IP NOTES 9/27

Review Session is Hodson 110 between 7 and 8 on Wed Oct 4

Stuff from Last Time
it has become EXTREMELY difficult to conquer and occupy a nation
-this has come about as a direct result of the development of nationalism
two views for a nation-
1) one-nation, one-state
-this is a more liberal view
-national determination is a type of group democracy
-interestingly, because of this, BOTH US and USSR were in favor of colonial self-determination (anti-imperialism)
2) US idea- civic/public
-US is not founded on ethnic or religious character, but on an ideology of liberty
-citizenship is ABSTRACT, not based on bloodlines
-open to anyone, regardless of their origin
-there is ethnicity, but we have a multi-ethnic polity that expresses itself in different ways
-here, the liberty leads to diversity
-diversity leads either to conflict or toleration
-in america, this ends up meaning that toleration is emphasized front and center
-europeans have been moving towards this since WWII
Cosmopolitanism is another national identity theory
-in 19th/20th century, new cosmopolitanism is created
-the argument is that there is now a 'global village'
-this comes from advancements in technology, makes the world smaller
-this argument is set out by Bateson, Smith argues the other side
Another argument- set out in the 1990s, ideological polarization between capitalism and communism is gone
-will be replaced by a 'clash of civilizations'
-identifies 6-7 civilizations, and will be the most important conflict of the 21st century
-there are some problems with his assumptions
1)west != christendom
2)there are conflicts within civilizations as well as alliances without
3)civilizations that seem to be united are actually patchworks
4)he believes that civilizations are based on different religions, and that they clash in some way
-problem here is that the core ethical structures of religion are all extremely similar, so they should actually cooperate

Power Analysis
Hard vs Soft
Hard Power:
-geographical
-technological
-population
-millitary force
Middle Power:
-economics
Soft Power:
-organization
-leadership
-ideology
Realists typically focus on HARD POWER when they talk about 'power matters most'
Distribution vs Composition of Power
Distribution is understood to be a quantity of power, much like a pile of money- clearly quantifiable
Composition is understood to be a qualitative measure of power
-as if each type of power is a different tool, good for different things
-kind of like asking how many triremes is equal to a certain number of hoplites- like comparing apples and oranges
Geopolitics is primarily focusing on compositional variations and hard power
Varieties of Geopolitics
Three major people in political SCIENCE (not theory)
-aristotle, machiavelli, montescue
Social darwinism kind of pops out of these kind of philosophies
-nation-states compete with eachother for 'lebensraum' or living space
-exactly like darwinist 'survival of the fittest'
Materialism-
-commonly a motive of an agent (people want things)
-different in geopolitcs
-CONTEXTUAL MATERIALISM is whats up
-geography interacting with technology constitutes the environment within which human action occurs

geo +techno + other factors yield system border + other factors + character of actors

Geography
-'climate is the first and greatest empire'
climate is the most important thing in geographic power
nearly ALL of the important geographic and political powers come from the northern temperate zone (historically, anyways)
-disease comes directly from climate
-one idea- ecological imperialism
-only in the temperate zones did the europeans colonize successfully (NOT in the tropics)
-single most important factor in ^^ is disease
-basically kills everybody everywhere, rapes the shit out of everybody
-estimated that 90% of the total population in the new world died of disease
-Africa is the most tropical continent, stayed uncolonized for longest
-because they'd just get raped by disease
-one of most important- malaria