geog 4712: political geography Lecture 2: What is Political Geography Keywords + Sudan

Transcription

1 geog 4712: political geography Lecture 2: What is Political Geography Keywords + Sudan

2 outline 1. definitions 2. scales 3. states 4. nations 5. limits 6. agreements 7. arguments 8. concerns

3 1. WHO Political geography - (ethnic, tribal, national, religious, rebel, govt) groups in Sudan - refugees, UNMIS, OAU, SSRC, al Bashir, Carter, Clooney, Kiir, Kony, Mbeki 2. WHAT - territory, autonomy, sovereignty, unity, resources, security, citizenship, statehood 3. WHERE -- home(lands), pastures, villages, Abyei, borderlands, IDP camps, Khartoum s slums 4. WHEN - independence from colonial Britain (1956); 2011 plebiscite via CPA (2005) 5. HOW -- group-ism, militarism, ethnic cleansing, civil war, proxy war, self-determination - external assistance, postwar landscape icons, national anthems, and memorials 6. WHY -- creed, greed, grievance, displacement, history, environment, governance

4 vs. geopolitics 1) Common view: -use of geographic locations and proximate places to promote own foreign policy and frustrate enemy s a) control Strait of Hormuz; surround opponent (Iran) c) build/promote allies in key regions (Middle East) d) straight line distance metaphor (Nicaragua/Islamabad) 2) Academic view: International statecraft from perspective of each state; multiple geopolitics exist a) classical: study of geographical distribution of power among states, and especially rivalry between major powers; prescriptions b) critical: formal and popular attention to representations of statecraft 3) Widespread Misconception: geographic factors unaltered a) Geography is the most important factor in international relations because it is the most unchanging (Spykman, 1941). b) People and ideas influence events, but geography largely determines them, now more than ever (Kaplan, 2009).

5 The Territorial Trap: the geographical assumptions of international relations theory (Agnew 1994) 1. States as fixed units of sovereign space 2. The domestic/foreign polarity 3. States as containers of societies indeed, depending on the nature of the geopolitical order of any particular period, territoriality had been unbundled by all kinds of formal agreements and informal practices, such as common markets, military alliance, monetary and trading regimes, etc

6 scale i. global system ii. world region iii. nation-state iv. state/province v. county/district vi. locality vii. household viii. body i. World oil markets, Westphalian regimes ii. African Union; East Africa; Nile Watershed iii. Sudanese unity; South Sudanese autonomy iv. South Sudan, Darfur, v. Abyei, Nuba Mountains, Southern Blue Nile vi. Rural, urban, peri-urban, pastures, Juba vii. IDP camp, extended family, diaspora viii. Refugees, citizens, mothers, solidiers, kids

7 Definitions: state as 1. Aristotle (350 BC): city-states emerge naturally from households and other groups 2. Hobbes (1651): sovereign protects domestic body from external state of nature 3. Marx (1848): executive committee of bourgeoisie 4. Ratzel (1897): biological organism with dynamic borders 5. Weber (1904): bureaucracy with legitimate monopoly on violence 6. Herz (1957): territorial authority within hard outer shell 7. Mann (1984): intertwined institutional authority over territory; autonomous 8. Giddens (1985)/Taylor (1994): as bordered power container(s) 9. Kuus + Agnew (2008): synonymous with sovereignty, linked to territory; historical 10. Paasi (2008): bound up in territory, boundary-making, nation-building, economy

8 multi-ethnic space vs. ethno-national territory

9 African nations : Ethno-linguistic limits?

10 Comprehensive Peace Agreement 1) Timelines + Documents o ( ) Six protocols including Machakos re: self-determination o ( ) CPA as permanent cease-fire signed by SPLM+NCP o ( ) Six and a half year interim period separation date 2) Protocols + Consultations o Secession or unity o Abyei in the old North or new South? o Public Consultations: Nuba Mountains, Southern Blue Nile 3) Problems + Promises o Abyei on hold; Dinka Ngok and Misseriyah killed this week o Polling initially delayed but now fully operational; 2,000+ return/day o 60% of 3.9 millions registered must participate; how many in North? o Bashir and debt, recognition, oil, water, arbitration, and sharia

11 borders in conflict I, walls Fig.1 WALLS When borders act as walls people, resources and ideas cannot exit, or enter, the war-torn country (1) and (5); displaced persons may in this case be redirected by the authority to ʻsafe heavensʼ within the territory (7). Refugees may also be rejected (2) or not granted asylum (3) by neighboring states, although in some instances people and resources may nevertheless be smuggled through third-parties (4), or frontier gaps, usually far from the central authorityʼs reach (6).

12 borders in conflict II, lines Fig.2 IDEAL LINES When frontiers represent just legal lines, refugees can cross the borders (2) to flee the civil war (and eventually be relocated in other countriesʼ refugee camps). Some barriers may exist where the authority is still present (1); but, generally, resources, representations and people can enter and exit the war-torn country (3), (4) and (5), military interventions be carried out by the international community (6), and conflict can expand to neighboring countries (7)

13 Abyei Sudan s Kashmir?

14 Territory

15 Definitions 1. Ambiguous 2. Dynamic 3. Political 4. Sovereign 5. Processual 6. Civilizational 7. Capitalist 8. Crucial 9. Contested 10. Classification 11. Communication 12. Control 13. Characteristics 14. Complexity 15. Citizenship Territory (Paasi 2008) Elements Land -- Material Power -- Symbolic Space -- Functional Dimensions Authority Identity Efficiency

16 Territoriality (Taylor 1994) 1. Definition: behavior (I.e. strategy) that uses rigid blocks of partitioned space as instrument for securing outcome, control (via Sack 1986) 2. History: in modern era, directly linked to sovereignty to mould politics into a fundamentally state-centric social process 3. Hyphen: the state has acted like a vortex sucking in social relations to mould them through its territoriality its power results from fusing of state with nation 4. Tendency: Power (preserves); Wealth (expands); Culture (fragments) 5. Problem: it is only one type of spatiality where rigid blocks and domination ensure bordering practices

17 Sovereignty (Kuus + Agnew 2008) Definitions: normative conception linking mix of authority, territory, population, under (un)limited and (in)divisible rule typically by state? absolute territorial organization of political authority, especially centralized state power state is effect of those acting in its name; both dominant normative framework and actual practice of institutional and other actors Problems: power not so effectively territorialized political authority not restricted to states authority not necessarily territorial centralized? diffused? networked?

18 starting with (South) Sudan Oh black warriors, let's stand up in silence and respect, saluting millions of martyrs whose blood cemented our national foundation

19 Separation Anxiety: Happiness? Heartbreak? Hangover? to be decided 1. Abyei 2. Borders 3. Debts 4. Resources 5. Citizenship 6. Security 7. Currency 8. Treaties 9. Hegemony 10. Darfur human + political challenges 1. Viability vs. autonomy of states 2. Citizens, aliens, and diasporas 3. Infrastructure and institutions 4. Health and human services 5. Use rights vs. ownership rights 6. Economic costs vs. human values 7. Partitions in history vs. Blame the Brits 8. Beyond oil wars and national heroes 9. From resistance to governance 10. Hopes and fears of self-determination

20

21 key questions + conceptual links: scales, sovereigns, states 1. How are territoriality and sovereignty contained historically? Today? Tomorrow? 2. Do polities need a territorial base? Exclusively? Continuously? Contiguously? 3. How does power work across spaces and societies? What attributes are assumed? 4. How is state power discursively and practically produced? Where does it originate? 5. Why did the (Western) world come to assume one all-purpose polity? 6. What actors, besides states, exercise sovereignty or use territory? 7. Does de-territorialization demand or assume re-territorialization? 8. Are territory and sovereignty anachronistic? Analytically useful?

22 revenge of geography?

23 Approaching Sovereignty and Spatial Systems of Rule (Agnew, 2005)