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1 February 2010

Sovereignty: two competing theories of state recognition - William Worster

International Politics (Critical Geopolitics)

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17 February

Geopolitical Passports of Professors Stéphane Rosière (Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne) and Mark Bassin (University of Birmingham)

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AllGeopolitics, Twitter page of this website

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Recognition of new states

February 2010

picture Worster

William Worster currently serves as a lecturer at the Hague University and Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Dr Worster's contribution provides a legal perspective on the recognition of new states. Addressed issues include sovereignty, statehood and the Montevideo Convention:

Sovereignty: two competing theories of state recognition - William Worster

"The constitutive theory states that recognition of an entity as a state is not automatic. A state is only a state when it is recognized as such and other states have a considerable discretion to recognize or not. Moreover, only upon recognition by those other states does the new state exist, at least in a legal sense."

Critical Geopolitics master program

February 2010

ExploringGeopolitics aims to provide information about where to study geopolitics. This new course description concerns International Politics (Critical Geopolitics), a master specialisation of Newcastle University. More contributions about geopolitical courses remain welcome!

International Politics (Critical Geopolitics)

"Critical Geopolitics is an interdisciplinary degree programme featuring distinctive contributions from critical international politics and human geography. It focuses on the key theories, approaches and thinkers in the study of geopolitics. You will learn about the political dynamics, consequences and discourses of contemporary geopolitics and how to think critically about these important political currents."

Stuart Elden on his new book

January 2010

picture Stuart Elden

Professor Stuart Elden (Durham University) obtained a BSc (Hons) and PhD at Brunel University. In this interview, he elaborates on his new book, "Terror and Territory: The Spatial Extent of Sovereignty". Why did he start writing the book? Which thinkers have inspired him? And do the conclusions of his book leave room for further research?

Territory, Terror and Sovereignty - Stuart Elden

Book cover Stuart Elden

"Yet territorial integrity in international law, and the UN charter which was continually being referred to, also means territorial sovereignty: the idea that within its boundaries a state is sovereign and no external interference allowed. This was clearly not what was being meant by Bush and Blair."

Geopolitical Passport of Joe Painter

January 2010

picture Joe Painter

Professor Joe Painter (Durham University) obtained a BA at University of Cambridge and a PhD at The Open University. His research interests include geographies of the state and citizenship and urban politics and governance. In this interview, professor Painter discusses among other topics North-South and East-West relations, socio-technical networks and political anthropology.

Joe Painter's Geopolitical Passport

Book cover Joe Painter

"We also have to attend to the differences between geopolitics as an academic endeavour (the study of geopolitics) and geopolitics as a political activity (the practice of geopolitics) as well as to the continuous interaction between the two. Geopolitics is concerned with the difference space makes to politics."

Federico Bordonaro's view on 2009

January 2010

picture Federico Bordonaro

Federico Bordonaro is professor of geopolitics at Center of Excellence for the Stability Police Units and Rome’s University "La Sapienza". He gives his view on 2009 by analysing important geopolitical trends including the Nabucco, Southstream and Northstream projects:

A Geopolitical Review of 2009 - Federico Bordonaro

Recommended contributions

Most popular contributions

January 2010

picture Gerard Dussouy
Marietta König

Two new entries this month; Marietta König's contribution jumps to 5th position. Last month's position in brackets.

Geopolitical visions of EU

September 2009

Luiza Bialasiewicz

Dr. Luiza Bialasiewicz (Senior Lecturer in Political Geography at Royal Holloway) explains the meaning of geopolitical visions and apllies this concept to the European Union. Why does the EU lack one geopolitical vision? Has the identity of the EU recently changed? And what has been the impact of the end of the 'Cold War' on Europe's borders?

European Union: geopolitical visions - Luiza Bialasiewicz

"It is curious how national political cultures and national histories still strongly influence member states’ geopolitical visions of and for Europe. These are often shaped by histories of strife but also by (ex)colonial ties."

Geopolitics in the 2000s

September 2009

Virginie Mamadouh

Virginie Mamadouh (Associate Professor at University of Amsterdam) takes a fresh look at her 1998 article "Geopolitics in the nineties: one flag, many meanings." She further writes about the research agenda of contemporary geopolitics:

Geopolitics in the 2000s - Virginie Mamadouh

Book cover

"Despite, or rather thanks to, its diversity, geopolitics has remained a powerful tool to study territorial conflicts and other spatial politics, more in particular international relations and global governance."

Geopolitical Passport of Simon Dalby

July 2009

picture

Simon Dalby is Professor at Carleton University and co-editor of the journal Geopolitics. He is specialised in critical geopolitics, environmental security and the geographical dimensions of global politics:

Simon Dalby's Geopolitical Passport

Dalby cover

"I don’t define geopolitics! It’s a term that refers to numerous modes of linking space and power and is best left that way; it’s a discursive mode, a matter of overlapping discursive practices, not a thing to be reduced to a stable definition."

Michel Foucher about borders

June 2009

picture Foucher

Michel Foucher, Professor of geography and geopolitics at the Ecole Normale Supérieure (Paris Ulm) and member of the Council of Foreign Affairs (Paris), discusses the various roles of borders and the influence of borders on security and identity. This interview provides non-French speakers a unique insight into Mr Foucher's ideas which he has thoroughly discussed in numerous French publications:

Book cover

Borders, security and identity - Michel Foucher

"Fear and policies of (in)security are the main drivers for fencing in the border scene which looks like a counter-model for the 'borderless world'."

Useful page with external links

If you are looking for links to freely available statistics and political information, please check this page:

Country Data

Events, Links and Quotes

Geopolitical Summer University 2010

Logo ICGS

The International Centre for Geopolitical Studies organises the course "Geopolitical Analysis of International Relations" from 12 until 17 July 2010 in Geneva. The course will adopt a multidisciplinary approach that incorporates strategic, geographic, historic, cultural and economic dimensions. For more information:

Geopolitical Analysis of International Relations

Course information at ICGS website

Quote on World News

"This is world news. What has been created is a vortex of concentric forces, reducing reality to a small cluster of reports, flowing through a handful of monopoly providers who, in turn, channel each other's stories into their own streams. Frequently unchecked, commonly created by PR, this consensus account of the world is inherently inadequate in its selection of stories, inherently unreliable in its reporting, daily generating the mass production of ignorance."
"Flat Earth News", Nick Davies, Vintage Books, 2009.

About Geopolitics

William F. Engdahl

Geopolitics, Geo-Economics homepage

Foreign Policy Research Institute

"The Revival of Geopolitics"

l'Institut de Stratégie Comparée

Geopolitique et Géostratégie [Yves Lacoste]

Taylor and Francis Group

Geopolitics journal

Virginia Tech

Critical geopolitics [Publications Gerard Toal]

Quote on Sovereignty

"In the modern conception, state sovereignty is fully, flatly, and evenly operative over each square centimetre of a legally demarcated territory. But in the older imagining, where states were defined by centres, borders were porous and indistinct, and sovereignties faded imperceptibly into one another. Hence, paradoxically enough, the ease with which pre-modern empires and kingdoms were able to sustain their rule over immensely heterogeneous and often not even contiguous, populations for long periods of time."
"Imagined Communities", Benedict Anderson, Verso Books, 1983.

Link Exchange Partners

Blog of dr Federico Bordonaro

Englobe Inc.

Etudes Géopolitiques Européennes Atlantiques

Geopolitical Assessments

Infoguerre

L’Institut québécois des hautes études internationales

International Centre for Geopolitical Studies

International Peace Information Service

Maastricht University

Programme Paix et sécurité internationales

Radboud University

Universität St.Gallen

Universiteit Antwerpen

University of Amsterdam

University College Dublin

Quote on Terrorism

"The challenge to define terrorism is an impossible one for two reasons. First, terrorism has varied across history and geographical settings to make any one definition an inadequate description of the diversity of reasons and forms of terrorist activity. Second, the definition of terrorism is in itself an act of politics: defining certain acts as terrorist acts makes certain forms of violence, political goals and geopolitical agency illegitimate and so, in reverse, legimitates other forms of violence, politics and agency"
"Introduction to Geopolitics", Colin Flint, Routledge, 2006

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New external link (2010)

Quote on Nations

"All nations require a past to justify their current existence and to provide a rationale for territorial claims. Fact, folklore and fiction combine to produce and reproduce a sense of nationhood; myths and legends are an important part of nation-building."
"Territory - The Claiming of Space", David Storey, Pearson Education, 2001.

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