Quiz 8 - Political Irr - U

Irredentism - the assertion by the government of a country that has a minority living outside its formal borders belongs to it historically and culturally.

Israel / Palestine: What is the West Bank? What is the Gaza Strip?

Landlocked - a state that does not have a direct outlet to the sea.

Lebanon: What is the religious and ethnic make-up for Lebanon?

Mackinder, Halford J.: proposed the heartland theory in the early twentieth century based on environmental determinism, the heartland theory addresses the balance of power in the world and, in particular, the possibility of world conquest based on natural habitat advantage. It held that the Eurasian continent was the most likely base from which to launch a successful campaign for world conquest.

Manifest destiny - a future event accepted as inevitable <in the mid-19th century expansion to the Pacific was regarded as the Manifest Destiny of the United States>; broadly : an ostensibly benevolent or necessary policy of imperialistic expansion

Median-line principle - (also called the "equidistance method") involves drawing a line equidistant from the closest mainland points of each of two adjacent countries. The "modified median line" principle allows small adjustments in this equidistance line to account for de facto boundaries or for practical reasons such as avoiding administrative problems that would result from splitting a single oil field between two states (for example).

Microstate- an imprecise term for a state or territory small in both population and area. An informal definition accepted by the United Nations suggests a maximum of 1 million population combined with a territory of less than 270 sq mi.

Ministate - syn for microstate.

Nation - a culturally distinctive group of people occupying a specific territory and bound together by a sense of unity arising from shared ethnicity, beliefs, and customs.

Nation-state - an ideal form consisting of a homogeneous group of people governed by their own state.

Nunavut: Where is it? When was it created? Why was it created?

Raison d’être - reason or justification for existence

Reapportionment- the process of allocation electoral seats to geographical areas.

Regionalism- a feeling of collective identity based on a population’s politico-territorial identification within a state or across state boundaries.

Satellite state - a country which is formally independent but which is primarily subject to the domination of another, larger power.

Self-determination - concept that ethnicities have the right to govern themselves.

Shatter belt- a zone of great cultural complexity containing many small cultural groups.

Sovereignty - the right of individual states to control political and economic affairs within their territorial boundaries without external interference.

State- a centralized authority that enforces a single political, economic, and legal system within its territorial boundaries. Often synonymously with “country.”

Stateless nation- a nation that does not have a state.

Suffrage - the civil right to vote.

Supranationalism - occurs when states willingly relinquish some degree of sovereignty in order to gain the benefits of belonging to a larger political-economic entity.

Territorial disputes - disagreement between states over the control of surface area.

Territorial morphology : compact, fragmented, elongated, prorupt, perforated --- Know examples for each.

Territoriality - an individual or group attempt to identify and establish control over a clearly defined territory considered partially or wholly an exclusive domain; the behavior associated with the defense of the home territory.

Theocracy - a government guided by a religion.

UNCLOS - United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea: a code of maritime law approved by the UN in 1982 that authorizes, among other provisions, territorial waters extending 12 nautical miles from shore and 200 nautical mile wide exclusive economic zones.

Unitary - a state in which the central government dictates the degree of local or regional autonomy and the nature of local governmental units; a country with few cultural conflicts and with a strong sense of national identity.

USSR collapse: When did it occur? How many countries resulted in the collapse? List the countries. What is USSR?