Subject

Geography

  • code 10073
  • course 3
  • term Semester 1
  • type OB
  • credits 4

Main language of instruction: Catalan

Teaching staff

Head instructor

Lc. Sergi MASSANA - smassana@uic.es

Office hours

Class days before each session

Introduction

An introduction to geopolitics. Focused on journalism students interested in deepening the most current international issues.

Pre-course requirements

They are not required

Objectives

An approach to the main friction areas and geopolitical conflict in the world, attending to their origins, causes and contradictions. It will be analyze the strategic and/or economic interests that promote them. We'll try to understand the main distinctive facts (social, political, cultural, etc.) of the different regions of the today's world.

Competences / Learning outcomes of the degree programme

  • 02 CG - The ability to learn and act an autonomously and responsibly
  • 04 CG - The ability to organise time and workspace
  • 08 CG - The ability to reflect and memorize.
  • 10 CG - Knowledge and mastery of bibliographic repertoires
  • 11 CG - Knowledge and mastery of different research resources
  • 18 CE - Ability to detect newsworthy events
  • 34 CE - Knowledge and mastery of issues related to the physical, human and social geography of the human being
  • 42 CE - The ability to integrate the contributions of the environment

Learning outcomes of the subject

An approach to geopolitics to be able to take it into account when we analyze and describe the main international conflicts.

Being able to identify some "whys" of the main geopolitical, economic and social problems affecting today's world and try to understand the causes.

To be able to distinguish (and evaluate) the bias of the information sources according to the interested parts in a international conflict.

Syllabus

The contents to be treated in the subject will be those that are detailed here, but following the order of the proposals of the students included in a weekly press dossier.

The final objective will not be to explain in an orderly manner the whole agenda described here, but to deepen in those matters of greater interest. The topics discussed (beyond the introduction) will always be proposed by the students, who will weekly provide new articles for the weekly press dossier.

1. Introduction. General topics

1.1. The nature of the state and power: What is the state? What is power? Birth and modern state concept. The concept of sovereignty. The nation and the nation-state. Supra-state and infra-state political structures. Different state models. Electoral systems. Etc...

1.2.- Power in the world. Global geopolitics: Military power, sources of energy, economic and cultural globalization, migratory movements, multiculturalism, public opinion, international organizations (UN, IMF, WTO ...). Classical Powers vs. Emerging powers. A unipolar, bipolar, multipolar world. Etc...

2.- North America. Canada and USA.

3.- Latin America

3.1.- Mexico. Frustrated revolutions. The threat of the drug cartels.

3.2.- Central America and the Caribbean. From the guerrillas to globalization. Panama, the history of a channel. The Cuban exceptionality. The Puerto Rican trilemma.

3.3.- The Andes region. The never resolved indigenous issue. The "new" Colombia pacified. Venezuela to the limit. Border claims (Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia ...).

3.4.- Brazil, emergent power in expectation. The Amazon: ecology and global responsibility. The internal equilibria: Rio, Sao Paulo and Brasilia.

3.5.- Argentina and its economic ups and downs. What is Peronism? The eternal question: Are political and social problems inside or outside? The southern end of the world: Patagonia, the Falklands and Antarctica.

4.- Africa

4.1.- A terrible colonization and a worse decolonization. The perpetuation of arbitrary borders. Foreign interests over natural resources. The neocolonialism.

4.2.- The irresolvable ethno-tribal conflicts. Clans and warlords. The impossibility of structuring nation-states. The failed states.

4.3.- African "plagues": hunger, drought, illiteracy, disease. Is it all the West's fault? The NGOs

4.4.- The possible African powers: South Africa and Nigeria.

5.- Islam and the Arab World

5.1.- Consideration and previous orientations. Differences between Islam and the Arab world. The different confessions: Sunnis and Shiites. Some more concepts: Wahabbism, jihad.

5.2.- The Maghreb. Between growth and emigration. The conflict of Western Sahara. Algeria and the FIS. The Tunisian way to democracy. The Shael and the expansion of Islam to the south.

5.3.- Middle East: The geopolitical key of the world. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Zionism vs. Panarabism. Egypt. Iraq and Iran (the Islamic Revolution). Syria, civil war.

5.4.- Arabia and the monarchies of the Persian Gulf. The geopolitics of oil.

5.5.- Exo-Soviet Islam: the Caucasus and Central Asia.

5.6.- Turkish Occidentalism today in question. The conflicts of Cyprus and Kurdistan.

6.- South Asia

6.1.- India. Approach to oriental cultures: Hinduism and Buddhism. The complex caste society. The curious Indian economy: between the Neolithic and the microchip. The unsolvable conflict with Pakistan (Kashmir).

6.2.- Indochina and insular Asia. Unprecedented economic boom (Malaysia and Singapore). Vietnam, the most emblematic conflict of the cold war.

7.- The Far East

7.1.- China. Towards global leadership? What China was: Brief political history. State model. Internal vertebrae: regions, languages, philosophy and religions. The unresolved issues of Tibet and Taiwan

7.2.- The Japanese economic, industrial and social model, its historical roots. The two Koreas. The economic expansion of the Japanese and Korean multinationals. The Russian-Japanese obstacle of the Kurils.

8.- Oceania

8.1.- Australia and New Zealand

8.2.- Melanesia, Polynesia and Micronesia (island micro-states and colonial domains). The French possessions: New Caledonia, Tahiti, Mururoa. The presence of the US in the Pacific Ocean.

9.- Europe

9.1.- What is Europe? Definition and limits. The European Union, history, fundamentals, evolution and growth. The different visions of Europe.

9.2.- Historical evolution of European geopolitics. The unifications of Germany and Italy. The great European empires of the past and their legacies. Geopolitics of small nations: nationalism vs. imperialism (Ireland, Baltic republics). Dependencies, micro-states and other curiosities in Europe.

9.3.- Russia an uncertain giant: the dismemberment of the former Soviet bloc. The new Russian expansionism. Crimea, Abkhazia, etc ...

Teaching and learning activities

In person

We will work in small groups of students. Each group will send to professor a daily newspaper article of geopolitical interest. With these articles the teacher will create a small "Press Dossier" and share it in the Moodle space. This dossier will be discussed in the next class session. The students will explain their article with a brief oral presentation.

Through the analysis of daily newspaper articles, the main geopolitical conflicts of the current world will be reviewed.

Evaluation systems and criteria

In person

The Press Dossier will define the final evaluation. Each student will have to submit an extended and written comment of the article (or articles) contributed by him / herself in class.

The final exam will consist in commenting on several of the articles studied in class.

Final grade:

15 % Attendance and participation. Class discussions.

25 % written essay

60 % Final exam. The final exam should be pass

Bibliography and resources

International section of the daily local newspapers, basically: El País, La Vanguardia, El Periódico, El Mundo, L'ABC, L'Ara ...

Le Monde Diplomatique (Ed. Espanyola). Periodicitat Mensual. Edita: Paris Lopress.

http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/index/sujet/geopolitique

La Vanguardia Dossier (Col·lecció). Periodicitat Trimestral. Edita: La Vanguardia Publicaciones. http://www.lavanguardia.com/vanguardia-dossier

Anuari Internacional del CIDOB (Barcelona Center for International affairs). Periodicitat anual.

http://anuariocidob.org/articulos/

Revista de Relaciones Internacionales. http://www.relacionesinternacionales.info

The World Fact Book https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/index.html de la Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

Country Information:  http://geography.about.com/cs/intlconflict/

Geopolitique. Diari francès on-line especialitzat en conflictes geopolítics:

http://www.geopolitique.com/

 

KAPLAN, Robert, D. (2012): La venganza de la geografia. RBA Libros SA. Barcelona.

ACEMOGLU, Daron i ROBINSON, James (2012): Por qué fracasan los paises. Deusto Ediciones (Planeta) Barcelona. 

LACOSTE, Yves (2008). Geopolítica. La larga historia del presente. Madrid: Editorial Síntesis

 

HUNTINGTON, Samuel P. (1997): El choque de civilizaciones y la reconfiguración del orden mundial. Paidós. Barcelona

PARKER, Geoffrey (1988): The geopolitics of domination. Routledge. London

LÓPEZ TRIGAL, Lorenzo (1999): Geografía política. Cátedra. Madrid

MACKINDER, Halford J. (1904): The geographical pivot of history. The Geographical Journal, Vol. 23, No.4, (April 1904)

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