International Relations

II State boundaries have constituted a major topic in the tradition of political geography. Political geography ‘is concerned with the relationship between political power and geographical factors. It is interested in how geographical factors correlate with power, such as how land, air and sea power correlate with a country’s political, military and economic power. Its focus is on area or space and their physical, human and spatial (space-related) dimensions.’ The countries of the world can be divided into two major world regions – the ‘core’ and the ‘periphery’. The core includes major world powers and the countries that contain much of the wealth of the planet. The peripheries are those countries that are not reaping the benefits of global wealth and globalization. A state is an area organized into a political unit and ruled by an established government that has control over its internal and foreign affairs. The study of political geography is impossible without a firm grasp of geography, geopolitics, globalization and small state verses large state. State borders have established a major topic in the tradition of political geography. Border analysis has focused on the international scale, since international borders provide possibly the most explicit manifestation of the large-scale connection between politics and geography. The locations of small countries are sometimes at a disadvantage to large countries because of their geographical features. Geopolitics relates political power to geographical space. According to Ojyvind Osterud ‘Geopolitics relates political power to geographical space. The word was coined by the Swedish political scientist Rudolph Kjellén at the dawn of the 19th century, epitomizing an organic conception of great power rivalry and expansion. While early Anglo-American geopolitical debate concerned the relative importance of land power and sea power, German discourse centered on interstate rivalry in continental space.’ Geopolitics is basically which state as the power and use the power to control smaller states. When a state controls land power then an army will arise to protect themselves from larger or smaller states that are threat to their well-being. Any state that has control over the sea, sea power belongs to them and the growth of navies and marines begins because of sea power. Whoever controls the air controls the power so they establish air planes and air missiles to protect themselves. Small states like Jamaica and other Caribbean countries are at a disadvantage in this field because they do not have the necessary armed forces to defend themselves from larger states such as America. The capitalist world economy was the principle factor for creating periphery countries to the European imperial core; this shows how the capitalist word economy affected the pattern of colonization in the periphery. Colonization is considered to be a hierarchal alternative to market relations, increased when market relations perform slowly and slowed when market expand. Major war among core states had no immediate impact but had no long term positive effects. A shift in the international regime brought about by the rise of socialist states also contributed to the decline of formal colonization. Colonization is a historical importance of colonial conquest in creating a global system. Geopolitical demonstrate the importance in the determination of foreign policies of considerations such as the acquisition of natural boundaries, access to important sea routes, and the control of strategically important land areas.
Globalization is a broadening, deepening, and acceleration of interconnectedness of states and markets; networks of connections at intercontinental distances. Globalization and currency unions, such as the Eurozone, weaken the power of the nation-state and a whole range of [a state's] trade, environmental and welfare policies must now conform to global norms. Three fundamental political and economic phenomena of the last century have been the raise of public spending, the breakup of nations in smaller states or more decentralized countries and the increased integration of international markets. While the first phenomenon has probably achieved its peak and may now reverse, the processes of decentralization and globalization are still in their full momentum. There are three aspects of globalization revolutionary technologies, the presence of new political influences and new policies; these create opportunities as well as adversities that we now face in the Caribbean. Globalization in the Caribbean means boundaries are of a decreasing significance to the dynamics of economics, politics and culture. Globalization started when trade began, because people are moving across geographical distances and connecting with one another for many centuries. Caribbean countries have opened up new market in trade and commerce, they have started importing and exporting from different countries around the world. Globalization has given countries opportunity to shop around and get the best prices and deals on goods, one such as “The Petro Caribe” agreement in Jamaica. This has aided Jamaica to get oil at a minimal cost and has helped to develop a friendly relationship between them and Venezuela. MNCS such as (Pepsi, Texaco, and KFC ) are also contributors to globalization, when theses cooperation’s build establishments in small states they help in the countries development and can be classified as developing countries. Organizations such as KFC aid small states in a good way and a bad way, they aid in small states being classified as developing countries and they also contribute little to the country. MNCS have their organizations and give back little towards taxation and they only give back little to community. This is a major disadvantage towards small countries because they wanted to be classified as developing countries they allow MNCS to start establishments when the gain little from it. Globalization aids in development of small states and large states.
Geography is the study of the physical features of the earth and its atmosphere, and of human activity as it affects and is affected by these. It does matter where a country is located in the geographical scope where the country is on the globe and who is there neighbor and why does it matter. When a country has natural frontiers, that is, whether it is protected by oceans, mountains are desserts. It also matters if the country is large or small. Small countries do not affect some resource to defend themselves from large countries so they then come together with other countries in their geographical space to form organizations such CARICOM to help protect each other. Small states also join the EU, Soviet Union and for them to assist them with financial struggles and also to defend them. According to the World Bank small states are “More than a quarter of World Bank members are countries with a population under 1.5 million. These countries vary greatly in their level of development and the size of their economies. They are also spread out geographically, with most of them clustered in the Caribbean, the Pacific, and in Africa.” Despite their diversity all these small states share a common set of development challenges like size vulnerability to economic shocks and income volatility, limited capacity, difficulty accessing external capital. Geographical challenges limited competitiveness, susceptibility to natural disasters and climate change. Large states are characterized as states with great force and power over smaller states. According to the Penguin Dictionary “Sometimes called the nation-state, this is the main actor in international relations. It has a legal personality and as such in international law possesses certain rights and duties. According to the Montevideo Convention on Rights and Duties of States (1933), which is widely regarded as the classic legal definition, states must possess the following qualifications: a permanent population, a defined territory and a government capable of maintaining effective control over its territory and of conducting international relations with other states.” Regions are those in which countries are contiguous or proximate and will act together on collective interests. Regions tend to share the same cultures and make natural allies, Nation and state tend to coincide with territory and national boundaries or geographical divisions, Landlocked and island states have different foreign policies and face different circumstances, Natural barriers like oceans and mountains can protect or expose a country to attack. A country’s resources depends on geographical factors like weather, soil type, mineral resources which vary by region. Geography, history, and culture overlap by region and must be studied for foreign policy .
Countries with great powers are states that are identified as having the ability to exert its influence on a global scale. States with the most powers always have military and economic strength and diplomatic and soft power influence which may cause small powers to consider the opinions of great powers before taking actions of their own. International relations theorists have posited that great power status can be characterized into power capabilities, spatial aspects, and status dimensions. Small states especially in the Caribbean suffer the consequences of larger states some of the time. A state’s geopolitics, geography, geographical location is at a permanent disadvantage as it relates to small states and large states. Small states usually come together to help fight against larger states and also to help each other in development. Even though small states and their geographical location can sometime suffer disadvantage or gain advantage they do not have to “swallow their pride” at all times to survive. Large countries helps to build smaller countries when they are their neighbours to aid in their development so they do not have to seek help or solace from larger countries.