Summary
"The Ultimate Handbook of Political Geography." Gerard Toal, Journal of International Analytics
"The breadth of this book is its strength, and it makes it a valuable reference source." Nick Megoran, Political Geography
"The book is synoptic and encyclopedic." John Pickles, Journal of the Bulgarian Geographical Society
Excerpt
Table Of Contents
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- About the author
- About the book
- This eBook can be cited
- Contents
- Foreword to the Second English Edition
- Foreword to the First English Edition
- Foreword to the Russian Edition
- Chapter 1 Introduction to Political Geography
- § 1. Subject Matter of Political Geography
- § 2. Levels of Spatial Organization
- § 3. Principles of Spatial Organization
- § 4. Elements of Spatial Organization
- § 5. Research Methods in Political Geography
- § 6. Field Research in Political Geography
- § 7. Subdisciplines of Political Geography
- Chapter 2 Global Geopolitical Systems
- § 8. Geopolitics
- § 9. Globalization
- § 10. Geopolitical Systems
- § 11. Binary Geopolitical Systems
- § 12. Ternary Geopolitical Systems
- § 13. Heartland, Lenaland, and Rimland
- § 14. Polar Geopolitical Systems
- § 15. Great and Regional Powers
- § 16. Civilizations
- § 17. Macro-Regions and Continents
- § 18. Transcontinental Macro-Regions
- § 19. Transcontinental Countries
- § 20. Mesoregions of Europe
- § 21. Mesoregions of Asia
- § 22. Mesoregions of Africa
- § 23. Mesoregions of America
- § 24. Mesoregions of Australia and Oceania
- Chapter 3 Integration Groups
- § 25. Integration
- § 26. Integration Theories
- § 27. Regional Intergovernmental Organizations
- § 28. Cross-Border Regions
- § 29. International Transport Corridors
- § 30. Visa-Free Zones
- § 31. Preferential Trade Areas
- § 32. Free Trade Zones
- § 33. Customs Unions
- § 34. Common Markets
- § 35. Economic Unions
- § 36. Currency Unions
- § 37. Military Alliances
- § 38. Incorporating Unions
- § 39. Confederal Unions
- § 40. Integration Systems
- § 41. Meso-regionalism
- § 42. Trans-Regionalism
- Chapter 4 States
- § 43. Statism
- § 44. The Emergence of Statehood
- § 45. The Evolution of Statehood
- § 46. City-States
- § 47. Empires
- § 48. Historical Terms for Different States
- § 49. Forms of Government
- § 50. Nation-States
- § 51. State-Building
- § 52. Pan-National States
- § 53. Multinational States
- § 54. Divided States
- § 55. Stateless Nations
- § 56. Sovereign States
- § 57. Territory and Sovereignty
- § 58. Stateness
- § 59. Jurisdictional States
- § 60. Failed States
- § 61. Governments in Exile
- § 62. States with Limited Recognition
- § 63. Unrecognized States
- § 64. Insurgent States
- § 65. Proto-States
- § 66. Quasi-States
- § 67. Vexillology
- Chapter 5 Properties of State Territory
- § 68. Political and Geographical Position
- § 69. Geopolitical Code
- § 70. Size of the State
- § 71. Shape of State
- § 72. Neighbouring States
- § 73. Landlocked States
- § 74. Island States
- § 75. Enclaves and Exclaves
- § 76. Corridors
- Chapter 6 Composition of State Territory
- § 77. Land Space
- § 78. Maritime Space
- § 79. Airspace
- § 80. Subsurface Space
- § 81. Contiguous Zone
- § 82. Exclusive Economic Zone
- § 83. Continental Shelf
- § 84. Enclosed Seas
- § 85. Territorial Leases
- § 86. Occupied Territories
- § 87. Extraterritoriality
- § 88. Territories with Special Status
- § 89. Geopolitical Field
- § 90. Territorial Changes
- § 91. Disintegration and Partition
- § 92. Cession, Secession, Irredenta, and Annexation
- § 93. Territorial Adjudication, Retorsion, and Reprisal
- § 94. Marine Accretion, Regression, and Transgression
- § 95. Acquisition and Exchange
- Chapter 7 International and Internationalized Entities
- § 96. High Seas
- § 97. International Seabed Area
- § 98. International Airspace
- § 99. Outer Space and Celestial Bodies
- § 100. The Arctic
- § 101. Antarctica
- § 102. International Straits
- § 103. International Maritime Canals
- § 104. International Rivers and Lakes
- § 105. Buffer Zones
- § 106. Transitional Administrations
- § 107. Free Territories
- § 108. Terra Nullius
- Chapter 8 Dependent Territories
- § 109. Expansion and Succession
- § 110. The Discovery Doctrine
- § 111. Metropolises
- § 112. External Colonization
- § 113. Internal Colonization
- § 114. Colonialism
- § 115. Imperialism
- § 116. Decolonization
- § 117. Neocolonialism
- § 118. Postcolonialism
- § 119. Missions and Reductions
- § 120. Trading Posts
- § 121. Plantations
- § 122. Chartered Companies
- § 123. Crown Dependencies
- § 124. Mandates
- § 125. Trust Territories
- § 126. Non-Self-Governing Territories
- § 127. Unincorporated Unorganized Territories
- § 128. Incorporated Unorganized Territories
- § 129. Unincorporated Organized Territories
- § 130. Incorporated Organized Territories
- § 131. Bantustans and Reservations
- § 132. Condominiums
- § 133. Suzerainty
- § 134. Exarchates
- § 135. Dominions
- § 136. Princely States
- § 137. Tributary and Vassal States
- § 138. Puppet States
- § 139. Associated States
- § 140. Protectorates and Satellite States
- § 141. Limitrophe States
- § 142. Spheres of Influence
- Chapter 9 Capitals and Centres
- § 143. Geographical Centre
- § 144. Pole of Inaccessibility
- § 145. Zipf’s Law
- § 146. Capitals
- § 147. Multi-Capital States
- § 148. Quasi-Capitals
- § 149. Coefficient of Metropolitanism
- § 150. Hypertrophy and Hypotrophy of Capitals
- § 151. Classification of Capitals
- § 152. Capital Relocation
- § 153. World Capitals
- Chapter 10 Borders and Cleavages
- § 154. Cleavages
- § 155. Limology
- § 156. Boundary Delimitation and Demarcation
- § 157. Limes, Limitrophes, and Frontiers
- § 158. Demarcation Lines
- § 159. Border Junctions
- § 160. Separation Barriers
- § 161. Divided Cities
- § 162. Electoral Geography
- Chapter 11 Regions and Municipalities
- § 163. Administrative Division
- § 164. Administrative Divisions and Autonomies
- § 165. Unitarism and Federalism
- § 166. Unitary States
- § 167. Federations
- § 168. Sovereign Regions
- § 169. Monarchical Regions
- § 170. Federal Territories
- § 171. Directly Administered Cities
- § 172. Capital Territories
- § 173. Regions with Multiple Subordination
- § 174. Extraterritorial Regions
- § 175. Supra-Regional Associations
- § 176. Subregional Entities
- § 177. Subregional Autonomies and Federations
- § 178. Municipalities
- § 179. Unincorporated Territories
- § 180. Communes
- § 181. Urban Regimes
- Chapter 12 Spatial Identity
- § 182. Territoriality and Spatiality
- § 183. Absolute and Relative Space
- § 184. Heterotopias and Spatial Inversion
- § 185. Spatial Experience and Commemorative Places
- § 186. Spatial Myths and Co-Spatiality
- § 187. Territorial and Spatial Identity
- § 188. Place-Based Policy and Place Branding
- List of Political and Geographical Names to Be Memorized
- List of Common Political and Geographical Abbreviations
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Index
Foreword to the Second English Edition
I’m delighted to commend this book to an international audience. This is not only because it is a very-well written introduction to political geography for first year university students, but also because its subject matter is so vital for understanding our world today. For example, I wrote this preface the day after the 2024 UK general election. The Labour party had a historic victory, polling 9,712,011 votes and winning 411 seats in parliament. But consider this striking fact: at the previous election in 2019, they were thoroughly defeated, winning only 202 seats, even though they polled half a million votes more than they did in 2024. For the smaller parties, the 2024 picture is even starker. The Liberal Democrats came third with 72 seats, having polled 3,501,040 votes. The new, insurgent Reform UK party got half a million more votes than them, but only won 5 seats. How can we make sense of these striking anomalies? A significant part of the answer is explained in this book: electoral geography. As Okunev writes, “geographic clustering in elections makes it possible to determine swing regions that need more attention during the next election campaign” (p 390). That’s exactly the lesson that Labour and the Liberal Democrats took from 2019 in plotting their successful 2024 campaigns.
Partially because of times like these in which we live, the sub-discipline of political geography is thriving across the world and is proving increasingly popular amongst students outside traditional geography degrees. At the same time, the number of textbooks on the topic has multiplied as younger lecturers eagerly write-up their innovative courses, and older professors re-issue multiple editions of venerable texts. The teacher of political geography is therefore spoiled for choice when selecting course textbooks. In this crowded market, there are two reasons why this text stands out as a pedagogical aid.
First, it is of greater use to an international audience. Far too many recent textbooks published in the UK and USA focus overwhelmingly on those two countries, neglecting processes taking place in territory of the UN’s 191 other member states, not to mention Antarctica, the high seas, and outer space. This ethnocentrism makes some of these books virtually unusable outside their home markets. In contrast, whilst still reflecting the author’s background as a Russian geographer, this textbook is more global in its outlook and examples. There is a good reason why the first edition has been translated into many non-western contexts/languages including Mongolian, Persian and Polish.
Second, as the theoretical sophistication and diversity of Anglo-American political geography has developed, so too its textbooks have become more complicated. They have increasingly struggled with the tension between summarizing and introducing a growing and vibrant field to students, and making it clear and accessible. One result of this is that authors hurry on to exciting and complex ideas and theories without sufficiently explaining basic concepts. It is exactly that gap which Igor Okunev’s book fills. He takes the student through some of the basic ideas and concepts of political geography that are vital to grasp before they are able to tackle more sophisticated theoretical reflections.
As with any textbook the instructor will find omissions, over-simplifications, and subjects that are not relevant for their classes. This is therefore a book that should be dipped into and used alongside others, as a starting point towards more advanced discussions later in a student’s university career. I can’t think of a better introductory political geography textbook currently in print in the English language which fulfils this purpose, and we owe a debt to Peter Lang for undertaking the considerable task of translating it.
Professor Nick MEGORAN, Newcastle University
Foreword to the First English Edition
It is a pleasure to introduce Dr. Igor Okunev’s comprehensive and groundbreaking textbook on the dynamic aspect of geopolitics that merges the fields of political geography and international relations. The book is designed to introduce students to a broad range of subject matter relevant to contemporary international relations and political geography concentrating analysis on the spatial to political processes. There is no question that students of western nations will benefit through enhancing understanding of international relations, political science, and political geography by seeking to incorporate perspectives of non-Western experts in courses and research. This textbook, offered by a leading scholar among the younger generation of Russia’s academic community, will provide insight into the diverse methods for understanding and analyz- ing the complex interplay between geography and contemporary inter- national political processes.
Igor Okunev and I have had many opportunities to collaborate with scholars throughout the world over the past several years while serv- ing on the Executive Board of the Research Committee on Geopolitics of the International Political Science Association. Igor’s efforts have been instrumental in advancing research in the areas of international geopolitics and political geography among the academic community within Russia and beyond. Igor’s research agenda has been highly valued by his colleagues offering support for the establishment of the Center for Spatial Analysis in International Relations under his direction at Russia’s premier diplomatic and foreign affairs university, Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO).
This textbook was developed in working with students in Igor’s courses offered in both Russian and English at MGIMO. Igor and I have co-chaired several videoconference sessions for students of Russia and the United States to explore international relations topic areas to include discussion of several of the topics covered in this textbook. Students from both countries consistently leave these joint seminars asking when the next meeting opportunity will occur, recognizing the critical value of having exposure to the worldviews, thinking, and methods form- ing the basis for the study of international political processes in other nations. The content introduced in Igor Okunev’s “Political Geography” is organized and structured to support easy integration into a diversity of courses in international relations, international security, political geog- raphy, and geopolitics.
This textbook should serve as an invaluable resource for assisting stu- dents developing the tools to better understand geographic variables in unraveling the sources of critical 21st century geopolitical challenges and opportunities to include regional conflicts, resource wars, great power rivalry and cooperation, and much more.
Sharyl CROSS, PhD
Distinguished Professor of International Relations, St. Edward’s
University, Austin, USA
Former US Fulbright Scholar, Visiting Professor of International Relations,
Moscow State Institute of International Relations
(MGIMO University)
Foreword to the Russian Edition
I am excited to welcome Igor Okunev’s textbook on political geogra- phy. Igor is my younger colleague, whom I had pleasure to teach while he was a student. I have also supervised his dissertation on the community of island polities of Oceania. Igor is an exceptional personality having two great character traits that very seldom come together in one person. He has a very far-reaching mind able of sweeping vision and huge scru- tiny. But at the same time, he is very keen about even minor details and particulars. He fashioned a comprehensive approach to political geog- raphy as a science and shaped it into a system of fundamental concepts and patterns. In his textbook, he offers a full, truly inclusive overview of the subject. Metaphorically speaking, Igor has created a “periodic table of elements” for political space, arranging them by levels and degrees of complexity.
The ambitious idea behind his work and its extensive scope do not take away from the highly thorough and accurate academic research into every aspect of political geography. All the elements of the “periodic table” are very well explained, structured, and supported by evidence and facts.
The main result of his thorough labors is an inclusive and detailed thesaurus serving as a rather promising basis for professional metalan- guage in political geography.
Igor Okunev’s textbook is based on his own course taught both in Russian and English in leading Russian universities, as well as on his diverse research projects. Besides, Igor as a true geographer draws inspiration from his sincere passion for adventure and exploration from his youth till maturity making his visit climes and spaces. The author’s love for political geography will hopefully prove to be so contagious for the readers that they will immediately embark on the thrilling journey across the world political map. I would even hope that the readers – just as Igor himself – would explore the broad world around with all the extraordinary things both the world and its representation in Igor’s text- book have to offer.
Mikhail ILYIN, PhD
Professor of Higher School of Economics
Head of the Centre for Advanced Methodologies in Social Sciences
and Humanities in the Russian Academy of Sciences
Chapter 1 Introduction to Political Geography
Political Geography is concerned with the spatial dimensions of politics.
This chapter is introductory and at the same time provides a general overview of the material contained in the entire textbook. It defines the subject, methods, and subdisciplines of political geography and gives a general idea of the principles, levels, and elements of the political and territorial organization of society. If in the next chapters each level and its elements are considered separately, this introduction offers an integrating model of the structure of the world political map.
This course is an introduction to the study of political science, international relations and area studies. As such, it provides a systemic approach to the spatial dimension of political processes at all levels, covering their basic elements, including states, supranational unions, geopolitical systems, regions, borders, capitals, dependent and internationally administered territories. Political geography develops fundamental theoretical approaches that provide an insight into the peculiarities of foreign and domestic policies. The ability to use spatial analysis techniques allows us to determine patterns and regularities of political phenomena at the global, regional and local levels.
§ 1. Subject Matter of Political Geography
Political geography draws knowledge from political science and geography. The former studies the political aspects of social activity. That is, it is interested in setting and achieving goals in society, which is key in shaping the institutional structure of the state. The latter focuses on the spatial dimension of both natural (physical geography) and societal (social geography) processes on the Earth’s surface. Thus, political geography, as a discipline combining two sciences, deals with the spatial dimension of political processes and phenomena.
Try answering the following questions to see if there are some regular patterns of how space impacts politics. Would:
- the nature of international relations change if every state were located on a separate island?
- the nature of social conflicts change in the absence of state borders and migration restrictions?
- the efficiency of political institutions in the country change if all residents could gather in one room?
- the electoral behaviour of an individual change if right-wingers lived in the east of the state while leftists resided in the west?
If you answered “yes” to these questions, this implies that political geography can exist as a separate discipline.
The First Law of Geography, according to the Swiss geographer Waldo R. Tobler, states “everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things.” This means that geography studies the attributes of an object that stem from its spatial connections with other objects (horizontal conditionality), rather than its own location and attributes defined by its position (vertical conditionality). It is spatial connections between objects that explain political phenomena in geography. For instance, it would be wrong to say that democracy can arise only in a small state. At the same time, the hypothesis that democracy is more likely to emerge in a state surrounded by democracies looks quite consistent.
Political geography proceeds from the fact that the Earth’s spatial organization preordains the territorial distribution of political power. However, this is not always the case, and there may be exceptions since a range of other factors – in addition to the man-made and nature-driven spatial organization of the planet – affect the territorial distribution of political power both internationally and domestically. Research in political geography aims to determine the extent to which the basic hypothesis of political geography is relevant and can explain political processes.
§ 2. Levels of Spatial Organization
In a sense, political space resembles a multilayered cake. The political map of the world shows only one level – the state level – and even then, the picture it gives is severely distorted. The fact is that physically being in a single place means that we are actually located in several layers of political space at the same time. Some of them interact while others can exist independently.
Consider two universities, for example, MGIMO and the University of Hong Kong (HKU) (see Table 1.1).
MGIMO University is situated in the southwest of Moscow. Being integrated in the local community, it is thereby linked to the Troparyovo-Nikulino Municipal District, which implies the local level of political space. Some issues, for example, vital utilities needed for the university to function, are addressed at the intraregional level of the second order (the administration of the Western Administrative Okrug) and the subregional level of the second order (the Council of the Troparyovo-Nikulino District, which coincides with the Municipal District). Transportation issues are tackled by the Government of Moscow, at a higher regional level. The government coordinates its policy with the regions of the Central Federal District at the supra-regional level. The state constitutes the key political space for the university, as the Russian higher education policy is developed at the national level.
| Designation | Level | MGIMO | University of Hong Kong (HKU) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| n+3 | Supranational Level | Global | UN System | UN System |
| n+2 | Mega-regional | West | East | |
| n+1.5 | Trans-regional | BRICS | BRICS | |
| n+1 | Macro-regional | Eurasia/ EAEU | Asia/SCO | |
| n+0.5 | Meso-regional | Eastern Europe | East Asia | |
| n+ | Mixed | – | – | |
| n | State | Russia | People’s Republic of China | |
| n- | Subnational Level | Suzerain | – | Hong Kong |
| n-0.5 | Supra-regional | Central Federal District | – | |
| n-1 | Regional | Moscow | Hong Kong Special Administrative Region | |
| n-1.5 | Intraregional of an nth order | Western Administrative Okrug | – | |
| n-2 Mesopotomia | Subregional of an nth order | Troparyovo-Nikulino District | Southern District | |
| n-3 | Local | Troparyovo-Nikulino Municipal District | Pokfulam | |
However, it is also shaped in certain aspects by agreements within integration associations to which Russia belongs at the Macro-regional level (the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)), and even at the trans-regional level (BRICS). Finally, there are matters in which the higher education policy is established at the global level, for instance, by the Bologna Process or UNESCO. Thus, the life of a MGIMO student is regulated by numerous organizations and bodies simultaneously, with some being hierarchically subordinated to others, and others acting independently. These regulatory and decision-making institutions are dispersed across different levels of political space, whose cohesion nevertheless remains intact. Let us look at a similar structure of the political space for an HKU student. Some levels will be new, while some others will not function at all. Moreover, some levels of political space – for instance the global and trans-regional levels – are the same for students of MGIMO and the University of Hong Kong, while others are not. In other words, we share levels of spatial organization with others all the time, yet at the same time we are separated from them.
There are effectively four levels of political space: basic; auxiliary; regular; and optional (Table 1.1).
The state (or national) level is the only basic level. It is the level that is shown on the political map of the world. The modern system of international relations is an interstate system. That is, it is an interconnected system of relations between states, since initially only the state has the fundamental right to sovereignty or the authority to establish its own rules in a certain territory, with sovereignty regarded as the main political capital. By exploiting it and developing mechanisms to maintain it, states create a pyramid of upper and lower levels of political space – the subnational level and the supranational level.
The auxiliary levels of political space – the mixed level (between the state level and other supranational levels) and the suzerain level (between the state level and subnational levels) are not fully-fledged levels. They create transitional zones in the structure of political space, which are deprived of true state sovereignty. However, these zones are directly bound to a state. International territories, internationalized entities, and territories with mixed regimes belong to the mixed level category, while dependent territories are placed at the suzerain level.
Unlike the state level, the regular levels of political space (three supranational levels – global, Mega-regional, and Macro-regional; and three subnational levels – including regional, subregional, and local) cannot establish the international system on their own. Nonetheless, they are full-fledged regularly and universally functioning levels. At the global level, which includes global international organizations and other platforms of global dialogue, attempts are being made to develop comprehensive political solutions to certain issues, such as banning weapons of mass destruction and combating climate change. The Mega-regional level, comprising large geopolitical dichotomies (West–East, North–South, Centre–Periphery, Sea–Land, etc.), witnesses the coordinated efforts of large groupings of states that oppose the rest of the world. Regional international organizations and integration associations, which typically include countries from a single continent (the European Union, for instance), function at the Macro-regional level. The regional level is shaped by a system of first-order spatial organization while the subregional level contains a system of second-order spatial organization. There may be more subregional levels, up to five in real life, depending on the number of levels of administrative state division. Finally, the local level is represented by municipal self-government bodies. It is not the lowest level of politico-territorial division. Rather, it is an independent level, which is not bound by the state’s executive authorities, the vertical power structure. Local issues are addressed at this level.
Details
- Pages
- 490
- Publication Year
- 2024
- ISBN (ePUB)
- 9782807612914
- ISBN (PDF)
- 9782807618435
- ISBN (Softcover)
- 9782807607316
- DOI
- 10.3726/b22102
- Language
- English
- Publication date
- 2021 (January)
- Keywords
- borders capitals spatial analysis techniques geopolitical systems political geography spatial dimensions of politics supranational unions
- Published
- Bruxelles, Berlin, Chennai, Lausanne, New York, Oxford, 2024. 490 p., 16 ill. n/b, 54 tabl.
- Product Safety
- Peter Lang Group AG
