In this chapter we will:
■
emphasize the complexity or “messiness” of geopolitics. In other
words . . .
■
highlight the interaction of multiple geopolitical structures in creating
specific geopolitical contexts;
■
focus on the topic of rape as a weapon
of war to illustrate the
argument;
■
use a case study of the conflict over Jammu and Kashmir to exemplify
the concepts;
■
note how complexity or “messiness” is a product of the interaction of
structure and agency;
■
situate “messiness” within the structure provided by Modelski’s model.
This chapter will conclude our introduction to geopolitics by emphasizing complexity,
or “messiness.” Each of the previous chapters has focused upon a particular set of
geopolitical agents and structures: the geopolitical codes of states, or the metageography
of terrorist networks for example. However, in Chapter 1
we introduced agents and
structures by talking about how they could be seen as nested scales; in other words
any geopolitical agent will have to simultaneously negotiate the opportunities and
constraints of a number of structures. Furthermore, geopolitical agents have multiple
goals—they are not homogenous, simple, or singular entities. The multiplicity of
geopolitical goals is evident in individuals, nations, states,
terrorist groups, and any
other geopolitical agent. In other words, geopolitical agents juggle a number of identi-
ties, some competing and some complementary. Combining the multiplicity of agents’
identities and goals with the combination of geopolitical structures indicates that
geopolitics is a messy affair.
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MESSY GEOPOLITICS:
AGENCY AND MULTIPLE
STRUCTURES
8
Who am I, who am I fighting, and why?
The cause of the Palestinians is commonly identified as a nationalist struggle—the desire
of a people for their own independent state. Indeed, this was the focus of the case study
in Chapter 5. However, to talk of the Palestinians as a homogenous group is false. On
the one hand, the politics of the national group is the product
of competing groups with
different goals. For one, factional politics is a key part of Palestinian politics. But instead
of focusing on formal or party politics, let us begin with the example of an individual
Palestinian man, ‘Adnan, living in the Rafah refugee camp in June 2001, and his experi-
ences of an Israeli army raid that demolished 17 houses, the homes of 117 people:
While the shelling continued, I took my disabled mother, who requires a wheel-
chair, and told my wife and children to get out of the house. They were all
frightened and hysterical. Throughout the neighborhood
there were screams of
little children, and adults asking, “Where is my son? Where is my brother? Did
they get out?” [. . .] At approximately 5:30
A
.
M
. it ended. The army left the area,
and I looked for my wife and children. My sister Hanan told me that my wife,
who is pregnant, was on the main road and couldn’t stand on her feet out of
fear because of the horrible sight of the demolished houses. I went to her and
asked what happened. She said that she was bleeding,
a result of fear and the
running from the house. [. . .] The army also demolished my irrigation pool,
the shed with motors and pumps, and a one-hundred-square-meter sheep pen.
The pen had six sheep and one of them was killed during the demolition. The
bulldozer also uprooted six olive trees that were forty years old.
(B’TSELEM, 2002, 17–18; quoted in Falah and Flint, 2004, p. 124)
Who is ‘Adnan, or in what ways can we identify him as a geopolitical agent? Father,
father-to-be, husband, son, brother, farmer, and current guardian of an olive grove that
would be the hope of income for future generations. At the intense moment of the
destruction of his home, what are ‘Adnan’s geopolitical goals? The quote stressed protec-
tion of his immediate family, both in the
sense of their physical health, as well as their
economic well-being. Family and economics are the structural imperatives in the quote.
Of course, they are linked to his plight as a refugee, and so to his membership of a state-
less nation. The limited efficacy of his agency must be understood in relation to the
coercive power of the Israeli Defense Forces, as well as the metageography of global
geopolitics; legitimacy is accorded to states and their citizens have rights that are not
possessed by refugees.
The next example is also intended to illustrate that geopolitical agents operate within
a number
of geopolitical structures, even if they are not conscious of them (Figure 8.1).
Darfur is a region of western Sudan, and home to ethnic Africans. The region has been
in conflict with the Arab dominated Sudanese government. Calls have been made to
classify the killings in the region as genocide sponsored by the Sudanese government.
The international community has been reluctant to label the killings genocide, as wide-
spread and systematic as they are, because it would produce expectations of intervention.
The violence has been committed by Arab militias known by their victims as
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