Introduction to Geopolitics

New York Times
of September 13, 2004 highlighted the aftermath of a military helicopter crash in which
the Japanese police were not allowed to investigate the crash-site. Through Agnew’s
lens, different institutions were in a jurisdictional contest over the territory of Okinawa;
who is in control: the US military or the Japanese police? Such contestation led to 
local protest, and expressions of self-identity reflected in a local high school teacher’s
sentiments: “At that time I felt Okinawa is really occupied by the US, that it is not part
of Japan” (p. A4).
The role of Okinawa, the power of the local police in relation to the US military,
and the identity of the place are contested, especially inflamed by incidents such as the
helicopter crash. Places contain many different institutions and collective identity is
usually multi-dimensional. So, places are sites of multiple conflicts. In the case of
Okinawa, the conflict over the US presence is connected to the situation of the island
within Japan. The
New York Times
article went on to quote the female teacher claiming
“Tokyo doesn’t care . . . I feel a gap between Tokyo and here” (p. A4). In other words,
the contestation of what Okinawa is and will become is a combination of a regional
identity rejecting the authority of the Japanese government and an assertion of local
authority over the American presence.
What other contests are likely in play here but not mentioned in this article? 
Some hints include the gender of the teacher and the mention in the article of demon-
strations a decade earlier after the rape of a 12-year-old schoolgirl by three American
servicemen.
The protests in Okinawa illustrate many points we have covered: Agnew’s three
aspects of place should be understood as connected rather than separate entities; 
the nature of a place is a function of its connections to the outside world; places 
are contested; and the contestation produces dynamism—places change. The Okinawa
example also introduces us to another important geographic concept, scale. It is
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Activity
• How have the location, locale, and sense of place of your hometown changed
over time?
• How is your hometown connected to other places?
• How does your hometown’s past history influence its present and future?

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impossible to interpret the actions of the Okinawan high school teacher without taking
into consideration the island, its position within Japan, and the US’s global military pres-
ence. It is to geographic scale that we now turn.
The politics of scale
The actions of individuals and groups of individuals range in their geographic scope or
reach. It is this scope or reach that is known as geographic scale. Place is one geographic
scale, defined as the setting of our everyday lives. But place is just one scale in a hier-
archy that stretches from the individual to the global (Taylor and Flint, 2000, pp. 40–6).
(Perhaps even these boundaries are too narrow; genetic material and outer-space could
arguably be seen as the geographical limits upon human behavior.) As a simple example,
let’s talk about economics. Well, do you mean ones own personal financial situation,
the “family fortune” or lack of it, the local economy, national economic growth or reces-
sion, the economic health of the European Union or the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) region, or the global economy? Each of these scales represents a
different level of economic activity, or transactions that define local economic health or
the trade and investment that spans the globe.
But in a hierarchy scales are “nested” or connected (Herb and Kaplan, 1999; Herod
and Wright, 2002). To illustrate the point, if all businesses were thriving, then all local
economies would be booming, every national economy growing, and the global economy
healthy. But, of course this is never the case; the viability of a business is partially
defined by the opportunities within its scope. The family-owned hardware store or photo-
copying franchise is dependent upon enough wealthy customers nearby. A global
company, such as Honda or Nike negotiates the differential opportunities for sales in
different countries. In turn, the relative prosperity of individuals is related to the
economic health of the businesses they work in and those businesses’ national and global
markets.
Political acts also negotiate scale. Protest can be enacted at the individual scale, by
breaking laws seen by the individual as unjust or by wearing clothes or tattoos that make
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