Geography 4712 Recitation Outline Week 11 O’Loughlin “crush zone” Geopolitical cultures Crush zone (Shatterbelt) – characteristics Mental maps 7 US foreign policy paradigms – associated geopolitical codes and policies Ukraine and the “edge of Europe” “cosmos-chaos” divide in Europe Westernizers v Eurasianists in Russia Rimland alliances (Spykman)Ignatieff: What is an empire? characteristics Benefits of an empire – to home and to subject peoples Costs of an empire – to home and to subject peoples Imperial (world) order 21st century “empire lite’ Limits of “containment” in a new post Cold War world “pottery Barn” model from C. Powell – “if you break it, you own it” – US in Iraq and Middle East (and now in Afghanistan - dilemma for Obama) Soft power versus hard power – characteristics – shift to hard power in Bush Presidency Self-rule in the old (European) and the new (US) imperialisms Q. Is the US an empire Q. Is the US suffering from the territorial trap (overextension and overcommitment)? Q. Does the US suffer from “imperial hubris”?Chalmers Johnson – American Militarism Legacy of 1989 Spanish-American War - colonialism and permanent military buildup “American exceptionalism” –define and characteristics (contrast to other states) Wilsonian idealism versus (Teddy) Rooseveltian imperialism – differences and similarities 4 periods of intense militarization 1950-2003 (see graph of Pentagon spending) – Korea, Vietnam, second Cold War, and “war on terror” (Iraq, Afghanistan, etc) 3 key markers of militarism (the Garrison State) in the US: a) professional military class and glorification of its ideals – the “John Wayne” syndrome b) “iron triangle” – moving between the Pentagon, government and defense industries c) enormous arms buildup/spending (now almost half of the global total) and bases abroad in over 100 countries Q. Q. Q. Q. what are the implications of Johnson’s arguments for the study of democratization? what is some counter-evidence to Johnson’s arguments? how might the militarization of US society be reversed? What are the similarities and differences between the Ignatieff and Johnson
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