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CU-Boulder GEOG 4712 - Syllabus

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Geography 4712 Summer B 2010 1 GEOG 4712: POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY Instructor: Adam G. Levy [email protected] office: 311 Guggenheim office hours: MWF 4:10-5:10 or appt. Course Introduction This course focuses on international and global perspectives within political geography, not simply the locations of conspicuous capes or strategic bays. It is designed to promote critical thinking skills through emphasis on the enduring problems and emerging challenges that produce international relations and economic globalization. The course is designed for the upper-division level. It surveys some important aspects of the sub-discipline of Political Geography and conventional topics in International Affairs. The course does not engage in a systematic inventory of regional issues and local conflicts. Instead, contemporary developments in the world’s regions (especially Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union as well as Southwest Asia and sub-Saharan Africa) are used to illustrate concepts from lectures and readings. Conceptually, the course includes attention to conventional issues like ‘geopolitics’ and ‘globalization’ while it also addresses theoretical questions concerning the ‘hyphen’ between ‘nations’ and ‘states’. Critically, the course seeks to develop rigorous thinking about such explicitly spatial themes as these while also challenging simplistic claims like ‘the world is flat’. Accordingly, assignments incorporate a range of texts, old and new, popular and scholarly, as well as politically charged images and sounds from web-based archives; significant cartographic artifacts and novel geographic visualizations are also key components in the course. In Part I, the class considers imperialism and geopolitics using conventional and critical perspectives. Historically, the course surveys the 19th century ‘grand chessboard’ and ‘classical’ geopolitics before considering newer forms of power. Keywords including ‘state’, ‘scale’ as well as ‘great game’ geopolitics and notions of objective and perceived strategic value are the prime areas of study initially. Empirically, cases including Germany, Ghana, Great Britain, India, Russia, Rwanda, the Soviet Union, Turkey, and the United States are used to illustrate competing geopolitical perspectives and strategic assumptions. Next, questions about the Cold War and ideas about ‘containment’ strategies will be presented in terms of their geographic components, threat perceptions, and territorial designs. In Part II, current thinking on topics including: ethno-nationalism, uneven development, civil war, resource conflict, state failure, food security, transboundary disputes, world-systems analyses, and neoliberal urbanization will be the focus. Overall, readings, lectures, and recitations are designed to introduce, conceptualize, and criticize key ideas, practices, and processes affecting global affairs and linking them to uneven geographic outcomes. Recitation and Performance In response to student requests, the course was restructured in 1996 as a two lectures/one recitation per week format; during the summer we will hold two recitation-style meetings/week. This experiment is successful when all students come to the discussion sections having read the material, completed the ‘key terms and concepts’ worksheet, and prepared additional questions or critical comments. Mandatory recitation meetings provide an opportunity to discuss and debate materials in general and to seek conceptual clarification. RECITATIONS BEGIN THE WEEK OF JULY 5. Details about the format and requirements of the research paper will also be given in recitation and we will take attendance. Success in this course is a function of the well-proven formula: attendance, staying current with the readings, and asking for help when needed. Use of the lecture notes from the website is no substitute for class attendance. You must complete the ‘Recitation Sheets’ to receive credit for participation, as simply showing up is no substitute for thoughtful engagement with the material. Sources and Web-based Materials There is no textbook, though we will read various text-like chapters as well as research articles on electronic reserve; brief supplements or web-links (i.e. Economist articles) will be added to the homepage throughout theGeography 4712 Summer B 2010 2 term as relevant events unfold. Details on accessing the electronic files are given on the course webpage - http://www.colorado.edu/geography/class_homepages/geog_4712_sum10/ PDF files of the class materials (text-only and key diagrams/maps) used in lecture are also available via the website for pre-lecture printing and this should help to alleviate frantic note-taking. The username for these notes is geog4712 and the password is xxxx (see print copy or ask the TA). Grades, Exams, Deadlines Grades are assigned on the basis of 30% midterm; 30% final examination; 30% term paper and 10% recitation performance. It is imperative that all students come prepared to the discussion section with the reading completed. The same readings will be the basis for the questions on over half of the mid-term and final examinations. The midterm will be Monday July 19 15th. Written proposals for the paper are due in hard copy form on Thursday July 15 at 5pm. Final term papers must be submitted by Friday July 30 at 5pm. The final exam will be August 6, in class. Course Description We begin with a brief history of “geopolitics”, particularly as the field developed in the West alongside exploration, colonization, and imperialism. Here, arguments from the Social Darwinist school, including ‘environmental determinism’ and ‘organic states’ are introduced to contextualize both early and contemporary approaches to geopolitical reasoning. Such arguments are also considered using more modern ‘critical’ approaches and are introduced alongside arguments about U.S. power relative to German geopolitik and global strategy surrounding the Cold War. Looking at the post-Cold War world, we then examine


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CU-Boulder GEOG 4712 - Syllabus

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