IP NOTES 10/3

Review Session Wednesday in Mudd 26- 7-8PM

Geography
Arable Land
arable land is actually related to security... somehow
-ibn khaldun believes that in areas with fertile land, wealth would be greater, which meant that military prowess would decrease
-in poorer, less fertile lands, the military would have to be much much more powerful
-this is a nice little cycle
-industrial revolution allows societies to overcome this cycle
Resources
the earth is uneven in the distribution of natural resources
example-
-during copper age, Egypt had lots of copper, was dominant
-this changed with the iron age, where the Hittites had huge amounts of iron, Egypt got raped
-now, fossil fuels are the big thing, 1/3 of the world's oil is in saudi arabia, gives SA huge amounts of power
Topography
the greeks could beat off the persians, because of the terrain
vietnam vs kuwait- vietnam sucked ass, hilly and covered in forest, kuwait was perfect for tank warfare
Territorial- Extra Territorial
H. Mackinder argues that the development of the railroad means that land power will for the first time dominate sea power (this was 1919)
-places like germany picked up on this, as they were huge on land power
Position
Your neighbors are HUGE factors in security
living next to strong people is NOT security advantageous
Choke points are HUGE
-British had so freaking many of them, led to the PAX BRITANNICA
-Between Dover and the North Sea
-Gibraltar
-Suez Canal
-Cape of Good Hope
-Malaca
-Falkland Islands
-Panama
-British basically owns every single chokepoint ever
Technology (volume and velocity of violence)
Transportation
Distance isn't important, EFFECTIVE distance is important
-doesnt matter if its a million miles away, if you travel a million miles a minute
Logistics is important as well
-logistics is MILITARY SUPPLY
-basically how armies win and lose wars
~1500AD, open water sailing was developed, let people travel from sea to shining sea
~19th century- RAILROAD
-prior to the railroad, moving things over land was really really expensive
-with the invention of the railroad, the interiors of the continents got opened up
Now, with invention of ICBMs, we can kill anybody anywhere
Communication
until recently, the speed of transportation was the speed of communication, cause someone had to carry the actual message
~19th century, telegraph was invented, whole world got wired
now, command and control is huge, because of instantaneous communication
when submarine wires got invented, they were quickly laid all over the world
now, satellite communication, intelligence makes communication insanely easy, and insanely important
Destruction
Now, we have 'total war'
-this means the entire civilian economy is mobilized
-during WWII, entirety of many european cities were destroyed, to take out their industrial capabilities
-now, ONE ballistic missile submarine carries approx. a shitload more firepower than existed during WWII
Geopolitics (II)
Anarchy (state of nature, states, and state of war)
anarchy means no government, NOT chaos
State of nature- lots of people, NO organization
State- lots of people, nice and organized
State of War- lots of states in conflict with eachother
-State of Nature and State of War are the two types of anarchy
in SoN, Hobbes believes that life is Nasty, Brutish, and Short
-for realists, this state is intolerable for people to live in, you want to leave that state
For SoW- Realism claims to be a guide to traversing this state
-basically, this is the entirety of international politics
-you don't have to get out of this state
-life may be nasty and brutish, but it sure ain't short
Violence Interdependence
measures the capacity for violence, or the capacity to do damage to one another
intense VI and Anarchy = insecurity leads to government
Stable VI and anarchy gives a state system
VI across space, time
the size of the space where violence and anarchy reigns is growing
nuclear weapons did for the continental-size nation states did what gunpowder did to the fief
-basically makes them irrelevant, to be secure, you need to get out of the nationstate thing