Political Geography and Geopolitics

ABSTRACT La rivoluzione verde e le politiche agricole a essa collegate hanno significato un aumento nella produzione di cibo a livello mondiale, ma sono state anche causa di un’ulteriore dipendenza dei paesi del Sud del mondo nei confronti di quelli del Nord: hanno, in questo modo, contribuito all’esaurimento di risorse biologiche e al degrado di intere aree naturali. Ciò ha determinato, come nelle zone della Mesopotamia, una radicale modifica dell’habitat del territorio. La popolazione indigena degli arabi delle paludi, Arab al-Ahwar ha subito violentemente gli effetti di queste politiche agricole scellerate che, congiuntamente a motivi razziali, hanno generato un progressivo esodo da queste terre.

Durante sua historia, a geopolitica russa experimentou diversas transicoes, sem deixar para tras sua essencia imperialista. Apesar dos entraves sofridos pela Federacao no pos-Guerra Fria, Vladimir Putin reergueu o Estado russo, recuperando tal essencia e implementando entre seus objetivos geopoliticos a recuperacao da influencia dos ex-sovieticos em seu redor geografico. Deste modo, este artigo busca compreender qual o papel da anexacao da Crimeia a Russia em 2014 para a geopolitica eurasianista, utilizando-se de uma complexa revisao de literatura que tornou possivel concluir que a anexacao da Crimeia a Russia e uma forma de reafirmacao da geopolitica russa nos niveis economico, cultural e geopolitico, configurando a expansao do territorio dos ex-sovieticos e trazendo a tona, novamente, uma corrente expansionista que poderia ser considerada retrograda para a geopolitica atual, o que torna o tema uma relevante contribuicao para as novas abordagens geopoliticas no seculo XXI.

As India successfully positions itself as one of the core, influential nations of the world, its security scenario has become more vulnerable and complex. The roots of India’s security challenges lie not only at the regional and international levels but also from within. These threats can be dealt with by securing the borders efficiently. However, the borders of India and their associated problems, geographical, social and cultural, are vivid and varied. Each border receives a different kind of treatment in accordance with the existing mutual relationship across the border. If the border people cannot connect with the country’s mainstream, national security is affected. Indian policymakers face a hard challenge to formulate an integrated policy for borderlands and borders. While there are many common cross-border issues, chiefly non-security threats, there are other cross-border issues which are border specific. Besides, soft approaches to economic and cultural cross-border interactions are beneficial. The border security approach focuses on defending the borders from various threats but the border management approach involves protecting the interests of the country across the border.

The political, cultural and social make-up of Europe is changing fast. A new European identity is under construction, but old contradictions and diversity challenge its contents, forms and boundaries. Migration, the changing role of the nation-state and Europe's regions, the ...

As a recent wave of scholarship has rightly attested, the story of the twentieth century cannot be told without reckoning with the explosion in internationalism in both thought and action. This internationalism was premised on the overcoming of space, transcending the geography of the nation-state in search of the shared interests of humankind. Paradoxically however, it was also dependent on the coming together of people in certain places, and the carving of spaces in which they could make manifest and jointly dream their internationalism. This chapter introduces the contention that the primary space at which this paradox played out was that of the international conference, and that by taking conferences as the primary lens of analysis we can open up a range of new ways in which to think about the spatialities of internationalism which transcend and cut across established categories of thought. It discusses the spatiotemporal framing of the volume from Versailles to Bandung: temporally, connecting interwar and postwar periods, and spatially, encompassing a broader constellation of conferences. And lastly, it looks at the methodological questions posed by this approach: that is, where we might locate the archival trace of international conferences.

As a recent wave of scholarship has rightly attested, the story of the twentieth century cannot be told without reckoning with the explosion in internationalism in both thought and action. This internationalism was premised on the overcoming of space, transcending the geography of the nation-state in search of the shared interests of humankind. Paradoxically however, it was also dependent on the coming together of people in certain places, and the carving of spaces in which they could make manifest and jointly dream their internationalism. This chapter introduces the contention that the primary space at which this paradox played out was that of the international conference, and that by taking conferences as the primary lens of analysis we can open up a range of new ways in which to think about the spatialities of internationalism which transcend and cut across established categories of thought. It discusses the spatiotemporal framing of the volume from Versailles to Bandung: temporally, connecting interwar and postwar periods, and spatially, encompassing a broader constellation of conferences. And lastly, it looks at the methodological questions posed by this approach: that is, where we might locate the archival trace of international conferences.

Exploring how modern internationalism emerged as a negotiated process through international conferences, this edited collection studies the spaces and networks through which states, civil society institutions and anti-colonial political networks used these events to realise their visions of the international.

Taking an interdisciplinary approach, contributors explore the spatial paradox of two fundamental features of modern internationalism. First, internationalism demanded the overcoming of space, transcending the nation-state in search of the shared interests of humankind. Second, internationalism was geographically contingent on the places in which people came together to conceive and enact their internationalist ideas. From Paris 1919 to Bandung 1955 and beyond, this book explores international conferences as the sites in which different forms of internationalism assumed material and social form. While international 'permanent institutions' such as the League of Nations, UN and Institute of Pacific Relations constantly negotiated national and imperial politics, lesser-resourced political networks also used international conferences to forward their more radical demands.

Taken together these conferences radically expand our conception of where and how modern internationalism emerged, and make the case for focusing on internationalism in a contemporary moment when its merits are being called into question.

Omar Alam discusses the proposed China-Pakistan Economic corridor, China’s largest overseas investment project to date. He writes that the corridor, if managed effectively, presents a win-win scenario for Islamabad and Beijing, but also has extensive geopolitical implications that could potentially shift the centre of global politics.

Is the Syrian conflict a religious matter? In this conflict the representations “Shiites versus Sunnites” is correct? We will demonstrate that it is not the case and the geopolitical analyses can help to better understand that it is mainly a matter of territory. We underline in this paper the direct relationship between the reasons of this conflict and the unsolved definition of borders at the end of the First World War. The geopolitical methodology, proposed by Yves Lacoste, it’s helpful to better understand the players positions, but also the reasons of a religious representations that is crystallizing the situation.

Il conflitto siriano è sempre più presentato dai media come combattuto da due parti: da una parte gli integralisti salafiti o vicini comunque ai Fratelli Musulmani d’Egitto, dall’altra la comunità cristiana di Siria o altre «piccole» comunità. In pratica la rappresentazione del conflitto si concentra su due aspetti: a) gli eventi ravvicinati, come cronaca di guerra; b) la spiegazione di un conflitto sempre più confessionale (Trombetta, 2013b; 2013a). Ma, come per il caso israeliano-palestinese, la questione prima che essere religiosa è territoriale. L’obiettivo di questo articolo è compiere un’analisi geopolitica (intesa qui secondo la definizione di Yves Lacoste, 1993: Préambule, pp. 1-33) dell’area rispetto al conflitto siriano. La definizione dell’insieme territoriale e degli attori locali coinvolti è un passo necessario proceduralmente al fine di evitare onfusioni. Il metodo della Geopolitica ci impone, infatti, anche quella considerazione diacronica della definizione delle frontiere che spesso viene immaginata come nota, ma che altrettanto spesso non vede tutti concordi in quanto a riferimenti collegati all’attualità. Da qui la necessità di richiamare, seppur in modo rapidissimo, sia il concetto di Vicino Oriente sia la sua delimitazione; elementi essenziali per riprendere in conclusione la tesi sostenuta in questo lavoro. Definiamo quindi prima di tutto l’area che vogliamo esaminare.

Internal Geopolitics is less popular then the external geopolitics. But the most frequent cases are about the first one. Today we know very well NIMBY and conflicts about territorial planning. This book draw mainly a theoretical frame about all this focusing on concepts like territorial cohesion, Governance, territorial planning showing at the end the high level of conflict in territorial management in a same Country. Special focus, in the second part, is about the Institutional reform in Italy about Regions and Provinces.

The Chinese Government has embarked on a new strategy, known as “One Belt, One Road�? or OBOR. This paper concentrates on the maritime part of this development policy, which entails heavy infrastructure investments in ports and railroads, but also property developments like satellite cities or condominiums, offered for sale mainly to Chinese citizens. There will be obvious commercial benefits to economies along the Southern Silk Road, but also geo-political effects like increasing political dependency due to Chinese capital investments and acquisition of property rights in ports and condominiums. Regarding these developments, a Malaysian maritime policy is called for to match OBOR and the Indonesian Maritime Fulcrum, as well as ASEAN integration.