Exploring Geopolitics Today: States, Nations, Territories

1. MA Seminar Series – Burning Issues: Geopolitics Today States, Nations, Territories Stuart Elden Room E2.16 stuart.elden@warwick.ac.uk

2. Tue 8 Oct What is Geopolitics? Tue 15 Oct States, Nations, Territories Tue 22 Oct Borders and Walls Tue 29 Oct Humanitarian Intervention Tue 12 Nov The Ongoing ‘War on Terror’ Tue 19 Nov Environmental, Health and Resource Geopolitics Tue 26 Nov The Geophysics of Geopolitics

3. Examples today… Brexit Kurdish areas in Northern Syria Catalonia Scotland What is the relation between nations, states and territories?

5. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-49963649

10. Jail terms for Catalan independence leaders – following 2017 vote, declaration of independence and Spain’s imposition of direct rule.

11. Land Reform Review Group Final Report - The Land of Scotland and the Common Good, 2014http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0045/00451087.pdf • 200 nautical mile Scottish Seas boundaries • Civil jurisdiction offshore activities boundary • 12 nautical mile Scottish Territorial Seas boundaries • Continental Shelf

12. Land Reform Review Group Final Report - The Land of Scotland and the Common Good, 2014http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0045/00451087.pdf 1. The Land of Scotland is the area covered by the boundaries of Scotland as a sovereign territorial nation. Scotland’s territorial area is covered by the jurisdiction of Scots law and is the area encompassed by Scotland’s system of land ownership.

13. Land Reform Review Group Final Report - The Land of Scotland and the Common Good, 2014http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0045/00451087.pdf 2. Scotland’s rights of sovereignty over its territory are vested in the Crown with its distinct constitutional and legal identity in Scotland under Scots law, compared to the Crown in the rest of the United Kingdom under English law. This distinct identity was not affected by the Union of Crowns in 1603 and has continued since the Treaty of Union in 1707, when Scotland ceased to be an independent state but continued to be a sovereign territorial nation.

14. What is the relation between nations, states and territories?

18. Africa http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2012/sep/06/africa-map-separatist-movements-interactive

19. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2012/sep/06/africa-map-separatist-movements-interactivehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2012/sep/06/africa-map-separatist-movements-interactive

20. http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/gallery/2012/oct/02/africa-maps-historyhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/gallery/2012/oct/02/africa-maps-history

21. Map Exercise The sheet has six countries on it, A to F. These countries were formerly part of a much larger empire. Two or three groups of people live in these countries, but they no longer want to live together Where, if anywhere, would you draw the boundary lines? Be prepared to justify your decisions, and think of examples in history or the present that are comparable.

22. A C E F B D

32. States, Nations, Territories The formation of states with a centralised administration over a clearly defined geographical territory preceded the articulation of ideas of the nation… Example of where this is the case – France • French Revolution and national consciousness Two counter-examples – Germany and Italy • Movements for unification in the 19th Century And then 20th century ‘nation-building’

35. France “The modern conception of France as a tightly bounded space within which the French state was sovereign was opposed to an older conception of power as varying bundles of privileges related to different groups and territories”. John Breuilly, “Sovereignty and Boundaries: Modern State Formation and National Identity in Germany”, in Mary Fulbrook (ed.), National Histories and European History, London: University College London Press, 1993, p. 108.

36. Les limites naturelles Cardinal Richelieu, Testament Politique – “les limites naturelles” of France: Rhine, Alps, Pyrenees. To promote security of territory (which might require further conquest) and the consolidation of territory. Could work both ways: France’s aim of a straight lineinstead of the random South Netherlands border – adjoining territories assimilated and absorbed; the geographically isolated were lost. Pursued following the French Revolution – attempt to get rid of anomalous areas; consolidate France’s rule.

40. Germany Internal boundary disputes (whether part of a state was in the confederation or not) External boundaries more or less secure depending on who that boundary was with:- • France – fixed with political-administrative precision • South – simply a line drawn on the map of Austria • North – disputed province of Schleswig-Holstein, a ‘boundary’ dispute which arose via the question of ‘national sovereignty’.

41. Key Changes • Gain of Schelswig-Holstein • Removal of Austrian Power • Defeat of France and incorporation of Alsace-Lorraine region

44. Germany Only with the Weimar Republic did Germany actually become a state – under Bismarck it had been a Reich, an Empire. “the tragedy was that this state was also the product of defeat – its boundaries were seen as artificial and its constitution as imposed”. Breuilly, “Sovereignty and Boundaries”, p. 132. So with Germany it was well into the nineteenth century before some territorial issues were resolved, and its boundaries have been redrawn since – crucially in 1919, 1945 and 1989.

45. What is a Nation? natio – birth nasci - to be born, natal, native Principles? • Race • Language • Religion • Shared Interests • Geography • Spiritual Principle

46. What is a Nation? “Forgetting, and, I would even say, historical error are an essential factor in the creation of a nation” “The Nation is an everyday plebiscite” Ernest Renan, What is a Nation?, 1882 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities (1991) Michael Billig, Banal Nationalism (1995)

47. Self-Determination The idea that people should govern themselves; therefore that a distinct group should have their own state. National self-determination is especially problematic – the people decide, but who decides who the people are? Role of American war of independence (American Revolution) and the French Revolution; then Peace of Paris after World War I, with Woodrow Wilson’s ‘14 points’.

48. IX. A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be effected along clearly recognizable lines of nationality. X. The people of Austria-Hungary, whose place among the nations we wish to see safeguarded and assured, should be accorded the freest opportunity to autonomous development. XIII. An independent Polish state should be erected which should include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea, and whose political and economic independence and territorial integrity should be guaranteed by international covenant. XIV. A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike.

49. IX. A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be effected along clearly recognizable lines of nationality. X. The people of Austria-Hungary, whose place among the nations we wish to see safeguarded and assured, should be accorded the freest opportunity to autonomous development. XIII. An independent Polish state should be erected which should include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea, and whose political and economic independence and territorial integrity should be guaranteed by international covenant. XIV. A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike.

50. US State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organisations https://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/other/des/123085.htm “Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) are foreign organizations that are designated by the Secretary of State in accordance with section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), as amended. FTO designations play a critical role in our fight against terrorism and are an effective means of curtailing support for terrorist activities and pressuring groups to get out of the terrorism business”.