Introduction to Geopolitics

The Geography of International Affairs
I had the pleasure and privilege to
teach during my time at Penn State. You were the inspiration and motivation for this
book.
Every effort has been made to obtain permission to reproduce copyright material.
Any omissions brought to our attention will be remedied in future editions.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

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ASSR
Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
BJP
Bharatiya Janata Party
CSTO
Collective Security Treaty Organization
DARPA
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
GEOINT
Geospatial Intelligence
HUM
Hizbul Mujahideen
IMET
International Military Education and Training Program
IMF
International Monetary Fund
IRA
Irish Republican Army
ISI
Inter-Services Intelligence
ISL
Islamic Students League
JEI
Jamaat-e-Islami
JKJEI
J & K Jamaat-e-Islami
JKLF
Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front
JKPC
Jammu and Kashmir People’s Conference
KDP
Korean Democratic Party
MAD
mutually assured destruction 
NAFTA
North American Free Trade Agreement
NATO
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NGA 
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
NGO
non-governmental organization
NSC
National Security Council
NSG
National System for Geospatial-Intelligence
NSS
National Security Strategy
PLO
Palestine Liberation Organization
POTB
Prevention of Terrorism Bill
SWNCC
State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee
UKIP
United Kingdom Independence Party
UN
United Nations
UNCIP
United Nations Commission on India and Pakistan 
UNRWA
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees 
in the Near East
WTO
World Trade Organization
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ABBREVIATIONS

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What is in this book, and what will I get out of reading it?
The purposes of this book are:
■
to provide a framework for interpreting and understanding current
events;
■
to introduce an academic understanding of geopolitics;
■
to relate “real-world” events and development to theoretical
perspectives;
■
to place current events into a bigger picture;
■
to understand geopolitics as an interaction between geopolitical agents
and structures;
■
to understand contemporary geography as an investigation of how
politics and space are inseparable.
The book is an outgrowth of a class I taught for seven years at Penn State University
and have continued to teach at the University of Illinois. The classes and the book aim
to help people gain a greater understanding of current events by placing them in a bigger
picture. I try to achieve this goal by introducing one overarching framework and a
number of different theoretical perspectives. The overarching framework is one of struc-
ture and agency, or, put simply, that people and groups of people try to achieve particular
goals within particular situations. These situations can, to some degree, help the people
and groups (or agents) achieve their goals and/or frustrate them or limit their options.
Using a geographic perspective, I define structures as both the situation within particular
places and also how global politics has an impact upon actions taken within countries
and places.
Though this book may be labeled a “textbook” I have tried to write it in a way that
will be useful for both students and non-students who are seeking a way to gain a greater
understanding of current events and how they relate to each other. With that goal in
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PROLOGUE

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mind, I have attempted to balance the introduction of new concepts with exemplifications
that have contemporary meaning, brief case studies of what are likely to be persistent
conflicts, and guidelines and questions for you to pursue your own inquiries.
My goal has been to provide an