Define sovereignty. 2. Distinguish between a state and a nation. 3. Identify some of the impacts of colonialism on the political geography of Africa. I t is sometimes said that political geography exists because people are territorial. Most political geographers consider human territoriality to be more than an instinctive, Key Concepts in Political Geography LEARNING OBJECTIVES biological response. Instead, they see it as a complex form of behavior that is shaped by diverse social and cultural factors related to human identity. Territoriality can be expressed by individuals and by groups. The concept of personal space helps us understand territoriality on an individual level. Personal space is 174 CHAPTER 7 Political Geographies political geography The study of the spatial aspects of political affairs. territoriality Strong attachment to or defensive control of a place or an area. Ask Yourself 1. What is an advantage of using a map of this scale to depict the world’s countries? A disadvantage? 2. What six territories on this map are not independent countries? Political map of the world • Figure 7.1 The 195 countries shown on this map provide one powerful expression of human territoriality. The use of such territorially defined political units has become the dominant mode of political organization around the world only within the past four centuries. Throughout most of human history, people organized themselves in different ways, for example, according to class, kinship, or as subjects owing allegiance to a king, an emperor, or other ruler. (Source: NG Maps.)

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  The Geography of International Terrorism

  An Introduction to Spaces and Places of Violent Non-State Groups

  • Richard M. Medina, George F. Hepner(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • CRC Press

    (Publisher)

  Some terrorism can be triggered by the use of land and environment in different ways. For example, the MEND terrorists discussed at the beginning of the chapter are responding to land use and pollution from petroleum resources and ultimately would like to see a change in policy such that the profit from resource extraction remains with the local people. • The earth science tradition is focused on the earth system and its processes including, for example, climate, land cover, and ocean currents. These earth system traits, in many ways, affect conflict, especially in the case of irregular warfare. Earth science, with the help of geospatial technologies, can be used to identify regions of difficult counterterrorism operations based on unfavorable proper-ties of physical terrain. The terrain selected by terrorist groups for combat is believed to be optimal when safety and cover is provided, as well as access to enemy forces. This will always be a trade-off for terrorists and insurgents. Too much safety and cover will not allow enemy forces pathways into areas where attack is possible, and hindering the mobility of the enemy will also hinder the mobility of the terrorist (Taber 2002; Guevara 2007). The Links between Terrorism and Geography • 47 GEOGRAPHIC THEORIES OF TERRITORY AND CONFLICT Many theories and concepts in geography have been developed to help explain and understand conflict-based human activities in geographic space. One historical concept that resonates today was introduced by MacKinder (1904) and discusses an early effort to identify aspects of rela-tive location in the context of geopolitical power on a global scale. The second, developed by McColl (1969), describes spatial characteristics of irregular warfare, including the spatial and organizational evolution of insurgent groups to guerrilla groups to perpetrators of regular warfare. The third is a concept of multiple spaces for interstate conflict termed “ConflictSpace,” introduced by Flint et al.

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