Geopolitics

Political Spectrum

• Internationalist Christian Lange

Perceptions & Politics

• How do we interpret and organize information?

• Why do we think the way we do?• Nature vs. Nurture

• Propaganda• Media and Marketing

Ideologies

• An ideology is a set of values or beliefs about how people and components of a society should relate to one another and how power should be exercised.

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Political Spectrum

Left Wing Moderate Left Center Moderate Right Right Wing

100 75 50 25 0

Factors Affecting Political Evolution

• Demographics (Pop. growth, Rural-Urban)• Resources (Scarcity)• Globalization (Military conflict, ideologies)• Oppression (Inc. economic disparity)• Technology (Policies, MNCs, TNCs)• COLONIALISM (Next Slide)• IMPERIALISM (Next Slide)

Colonialism

• The process whereby colonial powers exploited people and resources in undeveloped regions in Africa, Asia and Central and South America, which made these colonial power(s) wealthy.

• Ex: French, Belgians, Portuguese and British in Africa in the 1800s and 1900s.

Colonial Africa (1900)

The Legacy of European Colonialism

“We must remember that the European agreements that had carved up Africa into states paid little

attention to cultural and ethnic boundaries and ethnic groups had little opportunity or need to form political

alliances or accommodations under repressive colonial rule.… Think of countries such as Canada, which has

been trying for hundreds of years with mixed success to accommodate only two linguistic groups — English and French — and you get an idea of the problems of

African states with far greater cultural and linguistic divisions”

— Richard H. Robbins, Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism, (Allyn and Bacon, 2002), pg. 302

Unequal International Trade; Comparative Disadvantage

- Colonialism had thus transformed an entire continent.

- Vast plantations and cash crop-based, or other extractive economies were set up throughout.

- Even as colonial administrators parted, they left behind supportive elites that, in effect, continued the siphoning of Africa’s wealth.

Imperialism in the Modern World (1900)

Imperialism

• One country extending its rule and control over other another country.

• Ex. The British Empire (Commonwealth)

~22 Countries Britain Has Not Invaded

• Extreme nationalism = jingoism (nationalism expressed aggressively towards others)

• Used to counter the homogenization globalization brings

• Idealistic and used as a weapon against immigration

Nationalism

• Areas with numerous centrifugal (pulling apart) forces resulting in various cultural and political units that result in an especially fragmented map…

‘Shatterbelts’

• Believing in the superiority of one's own culture: lifestyle, values and behaviours…• Example: Nazi

Germany

Ethnocentrism (Form of Nationalism)

• A hatred or fear of foreigners or foreign things... • Example:

South Africa

Xenophobia

• The forced removal of other ethnic groups from a particular area... • Examples:

Darfur, Sudan, former Yugoslavia (‘identicide’)

Ethnic Cleansing (Genocide)

Internally Displaced Person

• Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) often flee their region of origin, but unlike refugees, staying within country borders…