A Divided World
222
CHAPTER 6
POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY
A Divided World
Are these border fences or walls?
Post-9/11 border security: the boundary between Israeli and Arab-Palestinian lands (top) and the U.S.- Mexico border (bottom).
(Top: ImageBROKER/Alamy; Bottom: age fotostock/Getty Images.)
Go to “Seeing Geography” to learn more about these images.
223
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
6.1
Identify the importance of region to political geography.
6.2
Identify the various ways that mobility and political geography interact.
6.3
Describe the effects of globalization on political geography.
6.4
Recognize the importance of the physical environment to political geography.
6.5
Analyze the role of cultural landscape in political geography.
From the breakup of empires to regional differences in voting patterns, from the drawing of international boundaries to congressional redistricting in the U.S. electoral system, from the resurgence of nationalism to separatist violence, human political behavior is inherently geographical. As geographer Gearóid Ó Tuathail has said, political geography “is about power, an ever-changing map revealing the struggle over borders, space, and authority.”
political geography
The geographic study of politics and political matters.