Geopolitical Concepts:

Territoriality as a political strategy: Who is employing territorial strategies and why?

Horizontal and vertical geopolitics: This means looking at territory from above and below and
not just on the ground.

3 D political geography: Territoriality has three dimensional aspects

Security partitions: An examination of the politics, reasons and human consequences of walls
and barriers

Architecture and violence: Built frameworks and infrastructure are an aspect of territory

Popular Media portrayals: How are actors represented and why?

Practical Geopolitics: What are the aims of each actor and how do they achieve them? Why?

Geopolitical Definitions:
-

Sovereignty: the ability to control and assert power within a territory without interference from
external powers.
Sovereign Right: relates to resource access and exploitation rights, but not full sovereignty
Security: the ability to secure control within the territory and exert control within territorial
boundaries

Territory is a human construct that reflect social and political constructions. It does not have to be
natural or logical, although territories can be delimited by natural features (eg Mekong River)
e.g Spanish-Portugal division of Africa through the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) that drew a
line through Africa which arbitrarily attributed anything west of the line to the Spanish, and
anything east of the line to the Portuguese
Human Territoriality (defined by Robert Sack) : the attempt by an individual or group to affect,
influence or control people, phenomena, relationships and resources by delimiting and asserting
control over a geographical area.
Territory: geographical limits that are classified and communicated with some attempt to control the
delimited space.
Territoriality: control over a classified territory with clear delimited space in which power is conferred
and communicated to the people and resources within the space.
3Cs Classification geographical coordinates / boundaries that delimit space and territory
Communication the conference of power and regulation within a delimited space.
Control the assertion of power over relations, people and resources within territories.

State territory: the land claimed by the state and recognized by others as such. (incl subsoil, internal
and adjacent waters, the airspace over the areas, marine shore resources) linked to nationhood and
identity
David Knight territory is more than just a physical and measurable entity. It is also something of the
mind because people impute meaning to and gain meaning from their territory.
David Storey Borders are not just lines of dividing territory, they are social and discursive constructs
which have important ramifications, not just in a broad political sense but also in peoples everyday
lives. Territoriality and the imposition of boundaries are political strategies designed to attain
particular ends

Territorial waters (according to UNCLOS) : waters that lie between a states shoreline and the high seas
Note: It is important to distinguish the concept of territory as an area from the concept of sovereignty
as a modern institution of authority
Boundary: A delimited line on a map, sometimes demarcated in reality that mark the edges of control
and ends of jurisdiction. A Boundary has 3D qualities including subsoil and airspace rights.
Borderlands: Spaces of interaction and everyday life within and across boundary lines
Boundaries signify territorial sovereignty, surveillance and security, formal trade control, edges of
jurisdiction and formal power for states.
For people, boundaries signify crossing paths, obstructions to daily commutes, livelihoods and trade,
opportunity and notions of belonging and not belonging (identity)

Geopolitical Imaginaries: Imaginary space, but the act of envisaging space and making space
geopolitical creates an imaginary that may obscure, sideline or make abstract all sorts of
grounded realities
Derek Gregory and Klaus Dodds are political geographers who have argued that we need to
consider geographical imaginaries as involving culturally mediated ways of seeing the world.
Gearid Tuathail considers how we examine (and deconstruct) political discourse in order to
examine how different parts of the world may become geopolitically reconstructed through
geographical imaginaries

Geopolitical Imaginaries: Examples

Founding fathers of classical geopolitics often wrote from a European Imperialist point of view.
Admiral Thomas Mahan argues that a state geographical location, size and population influenced the
ability to become a major sea power, and advocated for sea power as a handmaiden of expansion.
assumes that control of seas and strategic trading routes extends hegemonic power over the world
Halford Mackinder sought to explain why the Russian heartland made it a land power that rivalled
British sea power. He wrote who rules east Europe controls the heartland; who rules East Europe
commands the world island; who controls the world island commands the world assumes that
control over the spatial closure of the world island can project hegemonic power over the world
Friedrich Ratzel was coloured by the organic ideas of the state theory that argued dynamic states
need to expand their territory to remain relevant and strong. Concepts associated with Hitler such as
lebensraum (living space)
Robert McNamara McNamaras account of the geopolitical discourse that was used to constitute
Vietnam as a particular type of location, drama and stake within a larger regional and
global power struggle between Communists and the free world (Gearoid OTuathail)
Truman Doctrine paints the US as the force for protecting freedom and democracy against the axis
of evil (coined later on by bush) geopolitical imaginaries that led to containment / domino theories
Henry Kissinger (former Sec. of State Nixon, Ford) writings typical of the realist school of
international relations that paints a world picture of states pursuing their self-interest in an anarchic
system simplistic. Purports itself as an objective rendering of the political motivations of states but
is far from being grounded by reality It reduces the complexity of intl pol to vast blocks of space and
one dimensional actors. Realist geopolitics creates an us verses them dualism that always finds an
enemy, even one thats not a threat. (IRAQ)

Gearoid OTuathail writes Geopolitics is not a description of the world as it is but a scripting of
the world as a statesmen wanted to see it. Geopolitical writings, therefore, are textual
mappings of the geopoliticians situated perspective, biases and anxieties. Through a
deconstructionist approach, Gearoid highlighted how texts construct a world through simplified
renderings of messy realities, allowing politicians to act as if those simplifications were reality.
Critical Geopolitics an approach to geopolitics that questions the logocentric infrastructures
that underlie hegemonic political understandings. It is a textual intervention that disrupts the
easy narratives of state power and focuses on the effects of geopolitical statecraft on the lives of
those who endure the messy reality it produces.

CASE STUDY OF IRAN

Competing interpretations of the Iraqi state
1) Iraq is an artificial state that resulted from UK installing the Hashemite monarchy that pushed
the country toward independence. Narrative promoted by self-aggrandizing Anglo-American
geopolitical scene. Added assumption that complex ethnic mixes will inevitably lead to conflict.
2) Iraq has organic origins from existing territorial units that integrated with each under common
trade (btw Kurds and Arabs) and Ottoman rule.
3) Neo-conservative agenda depicted Iraq as merely one problem in the larger Middle East, where
the entire region is an artificial creation that should be properly reordered under American
guidance to make it safe for allies and commercial interests by reducing threats from Iraq, Iran,
Palestine and Syria. Transformed the issue of Iraq into an issue of US National Security (when
allegations about the nuclear weapons programmes were made) that Bush used to justify preemptive war. Behind this agenda was also the idea that a regime change in Iraq would serve as
a tipping point for the outbreak of democracy in the region.

Maps as geopolitical tools

Maps and geopolitical discourse may reduce the specificity of conflicts to reified identities and
attributes, transforming their ambiguities and indeterminacies into graspable certainties and solid
truths.
A political map is a palimpsest that can show layers of change in territories and boundaries over time.
Maps can be employed in a strategic sense. Eg. Ariel Sharon, Israels 11 th Prime Minister drew complex
maps that could not easily be understood by his colleagues championed construction of Israeli
settlements in the West Bank.
(MAPS UNCLOS) (MAPS ARCTIC)

Israel Palestine Conflict

Territory and Identity
People attach spiritual and sacred attachments to lands and spaces. Idea of heritage, ancestry and
religious right to land makes specific spaces meaningful to people. 1967 war victory claimed to be a
sign from God.
Gush Eminem Zionist religious aim to reclaim land
Importance of West Bank biblical Land of Israel (Judea and Samaria)
Architecture in territories can morph and shape identities and living conditions for people on the
ground.

Numerous checkpoints with narrow passages that Palestinians are forced to go through creates an
environment that removes the element of control from the people. Cold, clean, colourless architecture
of partitions and security posts conveys the exclusion of Palestinians whilst constantly reminding them
about their inferiority in power.
Israeli settlements occupying west bank hills convey a literal sense of being above Palestinians as
the choices of settlement locations reflects interesting ideals of superiority and inferiority and class
stratus.
The homely design of Israeli settlements in the West Bank (settlements in concentric circles, inwardfacing, designed to resemble architectural styles in Jerusalem) and the destruction of Palestinian
heritage and housing reinforce the idea that the land belongs to the Jews at the expense of eroding
architectural evidence of Palestinian claims to the land.
Territory and the geopolitics of dominance
Over 700 000 Palestinian Arabs became refugees due to mass expulsion (in accordance to the Zionist
Plan). At least 500 000 left due to direct Zionist / Israel military actions, psychological campaigns
aimed at frightening Arabs into leaving and direct expulsions (eg mass expulsion in town of Ramle)
Now, 700 000 live in present day Israel where they face discrimination. 1.2 mil live on the west bank in
segregated communities and 1m in Gaza. Another 3 mil lives in diaspora, displaced to Syria, Jordan
(1.3mil) and Egypt mostly still in refugee camps. Jordan is the only Arab state to grant citizenship
to the Palestinians.
The 700 000 Arab Palestinians that live in Israel are treated as second class citizens. Israel regards
itself as a Jewish state and prioritizes resource allocation to education, health care, public works that
benefit the Jews, often at the expense of the Arabs (confiscate lands, etc). additionally, these
Palestinians are regarded as traitors by other arabs for living in Israel. Thus the Palestinian Arab
citizens of Israel struggle to maintain their cultural and political identity in a state that officially
regards expression of Palestinian sentiment as subversive.
The situation of the refugees in Lebanon is especially dire; many Lebanese blame Palestinians for the
civil war and demand that they be resettled elsewhere. The Christian population in Lebanon is anxious
to rid the mainly muslim Palestinians because of a fear that they threaten the delicate balance of
religion in Lebanon.
Israel established a military administration to govern the Palestinian residents in the West Bank
Palestinian denied rights such as freedom of expression, freedom of press and political association.
Palestinian nationalism was criminalised as a thrheat to Israeli Security (displaying national Palestinian
flag or colours can be punished).
Many micro restrictions that suffocates the Palestinian identity forbidding the gathering of wild
Thyme, a main ingredient in Palestinian cuisine
Political activists regularly deported to Jordan or Lebanon, curfews imposed as collective punishment
on Palestinian communities to psychologically weaken the opposition.
Since 1967, >300 000 Palestinians have been imprisoned without trial and >500 000 have been tried
in the Israeli MILITARY court system and given harsh, biased punishments.
Israel claims that extreme measures are needed to thwart terrorism (this includes all forms of
opposition, including non-violent types).
Israel justifies going against international law by quibbling the fact that the Gaza Strip and the West
Bank are not technically occupied because they were never part of the sovereign territory of any
state. Therefore Israel is not a foreign occupier but a legal administrator of territory whose status
is yet to be determined.
Territory and Territoriality (Forensic Architecture)
Frontiers are deep, shifting, fragmented and elastic territories. Borders with Israel are a frontier zone,
a battleground between agents of state power and non-state actors and people over land. Settlements
as a geopolitical weapon forms a defacto claim to land, with established networks, communities,
economies and identities, one society completely displaces a previous one in the same space.

Walls, touted as security partitions, are also social dividers that segregate communities and break
down collective identities. By fragmenting Palestinian cities in the West Bank, Israel fragments the
identity and will of Palestinian resistance and claims to land. This is because physical barriers impose
psychiatric prisons and cognitively contradicts with ideas of unity and freedom. At the same time,
it restricts movement of Palestinians and communication between segregated sub-settlements.
In the town of Hebron, new Jewish buildings are emerging, creating conflicts between neighbours
(micro border)
The Wall (built since June 2002, for security
reasons)
- Confiscates Palestinian land in West bank, destroys
property and permanently alters occupied lands
Components:
1) Concrete wall 25 ft high with Watchtowers and Firing
posts every 200m
2) Fence layer made out of layers of razor wire
3) avg 270 ft wide buffer zone (declared no mans land)
with electrical fencing, sand paths (to trace footprints),
sensors and cameras. >3500 acres of land razed for
buffer zone and >100 000 trees uprooted (olive trees
with heritage and value)
4) entire structure to be >400 miles long (x3 of Berlin
Wall)
The wall is built inside the West Bank, cutting in from the
green line as far as 10 miles. By completion, up to 55%
of land in West Bank will be de facto annexed to Israel.
320 000 Palestinians (16% of population in WB) will be
isolated btw green line & wall. Wall creates physical barriers and forms enclaves confining masses of
people.
Case study: Qalqiliya
Hermetically sealed off by the wall which surrounds the entire city and leaves 1 gate for entry and
exit, patrolled by Israeli Defence Forces. Imposed closure prevents residents employed in Israel from
going to work.
Qalqiliya sits above Western Aquifer (which produces >50% of freshwater in WB) yet isolated from
>13 of its groundwater wells. Wall has confiscated >900 acres of land and destroyed another
550acres. starve of agricultural potential of Qalqiliya, similar to a prison where the inhabitants are
confined and forced to live under difficult circumstances force many of them to leave their homes
quiet, gradual, ethnic cleansing

Territory and Security

Arab-Israeli war in 1948 Arab invaded Israel under the pretense of saving the Palestinians from
Zionists, but harboured territorial agendas for Palestine as well. Jordan occupied the West Bank, Egypt
took the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Arab state was subsequently not established.
After the 6 day war in 1967 UN resolution 242 stated that Israel is entitled to new defensible
borders right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of
force
Defensible Border concept every state has a right to self-defence and secure borders to secure itself
from hostile invasion.

Israel is a small nation surrounded by Arab states 650x its size, only 44 miles separate the Jordan
valley and the Mediterranean sea. Airspace of 4 minutes.
What are essential security needs?
1) Jordan rift valley natural frontier btw Israel and Jordan. 4200 ft virtual wall.
2) Philadelphi corridor in Gaza when Israel left, it became an entry point for terrorists into Israel
reason why Israel occupies Gaza strip today.
3) Mountain ranges 80% of economy and population dependent on coastal regions towered over by
Israels mountain ranges. If Israel was to return to its pre-1967 borders (green line), occupation of the
mountain ranges by enemies leaves Israels coastal regions vulnerable to missile strikes and attack as
israels width is reduced to a 9 mile waist line. Impossible to defend. That is why Israel demands key
areas of the mountain ridge and a demilitarized Palestinian state.
4) Unified Airspace Control combat aircraft can enter and leave country airspace in less than 4
minutes. In order to thwart attack on Jerusalem, plane must be shot 10 miles east of capital to prevent
crashing onto population centers to do this need control over airspace in west bank
5) Trans Israel Highway ensure mobility of Israel forces during attack regions of country cannot be
easily cut off Israel must control main arteries of transportation
6) Resources Golan Heights and Israels offshore gas resources water and gas security
On the basis of international law, Israel has a right to West bank as it was militarily occupied under the
circumstances of war. Under international law, until a meaningful peace is achieved and all terrorist
attacks are ceased, Israel is under no legal obligation to leave
Maritime Geopolitics

UNCLOS
Internal Waters Full Sovereignty. Covers all water and waterways on the landward side of the
baseline. The coastal state is free to set laws, regulate use, and use any resource. Foreign vessels
have no right of passage within internal waters.

Archipelagic waters
A baseline is drawn between the outermost points of the outermost islands, subject to these
points being sufficiently close to one another. All waters inside this baseline are
designated Archipelagic Waters. The state has full sovereignty over these waters (like internal
waters), but foreign vessels have right of innocent passage through archipelagic waters (like
territorial waters).
Territorial Waters First 12 Nm. territorial sea subject to innocent passage. The coastal state is free
to set laws, regulate use, and use any resource.
Contiguous Zone a further 12 nautical miles in which a state can continue to enforce laws in four
specific areas: customs, taxation, immigration and pollution, if the infringement started within the
state's territory or territorial waters, or if this infringement is about to occur within the state's territory
or territorial waters
Exclusive Economic Zone from the edge of the territorial sea out to 200 nautical miles. Within

this area, the coastal nation has sole exploitation rights over all natural resources. The EEZs were
introduced to halt the increasingly heated clashes over fishing rights, although oil was also
becoming important.
Continental Shelf the natural prolongation of the land territory to the continental margins outer
edge. It may never exceed 350 nautical miles from the baseline; or it may never exceed 100 nautical
miles (190 kilometres; 120 miles) beyond the 2,500 meter isobath (the line connecting the depth of
2,500 meters). Coastal states have the right to harvest mineral and non-living material in the subsoil
of its continental shelf, to the exclusion of others. Coastal states also have exclusive control over living
resources "attached" to the continental shelf, but not to creatures living in the water column beyond
the exclusive economic zone.
Concerns East China, Yang Tze River, discharged sediments forms an underwater land
extension over the years.
-

When a nations continental shelf overlaps with anothers EEZ negotiate

High seas THE AREA any country can apply for a license over the resources there
Poorer nations can license uses of their EEZ.

Importance of an Insular status

Island capable of making EEZ and continental shelf claims of 200Nm radius
A rock is incapable of generating EEZ, only able to claim territorial sea of 12Nm radius
Thus countries are eager to declare rocks as Islands eg Rockall in North Atlantic Sea people sent
to live on the rock, because if rocks are proven to be inhabitable by humans, they can be given insular
statuses
Practical Geopolitcs of the East China Sea (Senkaku / Diaoyu Islands)
In 2008 both countries has agreed to develop the islands together. But disputes
happen nonetheless.
Japan:
Nationalised the 3 largest islands by buying them from private owners.
China:
Has been sending ships and planes close to the Islands. Launched Air Defence
Identification Zone that covers the Islands, threatening security over islands
and Japans territorial claims. Japan suspects China is illegaly harvesting natural
gas from the Chunxiao Gas field in Japan EEZ.

Practical Geopolitics of the South China Sea

Claimant States: China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Philippines,

Vietnam, Brunei
Why the fuss?
The SCS has proven resources of 7billion oil barrels and up
to estimates of 130b and some 900 trillion cubic feet of gas.
Not just that, the SCS has strategically located Islands on
international trade routes and massive stocks of fishes.
Paracel Islands: China & Vietnam
Since 1974, when Chinese troops forcibly drove out the
Vietnamese and occupied the islands. China has announced
plans to develop tourist opportunities in the area.
In 2012, China detains 21 Vietnamese fishermen on islands for 7
weeks.
In 2014, China moved a massive oil rig to drill for 2 months near
the Paracel Islands.
Spratly Islands: China, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei,
Taiwan
Many of the features are above water only at low tide.
In 1995, China evicted the Philippines from Mischief Reef. Built airstrips in 2014 in Johnson South Reef,
which it dredged up sand to fill to provide the reef with an insular status suspected of building a
military base.
To bolster clams, Brunei have occupied islands, built infrastructure including docks, research stations,
and bird-watching platforms.
In 2012, Vietnam dispatched 5 Buddhist monks to live on the islands as a form of peaceful protest.
Scarborough Shoal: China & Philippines
China evicted Philippines from SS in 2012.
Chinese fishing in SS (within Ps EEZ) standoffs between Ps patrol boats and Cs surveillance ships.
P brought C to the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) which future verdict has immense geopolitical
impact. However, China has refused to cooperate and said that it will reject any verdict given by the
PCA
Political Motivations of Claimant and Non-Claimant States
China (claimant)
Display of power and aggression to mirror its rise to superpower status. Expanding navy projects
power through marine base in Hainan. China cannot show weakness in disputed territories as it needs
to protect its image as a dominant power that rivals the west. China also has other disputes with
India / Japan and internal tensions with Uighurs in Xinjiang. Its expansionist dreams are haunted by
separatist nightmares.
Vested interest in asserting control over major trade routes to protect Chinese economic interests.
China utilises economic coercion to weaken opposition. Eg China donates resources and invests in
Cambodia. In return, Cambodia rejected bringing the South China Sea to ASEAN. China has also opted
out of compulsory arbitration and has boycotted meetings.
China told Axon-Mobile that if they aid Vietnam in exploration, they will cancel all their projects in
China.
Singapore (non-claimant)
Trouble in SCS may mean decreased trade affects exports

The Turbot War (Fishing disputes)

Between Canada and Spain (@ The grand banks of Canada)

1980s smaller catches of Northern cod reported throughout Newfoundland and western Canada due
to domestic and foreign overfishing and global climate change
1992 when a total moratorium was declared indefinitely for the Northern Cod
March 9, an offshore patrol aircraft detected Spanish trawler Estai in international waters outside
Canada's EEZ. Several armed patrol vessels intercepted and pursued and boarded the Estai in
international waters on the Grand Banks. It was found that the Estai was using a liner with a mesh size
smaller than permitted by the Canadian Laws, but not by the EU laws, which did not have the same
restriction about the mesh size. Spain never denied that the net was from the Estai but continued to
protest Canada's use of "extra-territorial force".
Fishes are Straddling Stocks
Eg. All species of Tuna travel long distances. A tagged tuna crossed the Pacific Ocean 3 times in 600
days.

Environmental Geopolitics (Mekong)

The Environment (the shared biosphere that supports

life) is a global structure that frames geopolitical agency.
The environment has recently become securitised as an object
that has to be targeted by practical geopoliticians to attain
security (food, power, cultural, economic).
Resource management and conflicts are often about utilisation,
exploitation, access and rights, bringing in geopolitical
concerns such as territory, boundaries, spatial organisation
of vital resources that are simultaneously shared and divided.
Mekong Basin: China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand,
Cambodia, Vietnam
11 dams proposed for the GMS. 1 under construction (Xayaburi)
Largely affected by monsoon seasons, creating pronounced
differences in flow between dry and wet seasons. >1300 fish species (straddling stock) 90 million
people rely on the Mekong River for livelihood. The Greater Mekong Sub region has 140 000 km 2 of
rice grown.
Upper Basin 24% of the total area, contributes 15 to 20% of the water that flows into the Mekong
River. Soil erosion has been a major problem and approximately 50 per cent of the sediment in the
river comes from the Upper Basin (Dam Sediments decrease). Relatively little biodiversity and low
population density, important for HEP and navigation
Lower Basin: Larger river that flows through gentler floodplains and deltas with rich biodiversity, high
population density, important for irrigation, agriculture and fishing.
The Tonle Sap System 10% of the sediment and nutrients carried into it by the flow reversal. This
annual natural fertilisation of the floodplains in Cambodia has been a key factor of successful wet rice
cultivation. The flooding of huge areas of forest provides an abundant food source for fish. Fishing or
fishing related activities are the major economic activity for up to 80 per cent of the labour force in
Cambodia and the fishery depends directly on this seasonal flooding.
The seasonal storage of water in the Great Lake also acts as a huge natural regulator for water flows
downstream of the Tonle Sap - Mekong confluence at Phnom Penh. This has some significant

advantages in terms of the seasonal distribution of flows in the Vietnamese delta. As stored water
flows out of the lake back to the mainstream during the dry season, the low flows in the Mekong are
increased and are therefore higher downstream of Phnom Penh than they would be otherwise. The
benefit is more water for irrigation and a reduction in the amount of saltwater intrusion in the delta.
Vietnam dependent on Tonle Sap in Cambodia
Sovereignty
Absolute Sovereignty vs Reasonable and Equitable Distribution
China unilateral actions, practices absolute sovereignty over water resources
GMS Sovereign claims to resources based on equitable distribution of resources based
on needs.
Economic Security V Ecological interests
Upper Mekong Navigation Improve Project (2000) : China, Myanmar and Thailand to convert the
Mekong into a superhighway for trade by blasting rapids and scattered reefs destroys habitats and
spawning grounds >800 species. This increases flow velocity and discharge higher risk of flooding
for GMS.
Laos to build fish passages too minimize ecological damage but not all fishes can use fish ladders.
Additionally, dams change sedimentation and oxygen levels which messes with fish navigation
systems led to massive deaths of fishes.
Laoss Don Sahong Dam Blocks the Major fish passage of Hou Sahong Channel Carps and Catfishes
that use this channel can no longer migrate. Also 2km away from Cambodian border. 3km away from
Mekong Dolphin Natural Habitat. Only 80 left.
To date, local people have received misleading and incomplete information about the likely negative
impacts of the dam. People downstream in Cambodia have received even less information about the
project and how it would affect them.
LINK TO POPULAR / GEOPOLITICAL IMAGINARIES
Narratives legitimize certain types of knowledge and exclude others, and they are the
means by which actors and institutions make claim to action and ownership over
resources.
- Nationalistic rhetoric that HEP = only economic good in the LR
- Xayaburi Dam built in the middle of Laos to citizens of Laos, the impacts on downstream riparian
states are distant and insignificant.
Intra-state Tensions
MRC is state-run body but not only institution involved in river management complex
bureaucratic landscape where each country has water commissions which can make contradictory
decisions that overrule the MRC. MRC to manage water no control over bigger trump issues like
energy independence. State interests take priority over scientific, environmental and hydrological
interests
People living by the Mekong are often disregarded by authorities in cities located further away from
the river regarded as necessary collateral damage needed for economic development detached
from grounded realities.
TNCs and Thailand officials with economic agendas share closer ties with Laos authorities than the
concerns raised by environmentalist subgroups and largely illiterate river communities.
Fishing and agriculture has become an integral part of the river lifestyle of >90 million people living by
the river. It provides a sense of community, supplies women with important breadwinning gender
roles, and is home to sacred cultural practices.
Economic Security?
Economic development for development may disproportionately benefit MNCs and displace local

communities.
Xayaburi Dam floods and displaces people
Decreased fishes fish is main diet for 90% of ppl living in GMS (12 MIL) , fishery industry makes up
2% of global fish production, livelihoods of people + Subsistence not only decrease their food
supply Unable to economically support themselves due to capital immobility of skills (only know
how to fish)
China (not part or MRC)
Practices Absolute sovereignty over upper Mekong Unilaterally built 3 dams for HEP
Out of the 45000 large HEPD in existence, >1/2 built by china in past 50yrs Try to reduce
dependence on oil ; cleaner energy
China argues that their HEPD benefits downstream countries by evening out the flow of water down
the river, reducing the problems of flood disasters during the wet season and providing water during
the dry season.
China proposes 12 dams which threaten the economic livelihoods of the GMS. With opening of Sluice
gates at the discretion of Chinese authorities, GMS becomes more vulnerable to Chinas dominance on
the region. Also increases Clearwater erosion and causes aquatic system disequilibrium.
China has geopolitical upper hand where opposition to chinas plans can negatively impact economic
ties.
Problems with Dams:
- Alters sediment levels
- Clear water erosion after dams
- alters river temperature, visibility and sedimentation levels disrupt navigation mechanism of
fishes & imposes a physical barrier to migratory fishes unable to move upstream to spawn.
- endanger wildlife eg 80 Mekong Dolphins left.

Piracy in the Horn of Africa

Captain Phillips was captured by the Somali pirates, but the US navy was keen to extract him
before he reaches the Somali mainland. If Somalia succeeded, it could change the entire
geopolitics of the region, because it might spur other pirates to do the same
Indian Ocean Tsunami
This was Singapores largest humanitarian aid response, and for other countries, their response
to the disaster (whether they help or not) reflects a lot about the country
o Whether we do or do not do something, there would be reposition of the countrys status
and relationship not just with our neighbours, but also with the world
The tsunami had its political implications too: Operation Flying Eagle
Simple natural disasters can tell us a lot about the relations between countries and their
sentiments
South China Sea
China has very large and actual territorial claims that it cannot afford to compromise because
this weakness would leave opportunities for separatists in Tibet and Xinjiant to break away
o It has very aggressive claims in the u-shape maritime territory it commands
China attacked the Vietnamese ships. Vietnam historically has a lot of disputes with China, and
their relations go back for centuries
The Philippines has very specific conflicts in China
We shouldnt be overly alarmist when thinking about the South China Sea
States are prepared to go to great lengths to maintain their claims at sea and stick out for
sovereignty.
Some of the most violent demonstrations against China in Vietnam was related to incidents at
sea. Similarly, some of the most nationalist marches in China have been about disputed islands
in sea. We get tremendous nationalist passions being stirred by the media and simplified
geopolitical slogans

Maritime Space and Fisheries

The Grand Banks of Canada in 1992, there was a huge slump in cod catch, along with halibut
and other fishes. There was this decline because over fishing and illegal fishing, together with
the effects of geopolitics.
Canada declared its 200nm as its EEZ and fishery zone. In the 1990s, Canada was accused of
international piracy, as Canadas patrols were concerned that some fishing vessels were
illegally fishing, moving back and forth in the Grand Banks area. A Canadian fishing vessel
followed a Spanish vessel, impounded it and took it back to the Canadian shore, which other
countries declared as illegal. However, the Canadians also discovered that the Spanish vessel
was keeping two registers: one legal one and an actual one, which included illegal and
banned fish. There was also secret holes on the vessel to hide the extra catch from patrols.
o However, this pointed that nature and fisheries know no boundaries straddling stocks.
The fish straddle the EEZ boundaries
o This is an example of a state taking action in the seas, which eventually led to a lot of
new provisions in international law about the protection of straddling stocks
All species of tuna fish migrate incredibly long distances, and one tagged fish crossed the
Pacific Ocean three times in 600 days, travelling 244,850 miles. Thus, how do you control the
fishing of such fishes, and how do you prevent overfishing?

Article: HOW CHINA EXPLOITS A LOOPHOLE IN INTERNATIONAL LAW IN PURSUIT OF

HEGEMONY IN EAST ASIA (Case study of Chinas maritime power in the South China Sea)
Summary: There exist gaps in enforcement by the ICJ with regards to the use of coercion, aggressive
fore and the right for victim states to use self-defence. States cannot effectively respond to Chinese
threats, therefore enabling exploitation of the gaps in international law to enforce hegemony in East
Asia through the use of asymmetric maritime forces like fishing vessels and coast guard ships to
absorb South China Sea and East China Sea into its domain.
Chinas strategy
China has three groups of antagonists to overcome:
o Japan and South Korea (East China Sea, Yellow Sea)
Strategy: divide and conquer to make sure Japan and Korea dislike each other more than they
dislike China. When Japan and Korea nurse historical grievances, China stands to gain.
Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei (South China Sea states)
Strategy: Use incentives to ensure these much weaker states into line and split ASEAN to its
advantage
Finlandize the states in the SCS
o USA, India (2 major maritime powers outside the region that can stop China)
Strategy: China has to prevent their interference by making sure they have no cause to
interfere.
To do this, China has to put pressure within the region without risking great power naval war
and more importantly, a clear-cut incident that might trigger the US security agreements with
Japan, Korea or the Philippines
Chinas broad approach apply low-level coercion the does not constitute an armed attack,
crossing the threshold of this in international law triggers right of individual and collective self-defence
Examples of Chinas strategies:
o 1999 Seasonal fishing ban throughout south china sea, even though it has no legal right
to regulate fishing outside of 200nm EEZ
Reach of the ban was more than 1000miles from tip of Hainan Island
Ban manages the stock in the EEZs of Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei
o Assertion of historic right to the islands, features and all of the ocean area in the south
china sea
Unflappable and indignant claim to historic waters
Maritime claims should be based on rules set forth in the UN convention on the Law of the Sea
(UNCLOS) that China joined in 1996 but Beijings claims instead based on 10 dashed line
published by the Republic of China in 1947
Fundamental precept of sources of international law is that the old prevails but China uses the
dash-line claim to trumpet over legal obligation in the Law of the Sea convention
China also renewed historic claims in East China Sea over the Senkaku Islands and in the
yellow sea
Maritime claims a direct unforced error in Chinas nom de guerre as a peacefully rising great
power
Chinas Tactics:
Deploying large numbers of civil law enforcement, civilian commercial vessels and aircrafts to press
its claims and intimidate other nations

Fishing trawlers and fishery enforcement vessels routinely clash with maritime security patrols in
neighbouring EEZs
Act as proxy enforcers that work with the Chinese Coast Guard and Peoples Liberation Army Navy
(PLAN) to circle disputed areas of contention or create a barrier preventing access by other naval
forces
E.g. China Marine Naval Ships completely closed the entrance to the Scarborough Shoal 125n West
of the Philippines (inside EEZ)
Things can get deadly December 2011, Chinese fisherman killed South Korean Coat Guard that
attempted to impound the Chinese boat for illegal fishing
Fishing vessels present sensitive dilemma to Chinas neighbouring states
o If challenged by neighbouring states maritime law enforcement, Chinese fishermen
appear to be subjected to harsh action (works in Chinas favour), also stokes nationalist
sentiments in China
o Acquiescing in the actions of the Chinese fishing vessels on the other hand is implicit
ceding of jurisdiction and sovereign right in their own EEZ
China first began using fishing vessels as irregular forces in 1990s against islands of Matsu and
Jinmen to pressure Taiwan
Today, China uses these tactics against Japan in the East China Sea, against Philippines, Vietnam
and Malaysia in South China Sea and Korea in Yellow Sea
Some of the vessels used to confront the USNS Impeccable in 2009 were manned by special forces
(Some fishermen appear to be entirely unconvincing subsistence fishermen young, crew cut,
athletic, continually at sea in Southeast Asia without tanned skin, and (!) unable to operate fishing
equipment. This observation has been made to author by former 2-star admiral in East Asia and a
retired Chief of Navy from one of the states bordering the South China Sea.)
To forge stronger unity in government, Beijing combined five separate agencies into a single coast
guard in March 2013.
o Combined the China Coast Guard of the Public Security Border Troops,
o the China Maritime Safety Administration of the Ministry of Transport,
o the China Marine Surveillance Agency of the State Oceanic Administration,
o the China Fisheries Law Enforcement Command of the Ministry of Agriculture,
o and the maritime force of the General Administration of Customs.
China added oil rigs to its paramilitary maritime forces when the China National Offshore Oil
Corporation rig HD 981 positioned near the parcel Islands in Vietnams EE
o Rig guarded by bevy of 30 fishing vessels, paramilitary craft and PLAN warships until
they withdrew months later
o Lowest point in Sino-Viet relations since 1979
o Vietnamese forces ejected from Parcels by Chinese marines in 1974 invasion
Why this works for China
It has to slowly coerce its neighbours to accept Chinese hegemony but avoid military confrontation.
o Achieved through its coast guard, fishing vessels and oil rigs to change political and
legal seascape in East Asia
o Still keeps PLAN (Peoples Liberation Army) over horizon to sidestep war
Decision made in 1985 ICJ Nicaragua Case (not relevant) [USA under Reagan armed convert troops
of Contra rebels to fight against internal splinter marxist resistance Niaragua argued this was against
its sovereignty. USA argued it was lawful exercise of inherent right of individual and collective self
defence against soviet influence under article 51] opened a gap between armed attack by one state
and the right to self defence by the victim state in international law
o Article 51 recognises inherent right of individual and collective self-defence in event of
an armed attack
o ICJ ruled that lower-level coercion or intervention, such as the sending by or on behalf
of a state of armed bands, groups, irregulars, or mercenaries into another country
constitutes an armed attack, but the right of self-defence is triggered only if such
intervention reaches the scale and effects or is of sufficient gravity tantamount to a
regular invasion.
o No right to use self-defence against coercion or lower-level armed attack by irregulars or
insurgents that does not rise to the threshold of gravity or scale and effects.
o RESULT gap opened between armed aggression and the right of self-defence in jus ad
bellum
Affects jus in bello as well fishing vessels likely to be used as belligerent platform
during region war
[Jus ad bellum - acceptable justifications to engage in war
Jus in bello - International humanitarian law and the limits to acceptable wartime
conduct]

Wide speculation that China is outfitting thousands of fishing vessels with sonar in order to
integrate them into PLAN anti-submarine warfare operations to find and sink US/allied
submarines
Risks ships being regarded as lawful targets in event of conflict but in event of US Navy sinking
Chinese fishing vessels, popular geopolitics not in US favour

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? Irregular warfare is being used as a tool of the strong to change the
regional security system, versus use by the weak. Present international legal frameworks inures to
Chinas advantage systemic risks are much greater and can be compared to campaign by USSR to
destabilise countries during the Cold War

Article: Maritime Boundaries Gulf of Entanglements (Competing claims and maritime

agreements in the Gulf of Thailand)
Jurisdictional limits and boundaries between respective territories of different states are often
absent offshore, as opposed to the clear lines on land maps
o Omission of maritime claims and boundaries from maps is misleading as coastal states
have over time exerted more expansive claims over maritime space Creeping coastal
state jurisdiction
o Coastal state maritime claims now extend to the 200nm limit from the coast, and further
if the continental margin exceeds that
Expansive national maritime claims have become increasingly significant to states because of
valuable marine resources they encompass - living resources like fisheries (critical to food security of
developing country populations) and non-living resources such as seabed oil and gas reserves.
Globalisation has generated many flows of capital, trade, information and humans across political
space, which means that we are living in an era when our political boundaries are, in many economic
senses, becoming increasingly porous but there has been a concurrent process of our seas and oceans
becoming increasingly partitioned and zones by new maritime boundaries
o The great sea rush resembles the gold rush of the 19th century, as sovereign states
seek to lay claim to the valuable maritime resources.
The process of partitioning intensified during the mid and late 20th century following massive
improvements in fishing technologies, the rise of powerful long-distance fishing fleets with factory
ships able to keep fishing in the ocean for months and process fish without touching a port, plus the
growing commercial attractiveness and technical feasibility of offshore drilling for oil and gas led to
the opening up of new fields in the North Sea, Gulf of Mexico, Arctic waters and the South China Sea.
CASE STUDY of complex geopolitical relations: Gulf of Thailand
Overview of the problem
Shared by four littoral states: Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.
The Gulf is a semi-enclosed sea, which means that it is a large bay shape shared by more than one
state with a relatively narrow opening to the larger expanse of the South China Sea.
The Gulfs limited area means that no coastal state can claim a full 200 nm EEZ entitlement the
political map therefore reveals many overlapping and competing claims to maritime jurisdiction
Additional complication to maritime border definition complex coastal geography, including
numerous small inlets, offshore islands, islets and rocks
Islands subject to sovereignty disputes between states countries have tried to maximise all their
claims, sometimes utilising dubious treaty interpretations and differing/self-serving application of
equidistance as a means of constructing unilateral claim lines.
Thus, the Gulf of Thailand has several unresolved maritime boundaries and is characterised by
overlapping claims because the drawing of precise boundaries (delimitation) following agreements
between concerned states has proven particularly difficult
Prior to the 1990s the scope for inter-state cooperation in the Gulf was subdued due to intense Cold
War ideological divisions, with Malaysia and Thailand being western-oriented and Cambodia and
Vietnam under communist influence
Interstate relations improved following the end of the cold war, after Cambodia and Vietnam joined
ASEAN
o Boundary delimitation still hampered by national self-interest, lingering bilateral mistrust
between some littoral parties compromises stalled due to state reluctance to miss on
the potential wealth of significant offshore resources
Boundary disputes can occur both due to genuine disagreement over boundary position and
ongoing political tensions
o E.g. recent dispute between Thailand and Cambodia over land boundary delimitation
near and around Preah Vihear Temple has as much to do with domestic politics and
ongoing political tension
o 1962 ICK accorded Cambodia sovereignty over the temple but still divergent stands on
lands surrounding it

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Acrimony between Cambodia and Thailand have constrained cooperation in the Gulf of Thailand
where there remain ongoing disputes over oil and gas exploration rights and awarding of offshore
concession blocks to companies in overlapping claim area
Lack of political will to negotiate, compromise and settle boundary delimitation or agree on terms
for joint resource development may result in the festering of boundary problems and create sources of
international hostility
Cooperation is possible even in the absence of agreement over precise boundaries the Gulf
contains significant overlapping claims but also worlds leading examples of joint development zones
MORE DETAILS ON THE CONFLICTS
Only a partial section of the continental shelf boundary between Malaysia and Thailand in 1979
and a delimitation concerning shelf and EEZ rights in the central Gulf between Thailand and Vietnam
in 1997 have been formally agreed.
The possible presence of seabed hydrocarbon resources has complicated the situation as many of
these potential resources lie within overlapping claims areas.
Article 123 of UNCLOS clearly emphasizes and encourages littoral states of enclosed and semienclosed seas to cooperate.
On 21 February 1979, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on joint development was
concluded between Thailand and Malaysia, which covers not only hydrocarbons, but also other issues
such as fishing rights, navigation, hydrographic and oceanographic surveys, and the prevention of
marine pollution.
Another MOU was signed between Malaysia and Vietnam on 5 June 1992. Unlike the ThailandMalaysia JDA, this one is explicitly focused on the exploration and exploitation of petroleum in a
defined area of the continental shelf of the two countries.
A very peculiar political geographic zone also exists between Cambodia and Vietnam called the
Historic Waters, which was concluded by agreement between the two states on 7 July 1982, placing
some 4,000 sq.nm (13,720 sq.km) maritime space under joint utilization.
Given a modern history of cross-border violence, encroachments, land and maritime border
disputes between the countries of the Gulf of Thailand, it is hoped that maritime cooperation can be
further enhanced and extended by the states in future

Hot War in the Cold War

Klaus Dodds Popular geopolitics conveys how images and representations of global politica
lgeograpgies circulate within and beyond national political cultures.
US Geopolitical Imaginary and Reasoning
The assumption that the survival of America and the free world was contingent on the death of
communism left little room for a coexistence of ideologies. This uncontested narrative clouded political
judgements by polarising the consequences of situations, notably through 2 main rhetoric That if the
U.S. was to back down from opposing communist forces, it would necessarily constitute as a show of
weakness and that communism will ultimately prevail if the US does not actively contain the spread of
communism.
Geopolitical detatchment from Grounded Realities
In the words of McNamara, We underestimated the power of nationalism to motivate a people to fight
and die for their beliefs and values due to a fundamental lack of understanding as to who the enemy
was and why they fought.
Failure to engage the hearts and minds of the people in Vietnam
1) U.S. supported the unpopular, repressive, nepotic and elitist regime of Ngo Dinh Diem, which due to
its brutality and extremism, caused more people to sympathise with Viet Minh.
2) With Dinh Diem representative of the U.S. in Vietnam, the noble narrative of protecting the free
world from communism fell flat in the face of vicious prosecution of Buddhists (which constituted the
majority of Vietnamese citizens) and the establishment of military tribunals to weed out communists
(riddled with corruption, brutal and unjust in its application.)
3) The strategic hamlet programme further victimised the people, treating them inhumanely through
the utilisation of chemical weapons (Agent Orange was reportedly used on civilians), the forced

confinements to a hamlet (which was estimated to be viable only 19% of the time) and the barbaric
raids of the hamlets which antagonized the civilians.
In the words of a U.S. marine serving in the Vietnam War, Their homes had been wrecked, their rice
confiscated and if they werent pro-Vietcong before we got there, they sure as hell were by the time
we left. People were forced to leave ancestral lands and housed in Hamlets, which seemed like
imprisonment.
Link btw Popular Geopolitics and Practical Geopolitics
The media take their primary discursive cues from the white house (prior to social media). American
involvement with world politics has followed a distinctive cultural logic or set of presumptions and
orientation. Thus during the cold war, America is a place which is at once real, material and bounded
yet also a mythological, imaginary and universal ideal with no specific spatial bounds. Gearoid O
Tauthail
Popular media coined terms by Presidents. (Bushs Axis of Evil, Eisenhowers Falling Domino
Principle, Charg dAffaires in Moscow, Kennans Containment ideology)
The Global view of Vietnam as a Domino and a piece from a larger game took precedence over local
human geographies. Vietnam was reconstructed as a means to an end, with its culture, history and
internal politics often overlooked.
The lexicon employed by politicians and media swayed public opinion to sanction the Vietnam War.
Communism was associated with Evil and Oppressed. The Falling Domino Theory painted Vietnam as a
key part of a grander scheme of things that threatened US Security due to fears of US being the only
island in a communist sea. The geopolitical imaginaries painted by juxtaposing small images of
island against a vast communist sea exaggerate the realities of the situation.
Critical Geopolitics
The US Geopolitical imaginary and reconstruction of events in Vietnam located nationalist movements
in Asia as signs for a unified communist drive for hegemony in Asia. (McNamara) The Red and White
characterization of US Cold War geopolitics failed to capture the geographical uniqueness/diversity of
SEA as well as the significance of regional, ethnic, and national identities.
McNamaras account of the geopolitical discourse that was used to constitute Vietnam as a
particular type of location, drama and stake within a larger regional and global power
struggle between Communists and the free world (Gearoid OTuathail)
The US misjudged the Soviet Threat, used military tactics that were more appropriate to
dealing with the military troops in Europe than the guerrillas in Vietnam and they
misjudged the threat of the spread of communism.
The Domino Theory was flawed precisely because it was a rhetoric that simplified the grounded
realities and implemented in inapplicable situations.
The predominant fallacy of the DT was its ignorance and neglect of the ethically, nationally, racially
and culturally diverse makeup of SEA. It framed regional geopolitics in the dichotomy of communism
and anticommunism whilst the grounded realities reflected a complex interplay of identities and
nationalistic ideologies.
The DT also conceptualized SEA nations as lifeless entities that automatically fall one way or
another depending on which way their neighbors falls, it did not consider the political will,
the determination of a nation to preserve its own identity and thus was a gross
oversimplification which obscures and distorts understanding and offers no guidelines
for realistic policy
(Creds to Indonesian gov for badass reply)

Additionally, The DT works on the logic of nations falling due to spatial closure and the physical
proximity to another nation with a contagious ideology of communism. (This is disproved by the

resilience of Thailand in 1981 in the face of communist uprising) However, going by that logic, US
wont be threatened since there is an entire pacific ocean between a hypothetical communist SEA and
them.

Khmer Rouge
Historical Background US Commenced Operation Menu where thousands of B52 Planes raided
suspected communist bases that held Vietnamese Communists (approved by few members with no
constitutional authority, most of congress kept in the dark) Kissinger and Nixon maintained that the
secrecy was necessary to prevent Sihanouk from being implicated.
However, invading Cambodia whilst it was still a Neutral country is morally reprehensible and paved
way for the rise of the Khmer Rouge. 2.7 Million tons of bombs were dropped in Cambodia, destroying
entire villages in the countryside.
The Khmer leadership formed close ties with Beijing and Hanoi people joined the Khmer to rebel
against the existing government of General Lon Nol that was largely US-backed and unpopular.
The Khmer Rouge operated under an extreme form of anti-capitalism. They associated space with
social relations and politicised cities. This is why before the Khmer Rouge constructed their communist
spaces; they sought out to deconstruct previously capitalist spaces, such as the city of Phnom Penh
which they evacuated in 1975. They forced entire bodies of citizens to move to agrarian occupations
in rural areas and massacred all the educated citizens because they were remnants of capitalist
society. The city took on geopolitical significance as it embodied everything that was wrong with
Cambodia: Capitalism.
The Khmer Rouge also organised the country into their own political plains, creating a new political
map based on military divisions in countryside base areas.
Cambodia-Vietnam relations eventually fell through due to border incursions, territorial issues and the
treatment of ethnic Vietnamese. Vietnam invaded the military, kicking out the Khmer Rouge, but only
after 2-4 million people were killed.

Forced Migration and Refugees

Forced migration may result from displacement, temporary, repeated, people in hiding, internally
displaced persons (IDPs) and people who cross borders into other countries (undocumented migrants,
irregular migrants, and refugees)
The lack of documentation places people in a very vulnerable position. 50 million people are currently
displaced by conflict. (UN)

o Jennifer Hyndman & Alison Mountz (2007): Refuge or Refusal

o Grundy-Warr & Chin Wei Jun (2015)
The 1951 Refugee Convention spells out that a refugee is someone who owing to a well-founded
fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social
group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to, owing to such
a fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country

Not recognized by every nation

Developed nations have lowest acceptance rates. Hungary accepts 9% of ppl applying for
refugee status while Bugaria approves of 91%

Political asylum is the right to live in a foreign country, and is given by the government of that country
to people who have had to leave their own country because they are in danger of persecution

Different governments have different yardsticks to determine worthiness of asylum and many are
deported as a result. Processing asylum status is very contentious matter proper investigation takes
very long and in the mean time you have to house them in camps and detention centres

Outer borders of Europe are becoming more surveyed and more heavily guarded internal borders are
less difficult to cross but outer borders see much more human traffic

Syria is one of the biggest generators of refugees (2,600,000). The Syrian crisis is very complex and
highly geopolitical. There are a massive number of refugees entering into neighbouring states, many
of which already have many of refugees from past incidents (e.g. Lebanon historically a refuge for
migrants) Turkey has already taken in nearly 2 million refugees from Syria.

Refugee camps have been set up along the border, and they create their own international relief
situation. There are many relief agencies working to support basic emergency materials for these
camps. Their lives are very precarious, and are kept in a sort of limbo status, because even though
they are officially recognized as refugees, their lives are very constrained because it is impossible for
them to find work, and they are very dependent on international sources of aid.

Yarmouk, a small urban enclave on the outskirts of Damascus, used to be home to more than
150,000 Palestinian refugees. But the camp became a battlefield in Syria's civil war, and those
who could flee left long ago. ISIS invaded Yarmouk in early April, and now controls 60 percent
of the camp. geopolitical

For countries like Lebanon, the massive number of refugees is a great problem, because they are
unable to cope. The surrounding countries become part and parcel of the Syrian crisis. Lebanon has a
history of refugees entering the country from other states (e.g. they already have a lot of camps for
Palestinian refugees during the Palestinian Exodus who, even after many decades, are still considered
refugees)

Individual camps and organisation have their own very important geographical identities. Often, they
can be religiously affiliated. Refugees can remain as such for as long as the conflict exists; they are far
from being temporarily displaced people constant new influx of Syrian Palestinian refugees

Refugees from Syria often have to try to find smuggling routes from the borders of Bulgaria etc into
the EU space, because that would enable them free passage within all countries of the EU. At the EU
borders, there are a lot of tensions, due to the different people trying to enter the EU illegally. Many
Tunisians etc try to swim to Lampedusa, Italy.

Australia Refugee Controversy

Many boats are often overcrowded, and many of them sink, causing many refugees to lose their lives.
Australia faces problems with refugees from Indonesia
The government says the journey the asylum seekers make is dangerous and controlled by criminal
gangs and they have a duty to stop it. Critics say opposition to asylum is often racially motivated and
is damaging Australia's reputation.
The Labor government reintroduced offshore processing in Nauru and Papua New Guinea (PNG) and
pays outsourced contractors to operate and provide security at temporary detention camps for asylum
seekers on the Pacific islands. It also reached a deal with PNG that any asylum seekers judged to be
genuine refugees would be resettled in PNG, not Australia.
Australia is using its economic and regional power as a means to offshore an inconvenient problem,
which is that of boat people and asylum seekers trying to enter Australia.
Manus, an island off Papua New Guinea, has a detention centre run by Australia, which has very poor
conditions.
Sense of imprisonment, hot and dirty with poor living conditions. No privacy, no ventilation.
Allegations of rape that go un-investigated

Mr Abbott's government adopted Labor's policies and expanded them, introducing Operation
Sovereign Borders, which put the military in control of asylum operations. Military vessels patrol
Australian waters and intercept migrant boats, towing them back to Indonesia or sending asylum
seekers back in inflatable dinghies or lifeboats. Those returned are being prosecuted for illegally
leaving the country.
The government is also expanding efforts to resettle refugees in other countries. It reached a deal with
Cambodia in September to send refugees there in exchange for millions of dollars.

Parliament approved changes to its immigration laws. It reintroduced controversial temporary

visas for refugees, allowing them to work in Australia for three to five years, but denying them
permanent protection. Critics of the law said it meant asylum seekers could be returned home
even if they faced persecution.

Why does displacement occur?

Displacement is an important term, relates to people who have been dislodged from home, even if
the displacement is over a small distance within a particular locality. Does not have to involve long
distance migration or international migration

Different types of displacement

o

Development displacement, where people are displaced in order to build dams and
agricultural fields etc

Geopolitical refugees: Borderland refugees.

After the Cambodian crisis, there was a massive displacement, adding on to the
numbers who had already forced to migrate under the Khmer Rouge. When the

Vietnamese entered Cambodia and kicked out the Khmer Rouge, there was another
wave of displacement.
o

350,000 refugees lived in Thailand along the Cambodian borders for years.

Some of the refugee camps along the Thai-Cambodia borders were controlled by the
Khmer Rouge, funded on aid offered by Singapore, China and America and other
southeast Asian countries because of practical geopolitics they wanted to maintain the
Khmer Rouge as an alternative force against Vietnam that was an aggressive force in
the region

Vietnam had violated the sovereignty of their neighbouring country, and did not have
good relations with USA and China. Thus, a lot of aid continued to go to the Khmer
Rouge.

Refugees often become pawns in a larger geopolitical struggle, and they are caught in a
bigger geopolitical web

Exodus from Laos

For the Hmong, the bitter legacy of past conflict lives on today. Many relics of the
cold war still exist in Laos today. Hmong refugees: The number of Hmong
refugees admitted to the US from camps in Thailand exceeded 10,000 persons in
1979; 27,000 in 1980; around 5,000 in 1981; The 1990 US Census found 94,000
Hmongs living in US: Many Hmongs ended up in the US, where they made new
homes

Geopolitics of national identity and national space (Myanmar)

Since Myanmars independence in 1948, till recent times, there has been a lot of ethnic and political
unrest. In 1980s, the Karen National Union split to the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, which fought
against the Karen Liberation Army. They wanted control of the entire territory, up to Thailand. National
minority political parties were fighting. The borderlands were very extensive in Myanmar, and there
were many major ethnic groups.

Small ethnic groups all had armies and their own political groups in the borderlands that fought over
territory and the right to control the territories. Fights happened mainly between the main Burmese
military army and borderland ethnic armies

Along the border, there was an archipelago of refugee camps. In addition to the camps, there were
also people who managed to enter Thailand (irregular migration) to find jobs as irregular workers. This
created a massive displacement issue that strained relations between Myanmar and Thailand for a
long time.

Refugees are often regular people, who are caught between geopolitical visions of national identity.
Many refugees had gross problems with regard to health and welfare, displaced by conflict they were
not even in touch with as rural poor farmers caught in crossfires of different understandings of
nationhood.

Pro-democracy Burmese try to protect their people from the Burma army, who force people to leave
them homes and kill them. Many fled in fear of the landmines and mortars left behind. Many hope for
greater political autonomy within Burmas different ethnic areas.

The free Burma rangers work with other organizations in order to promote peace within Burma and
provide aid relief to IDPs

Many of the refugees are now wondering if they should go back to Myanmar, to start a new life and
help rebuild their country. However, a lot of them dont really know a lot about Myanmar. There has
been a dramatic alteration of political and economic changes to the landscape because of
development and resource exploitation. Many of their original villages have been eradicated, or have
completely changed. The many new conflicts in Myanmar are over the political and economic changes
that have been occurring. Thus, the future of the displaced people is still very uncertain

Surveillance, Social Media, Cyberspace and Geopolitics from territories to terrains of

cyber warfare
The whole idea of a cyber space is a highly geopolitical concept one that transcends national
cultures, yet in certain ways, reflects national cultures and a sense of territoriality over them. It is a
space that is truly trans-boundary, even though certain countries try to limit activities and control the
activities that go on in cyberspace conducted by individuals and companies alike.

Everyone is used to using social media in everyday life and formal geopolitics has constructed the
netizen and digital native identity. Through these technologies, we come across things like
surveillance and the control of digital communication, which is more geopolitical in nature.

Media are avenues through which information is mediated to us. Any former or practical
geopolitical discourse needs to be broadly disseminated if it is to become a popular
discourse (Jason Dittmer)

Many political leaders use social media to propagate certain images of themselves. This is an
interesting idea because political leaders are practitioners of statecraft, and are fully in the realm of
practical geopolitics, yet social media has brought them into new realms of geopolitics. Thus, social
media blurs the boundary between practical and popular geopolitics, which is a very important idea.

Barrack Obama and his team update their social media pages nearly every hour.
Lee Hsien Long makes daily posts about his day on Facebook to keep in touch
with his supporters on a personal basis politics of sincerity, candour,
approachability

How do social media affect geopolitics?

It provides technological means and platforms to place information production and consumption
into the hands of anybody who has that technology thus, popular geopolitics is no longer in
the hands of a few gatekeepers of knowledge, such as specialist media corporations and networks.
There is no longer a monopoly of the access to knowledge. The internet becomes a free
market place of ideas that allows conflicting opinions to coexist.
Entirely possible for social media to be echochambers as well followers of extreme figures / news
sources can be further polarised by shutting out news agencies they deem biased Israel-Palestine
BBC clip shown by scientist to Pro-Israeli and anti-Israeli supporters.
Old media can be easily regulated by government bodies. For example, SG only issues news licences
to SPH, Silvio Berlusconi owned majority of the media in Spain and Italy. 3 out of 7 national channels in
Italy.
Social media may also better enable practitioners of statecraft to disseminate ideas, so
that technology provides new avenues for practical geopolitics to influence the public
through Facebook, Twitter accounts, YouTube and so on
Social media provides many new possibilities for sub-state, non-sovereign actors and agents to
produce counter-discourses and geopolitical images Amos Yee, the Online Citizen, etc
Social media also globalises local political issues eg Charlie Hedbo, Ferguson
Different groups, be it interest groups or terrorist groups, and corporations can now make use of social
media to gain supporters.
o Hamaz and the electronic resistance
o ISIL / ISIS and their social media campaign to recruit UK teenagers to join the Jihad war
rebranding
The space is enormous, and the scope for many players to enter into the geopolitical arena is much
greater than it used to be
Web 2.0 refers to the generation of Internet sites that utilize user-made content for sharing and
interaction
During the 2011 Singapore General Elections, a lot of online blogs were discussing politics.
Social media can influence the views of young people and first-time voters.
According to Dittmer (2010), The performance of new identities available through the more advanced
interactivity of Web 2.0 does offer the potential for the development of locally produced
popular culture that are distinct from those of the US or Europe
These locally produced popular cultures can include politics and no longer subscribes to the western
model of media and information. They also allow citizens to alter their relationship to the public sphere
either as creators, sharers or primary subjects. This can be argued as a form of democratization
Even minorities and oppressed can have a vibrant internet presence (eg Alfian Saat speaking out for
Malays in Sg).
Role of social media in social movements
Burma Saffron Revolution (2007) Protest by students, political activists and Buddhist monks
(non-violent) galvanised support through social media and the internet. The government attempted to
block all websites and services that could carry news or information about Myanmar, barring access to
web-based email. However protesters were able to access the Internet anyway and as a result the
protests received a never before seen level of international news coverage. bloggers in Yangon
succeeded in circumventing the censors, posting pictures and videos on blogs almost as
soon as the protests began. Many of these images were picked up by mainstream news
organizations, because bloggers had managed to capture images that no one else was able to get.
When Aung San Suu Kyi stepped outside her home in Yangon to greet marching monks and supporters
on Saturday, the only pictures of the landmark moment were posted on blogs. Mizzima News, an
India-based news group run by exiled dissidents (influence against state power), picked up one
of the photos of Aung San Suu Kyi and said more than 50,000 people accessed their website that day.

Arab Springs
Facebook users needed only to list a contact email address to be provided with the information and
instructions from the WAAKS administrators on the plans for the protests. If anyone wanted to express
his or her own views, an online form could be found to do so (WAAKS Arabic, 2011). Incredibly, it was
only 11 days before Egyptians took to the streets that the protests were first advocated by Afifi, and
WAAKS started to register participants only a week before that. The mobilization in the coming period
was unprecedented. Within two days of the announcement, Ghonim claimed that the news had
reached 500,000 Egyptians online.
The study by of Arizona State University looks at why Bouazizis death and the demonstrations that
followed werent easily dismissed: In particular, his suicide was filmed and facts were adjusted to
frame the death in a way that appealed to a broad range of Tunisians.
A 2012 report from the Pew Research Centre looks at the distinct online dynamics of nations in the
region: In Egypt and Tunisia, two nations at the heart of the Arab Spring, more than 6 in 10 social
networkers share their views about politics online. In contrast, across 20 of the nations surveyed, a
median of only 34% post their political opinions. Similarly, in Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon and Jordan, more
than 7 in 10 share views on community issues, compared with a cross-national median of just 46%.
During the week before Egyptian president Hosni Mubaraks resignation, for example, the total rate of
tweets from Egypt and around the world about political change in that country ballooned from
2,300 a day to 230,000 a day. Videos featuring protest and political commentary went viral the top
23 videos received nearly 5.5 million views. The amount of content produced online by opposition
groups, in Facebook and political blogs, increased dramatically.

Geopolitical effects can, however, be problematic, as social media blurs the line between
practical and popular geopolitics, and may be used to support essentially
undemocratic forms of governance or military rule or dominant elite control
The world of politics and control, and who has the most control over technology,
still play an important part in our political world
Asserting control over the internet space
The internet can undermine traditional state power in more ways than one
- Breaks dominant pro-state narratives and allows anti-establishment ideologies to garner
attention
- Allows opposition to be a larger part of the political conversation
- Undermines a states ability to enforce laws and assert control over resources (the dark web /
TOR)
In Thailand, If you are found to defame any member of the royal family or the monarchy, you can end
up in the military court, with no real recourse for proper representation, and could end up in jail for
over 15 years. Various people who have been targeted by this law and by the military authority have
been done through social media. This is to let them reduce the number of political opponents they
might have.
People have used the three finger salute from hunger games as anti-coup messages in Thailand
Chinese journalist Shi Tao was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, in 2005 after publicising an email
from Chinese officials about the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. on Baidu.com, the
only articles that downplay the significance of Tiananmen as myths or western exaggerations were
published, after a list of Tiananmen as a tourist attraction.

The Golden Shield Project (Chinese firewall)

censorship and surveillance project by Ministry of Public Security in China. China has the most
sophisticated content-filtering Internet regime in the world.
Blocks certain words from being used in succession (eg, Chinese Communist Party and
Sucks) (users get over this by using words that sound the same but arent spelt the same; users also
uses VPN bypass / tor to access out-of-china sites)

The key sections, Articles 4-6, are: "Individuals are prohibited from using the Internet to: harm
national security; disclose state secrets; or injure the interests of the state or society.

Users are prohibited from using the Internet to create, replicate, retrieve, or transmit
information that incites resistance to the PRC Constitution, laws, or administrative regulations;
promotes the overthrow of the government or socialist system; undermines national
unification; distorts the truth, spreads rumours, or destroys social order; or provides sexually
suggestive material or encourages gambling, violence, or murder.

Wikileaks has revealed hundreds of thousands of cables, which reveal embarrassing things for
geopolitical practitioners. It gave people around the world unprecedented insights into US government
foreign activities.
This ranged from Sarah Palins e-mail to thousands of pages on the US involvement in Afghanistan. As
others, including Julian Assange himself have identified, the goal of WikiLeaks was partly to open up
the information structures of conspiracies, to defang ministries of secrets by revealing their secrets to
all. This goal, and its execution, is an exquisite representation of the distributed nature of power in a
network society. Power cannot be exerted only from above: someone can glean information, post it to
a wiki, and the information is openly available, undermining state power and revealing its illegitimacy.
This is WikiLeaks reconfiguring media power and redefining media democracy.
The White House Office of Management and Budget sent a memorandum forbidding all unauthorised
federal government employees and contractors from accessing classified documents publicly available
on WikiLeaks and other websites. All US federal gov staff has been blocked from accessing wikileaks.
Revealed data that the US government could identify the official status of deaths in Iraq.
This was happening concurrent with the US policy of denying they could identify non-civilian deaths.
66000 deaths were actually of civilians and these deaths constituted criminal events that
the US military was not ready to concede to.
Geo-surveillance The global politics of everyday surveillance

Edward Snowden released 58,000 state held documents from NSA, including classified
documents from consulates around the world.
The moral/legal implications from a critical geographical point of view - revelations have shed
light of surveillance practices on everyday communication on citizens of ones own state and
states all over the world on the web. There has been a reconfiguration of the notion of
territorial sovereignty on everyday communication.

For political geographers, there are many spatialities involved here, not just about what data is
collected, but of where and how the data were collected.

It is important for intelligence agencies who want to intercept data to get access to certain
hubs that are in charge of transmitting these data. The USA has a tremendous
geographical advantage, of which the NSA is very aware, because a majority of the
communication go through the USA. This is not only because the location of the
cables, but also because most of the major companies that hold this data or direct
this data are based in the USA.
o These practices of interception that we associate with the NSA and other intelligence
agencies is indicative of a phenomenon in which the monitoring of people/regulation of
peoples behaviour has emerged as a form of governance (the surveillance society). Not
everybody is affected by this in the same way, and it is affected by their everyday
practices of communication. E.g. elderly people are much less exposed to this

In 2010, there were over 80 signal intelligence (SIGINT) collection points in US consulates
and embassies around the world. Every day, the NSA intercepted 1.8 billion emails, phone
calls and other forms of communication. In 2013, the NSA collected data from 5 billion mobile phones
around the world. The US also has access to submarine cables and the huge data servers that major
MNCs hold their data on.

Practices of interception we associate with the NSA and other commonwealth agencies
are indicative of a phenomena where monitoring and surveillance of people to govern
their behaviour has emerged as a central organising principle - the surveillance society

X- KEYSCORE
o Allows government analysts to search through vast databases containing emails, online
chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals.
o Data is saved for periods of time

o
o

PRISM
A programme that allows NSA to tap directly into the 9 leading companies of USA
(Miicrosoft, google, Yahoo, Facebook, PalTalk, Youtube, Skype, AOL, Apple) to allow them
to receive information like emails, chats videos and photos etc.
The FBI interception unit intercepts these information, and from there, it is passed on to
the FBI/CIA and other ally agencies.
702 Surveillance Pfizermen act allows bulk collection of information for information
transiting in and out of US collect data even though it is just rerouting in the US.
Dangerous because majority of data centers and fibre cables are located / passes
through US soil (using geographical grounds to assert control over internet space)
EO12333 NSA uses when other agencies are not aggressive enough. Servers/ data
centres located in the US
PRISM gov deputizes google, yahoo, facebook etc to collect data
Upstream snatch data as it transits the internet
Mystic Content for a few countries eg Bahamas. Time and duration for others
215metadata identify individuals at the ends of communication lines.
Most of the information transmitted in Canada goes through Chicago and New York,
even though most of the locations of these videos are not known.
USA threatened Germany that they would stop giving them information on terrorist
organizations if they offer Edward Snowden asylum.
Geography does matter, because cyberspace is an aggregate of data flowing through
specific sites in specific countries. State actors have a disproportionate means at hands
to use their political clout to further their interests. This causes an emergence of a
territorial regime, which allow them to control infrastructure.

Techno-Military Surveillance

Technological advances enable interlocking systems of surveillance, and even combat US

regularly uses drone strikes Syria (unwillingness of Obama to physically engage in war)
allow US to use drone strikes on any imminent threat, but on a memo published in the Justice
Department, the US gov does not need clear evidence that a specific attack on US persons
and interests will take place in the immediate future (regular drone strikes in Yemen)
Drone strikes criticised for liberal use eg first drone strike employed killed 3 men suspected
of being Bin Laden due to his height
But counter media pictures that went viral depicting a child raising her hands when a
photographer took a picture.

Iraq invented suicide drones cheaper to deploy than normal drones

Already the US trains more drone pilots than actual fighter pilots
Technologies also help mould and influence new geographical imaginaries of
threat, risk and warfare
o Utilization of remote surveillance technologies and computerized tracking of various
flows and movements

Relates to vertical geopolitics (idea of 3D space): 3D space in relation to military

technology is become incredibly important
See-through wall technology is transforming combat spaces

Distantiated geography of military technologies:

The distancing between militaries and their perceived threats desensitisation.
Drone clinical decrease empathetic hesitation.
Drones surveillance technology affects the way the military perceives different
parts of the world blurry approximations.

Lecture 10: Environmental Geopolitics (2) - Arctic Geopolitics

A. ARCTIC GEOPOLITICS: GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT, CLIMATE CHANGE & SEA ICE

1) The Arctic- different Geopolitical space to different Interested Parties:

Geopolitics: the way we think about imagined spaces, impetus for developments, ideas of
geo-power, excuses for exploring and exploiting resources

a)

Arctic rim states= States that possess territory North of the Arctic circle, have sovereignty in the
circumpolar North

b)
-

Cultural/Social- embedded into National/ regional identity (PART F)

Sheila Watt-Cloutier, an environmentalist and Inuit leader: Climate change is changing who we
are, where we come from, and where we want to be.

c)
-

Political/ Physical/ Military importance (PART B) - physically connects the East and West, very
important powers, such as north America, Russia, east Asia, European spaces (Arctic Rim-states)

Economic- Resources (PART D)

Note that the claiming of sovereignty facilitates and acts as impetus for developments, excuses for
exploring and exploiting resources

Not all locals oppose developments (jobs for the local community)

Oil, gas, fish, even nuclear power

o Russia was planning a fleet of floating and submersible nuclear power stations. Russian
nuclear corporation, Rosatom, building a prototype in the northern Siberian republic of
Yukutiya; These submersible power stations to supply energy to Gazprom, Russias oil
giant, in order for it to exploit some of the remotest oil and gas fields in the Barents and
Kara seas
o Over 60 large hydrocarbon fields have been discovered above the Arctic Circle, 43 of
which are in the Russian sector.
o Arctic contains 30 percent of the world's undiscovered natural gas and 15
percent of its oil, with the majority of resources remaining offshore. (USGS)
o Russian minerals mining and Norways northern fisheries are linked to global markets

Changing trade routes (Relevant for new Arctic Council observers, China, Singapore,
Japan, South Korea, India)
o Opening up of Northwest trade route will cut 2000 miles of shipping routes for goods
shipped from Asia to Europe, 40% shorter from northern Europe to China than a
trip through the Suez Canal
o Potentially available routes: Northwest passage; North sea route, Arctic Bridge route,
Transpolar sea route

d)
-

Offshore crude oil is exported from the Beaufort Sea to Japan

Environmental effects (Humans, Non-humans)- (PART E)

Arctic central to Anthropocene debate- humans are instrumental in determining future

developments in the natural world in the Anthropocene, and leave a lasting mark that the Earth
cannot easily recover from- clearly manifested in our decisions on the Arctic (Arctic could be ice
free in the summer time by 2030)

2) Dealing with global environment and international sea space

Principles collaborative, equitable, sustainable: We must seal a deal for a global, equitable
and comprehensive deal for the future of humanity and the future of Planet Earth- Ban Ki
Moon

Challenges:
-

Many different parties and interests

Tools: International frameworks supporting/ needed for sovereign claims

1) International treaties/ frameworks
Convention on Long-Range Transported Air Pollution (CLRTAP)
UNCLOS: SEA SPACE LIMITS relating to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)
CCLC: Deal with all coastal states claims to extending its continental shelves

Benefits:
-

Provides a foundation and objective framework for resolving issues

Salient provisions of this treaty have become customary international law and are therefore
binding on all states, whether or not they have ratified it.

Opens the door for stable international governance in the Arctic Ocean without contravening the
sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction of the arctic coastal states. T
Limitations: UNCLOS and other international treaties allows for considerable flexibility as to their final
resolution. UNCLOS does not provide, for example, a clear formula for how shared maritime space
such as the Arctic Ocean is to be divided. (Therefore overlapping claims and disputes)

2) Arctic Council: create framework agreements and constant dialogues to discuss critical issues
about arctic governments, create ideas that states have to harmonize, convey interests of arctic rim
states and arctic proximate states Sweden Finland Iceland, countries with interests in international
trade routes sk, jap, sg, China, indigenous people, research on relevant issues
The Arctic Council is the only circumpolar, political forum where all the challenges and
opportunities in the Arctic the overall governance of the region can be discussed by the
state and the peoples of the Arctic.

Benefits:
-

Account for various interests and perspectives in developing the Arctic

Improving the knowledge base for environmental measures

Research: Arctic Councils Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP) contributed
significantly to achieving these instruments which today commit states to eliminate, or in some cases
restrict, the production, use, and trade of certain particularly harmful substances

Preparing practical guidance on how to reduce risks associated with activities involving threats to
the arctic environment

Using broader regulatory fora to highlight the arctic dimension of problems

Supporting the capacity of arctic states to implement existing commitments

Limitations:
-

Deciding what interests should be accounted for

Chinese scientists allowed to do research there posit to be primarily interested in climate

research and life forms research, but state media mentioned resource interests; Canada was
dismissive of the research station and termed it ' Creeping into our backyard'

Canada rejected EUs application to be a permanent observer

- Lack of clout

The Arctic Council has adopted, and is in the process of revising, a set of Arctic Offshore Oil and Gas
Guidelines, but this soft-law instrument is not salient in relevant bureaucracies and it lacks reporting
and review procedures.

o Membership is a mix of states with and without jurisdiction over the continental shelves
of the Arctic

States with an arctic shelf have few incentives for negotiating such constraint on their exercise
of sovereignty; the loss of regulatory leeway would afflict only the shelf states, whereas the
political and environmental gains of more ambitious regulation would be shared by all

3) Arctic Treaties (potential)

Antarctic treaty system has been highly effective in preventing Antarctic in becoming place of political
and economic conflict, ruled as a place where no sovereignty can be claimed since 1959.
An Arctic treaty favoured by many scientists and NGOs as an ideal to force states to cooperate more,
to solve above problems, which will grant a degree of environmental protection, ideal well worth
keeping up
More Arctic specific treaty on how to manage the shared space than world-wide UNCLOS

E.g. (of an Arctic Treaty) March in Troms, Norway, parties to the 1973 Agreement on the
Conservation of Polar Bears met up in 2009;
o Canada, Greenland/Denmark, Norway, Russia and the US formally recognized climate
change as the primary threat to the future well-being of polar bears, the urgent need
for an effective global response that will address the challenges of climate change.

It agreed to come up with a circumpolar action plan for the management of bears, and to
formally designate the Polar Bear Specialist Group of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) as
the scientific advisory body to the Agreement.

Difficulties:
The arctic territories are at least eight backyards and many homelands and not one backyard that
will be subsumed by a powerful environmental regime.

B. ARCTIC: A GEOPOLITICAL & MILITARY PLAY-GROUND- political interests, security

Different notions of security:
-

Historical interest (e.g. Russias interests should be viewed in the context of their historical placing
of importance on the Arctic region since the 19th century + the Arctics role in the Cold War

Increased interest with Arctic ice-melt: facilitated and prompted increased deployment of naval
fleets and establishment of naval bases in the area, patrolling the area, very militarised

Vertical geopolitics important in evaluating Arctic interests

o Under ice capabilities of missiles

o Potential existence of valuable resources under the sea surface (fish, oil, gas)
o Interest in researching geological, seismological links and extension of the continental
shelf to Lomonosov ridge
o Scientific interests in Arctic often closely related to nationalistic interests (geostrategic
research to back up claims for rim states; research into resources for China); (For
Russia, Scientific knowledge gained there also relates to other nationalistic interests 80% Russian polar stations, hydro-meteorological stations)
Shortly before the dive (to the bottom of the sea at the North Pole), Mr
Chilingarov, 68, a veteran polar explorer, told reporters his mission was to prove
"the Arctic is Russian".

Politics:
-

Arctic linked to Soviet imaginary of an enlarged kind of space that was liked and fundamental to
HOMELAND

two kinds of spatial ordering are identified as being entwined in orthodox Arctic geopolitics. The
first has to do with Arctic space as such, and its open, indeterminate nature in particular. The
perceived openness of Arctic space enables it to become a space of masculinist fantasy and
adventure, which is mirrored in contemporary accounts of Arctic geopolitics. It is suggested that this is
entwined with and nourishes the second ordering of Arctic space in terms of state-building and
international relations. The working out of these spatial orderings in recent interventions in Arctic
geopolitics is explored via three examples (two Arctic exhibitions in London, the Russian Polar
expedition of 2007 and sovereignty patrols by Canadian Rangers)
Military Security: Border/ frontier between East and West

Russia: In the 1950s, the Soviet Union set up

Radar installations along the entire Soviet Arctic and on several polar islands;

With the advent of submarine-based ballistic missiles the Arctic became an area of
SSBN (nuclear subs) deployment, which by the mid-1980s had under-ice capability;
Novaya Zemlya archipelago became a testing ground for the most powerful Soviet
nuclear weaponsDuring the period 1949 until 8 May 1963, when the Partial Nuclear Test
Ban Treaty was signed, the Soviet Union detonated 91 atmospheric nuclear explosions
in the northern regions, 79 of which were in Novaya Zemlya

A major Soviet naval base on the former Soviet-Norwegian border on the Barents Sea,
forced NATO countries to respond

USA: Strategic Defence Initiative along the Arctic circle

Economic Security

The Arctic has been important in the fields of industry, science, the military and viewed as a
vital component of national security

The current claims of Russia should be viewed in the context of long-running 20th Century
expansion of varied and unrestricted exploitation of natural resources in the Arctic (including
mining, fisheries, exploration for oil and gas)

Different approaches to security:

-

Cooperation: Mikhail Gorbachevs Murmansk initiatives (Oct 1987), called for an Arctic zone of
peace wanted the arctic to become a zone of peace for collaborative development following the
breakup of the soviet union

Contestation: Russian scientists planting state flag directly at the North Pole under the sea
(stagematters and statematters), provoking reactions from other nations such as Canada; Putins
masculine prowess geopolitics and/or other states activeness in claiming more and more exclusive
space albeit through legal scientific frameworks
o Russia now claims that there is a significant Eurasian extension of Russias continental
shelf zone, including the Lomonosov Ridge; has submitted materials to the UN
Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CCLS)
o Canada announced $7billion on upgrading 8 military patrol ships for use in ice up to 1 m
thick and a new deep-water port to service them.

C. NATIONAL IMAGINARIES, VOLUMETRIC GEOPOLTICS & CREEPING SOVEREIGNTIESmeans of securing interests

NATIONAL IMAGINARIES
-

Imagined as the last great frontier of the hydrocarbon industry

Scientific and nationalistic claims are interlinked (scientific claims used to back up nationalistic
claims, nationalism fuels scientific endeavours)
Popular geopolitics, events and actions
o E.g. Russian planting of flag had no actual bearing on securing their claims, but is
significant and goes beyond showmanship, since it actually provoked reactions
o Russian politicians has the imperative to establish its support and action towards certain
imaginaries, other Arctic states have the imperative to defend and appear to take action
against such imaginaries
Sceptics held no sway in Russia as the country swelled with national pride. "This is
a serious, risky and heroic mission," Sergei Balyasnikov, a spokesman for the
Arctic and Antarctic Institute, said. It's a very important move for Russia to
demonstrate its potential in the Arctic. It's like putting a flag on the Moon." VS
"This isn't the 15th century. You can't go around the world and just plant flags and
say: 'We're claiming this territory'," The question of Arctic sovereignty is not a
question. Its clear. Its our country. Its out water Its the True North strong
and free and they are fooling themselves if they think dropping a flag on the
ocean floor is going to change anything. - Canadian foreign minister, Peter
MacKay

o However, it is worth noting that geometrics and scientific research still govern the
claiming of space and that these activities have been compliant with international law
(including Russia); the Russian submarine was there primarily for research (again, even
if it is for nationalistic interests)
o E.g. Russia, Denmark and USA conduct many expeditions in the Arctic (exercise of
sovereignty

VOLUMETRIC GEOPOLITICS: REIMAGINING OF CONTESTED SPACE

Vision of territory that is not just land and sea, but sea ice, sea bed, sub sea ice, etc. Vertical
geopolitical claims
-

Interested in claiming what lies below and above the Arctic space

Interested in vertical features to justify claiming

Island disputes- Hans Island

REGIONAL IMAGINARIES OF THE ARCTIC

-

Alaskans vs Mainland Americans; Inuit of Greenland vs. Denmark

Conflicting/ co-existing allegiances or counter identities can undermine sovereign control (e.g.
Greenland demanding self-determination, 85% Inuit), a barrier to securing interests

NATIONAL SOVEREIGN RIGHTS

There are no doubts about the sovereignty of the FIVE Arctic Rim States in the Arctic (but
there are doubts about which State has sovereign rights particularly in relation to extended
continental shelf claims to be submitted to the CLCS)

They all have land, territorial waters, eez; but eez don't have complete sovereignty,
only island states have right t explore, exploit eez; ony about soverign rights, not full
sovereignty (bec careful when considering arctic soveriegnty)

There are also national geographic imaginaries about the Arctic evoking pride and passion

Modern nation states use existing populations in territories, and historical connections
to the territory to justify claims (Denmark links even before Denmark)

CREEPING SOVEREIGNTIES
International frameworks supporting/ needed for sovereign claims
UNCLOS

SEA SPACE LIMITS relating to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)
UNCLOS is one of the most important conventions in the world in relation to the sea
governance and global environmental relations

(see separate document)

CCLC: Deal with all coastal states claims to extending its continental shelves
Idea of EXTENDED CONTINENTAL SHELF (ELS) claims to the Committee on the Limits of the
Continental Shelf (CLCS)
-

"Continental shelf"
-

Geologists generally mean that part of the continental margin between the shoreline
and the shelf break or between the shoreline and the point where the depth of the
superjacent water is approximately between 100 and 200 metres.

BUT: According to the Convention, the continental shelf of a coastal State comprises
the submerged prolongation of the land territory of the coastal State - the seabed and
subsoil of the submarine areas that extend beyond its territorial sea
-

The continental margin consists of the seabed and subsoil of the shelf, the
slope and the rise.

It does not include the deep ocean floor with its oceanic ridges or the subsoil
thereof

Extended continental shelf cannot go beyond 350nm or 100nm from the 2500m isobaths (the line
of depth 2500m)

10 year time limit for making submission of particulars and scientific and technical data after entry
into force of the Convention for that state

Sovereign rights for purpose of:

-

Exploring & exploiting non-living resources of sea-bed and subsoil, plus living
sedentary species (immobile or move in contact with seabed and subsoil).

Regulating authorising & conducting marine scientific regulating, research.

Obligation to protect & preserve the marine environment

Benefits: Objective and scientific method of determining if countries can extend their claims, making
projection of sovereignty and interests neater and fair

Arctic is becoming more legible (Klaus Dodds)

Rise of importance of geometrics and volumetric geopolitics; both in the actual utility of what lies
above and below, as well as the significance of such information in justifying claims

D. RESOURCE FRONTIER
The opening up of the Arctic to further exploration, exploitation and industrialization means

Reduction of sovereign control despite increased economic activity: moving people, goods,
and services between Arctic sites; opening transportation routes even more; developing
shipping routes, power lines, transnational pipelines, and air corridors; Arctic commerce cuts
across the boundaries of national jurisdictions

Potential environmental dangers: exploits the Arctic commons, and may produce adverse
environmental externalities (e.g. oil spills)

Attraction:

US Geological Survey Assessment in 2000 stated that Twenty-five percent of the worlds
untapped reserves of oil are located in the Arctic (CNN Money.com); thought to hold about a
quarter of the worlds undiscovered oil and natural gas, as well as gold, silver, copper, zinc,
diamonds and fish.

Increased ice-melt= increased accessibility

Increasing technological capacity, offshore drilling capacity allows more to go deeper into those
regions

Businesses working with nation states to exploit the Arctic

Repellent:

Conditions for any kind of resource extraction in the arctic might not actually be economically
viable, race for resources has its limits

Falling oil prices- less economically viable

Not exactly and open resource frontier due to competing sovereign claims; much less a
scramble than a slow creep, due to checks and balances provided by UNCLOS and CCLC

Opposition from environmentalists

Interested Parties:
-

Arctic rim states: Want revenue

Businesses (MnCs): Want to earn

o Many resource exploitation decisions made by state and businesses decision makers,
somewhat like the Mekong; states are increasingly allied to business groups in the
Mekong, MRC has great problems in tackling that, great push in many states for
hydropower development, similarly state-corporation alliances and corporate networks
have become very important in pushing hydrocarbon development
o Companies are already drilling for oil and digging for minerals across the Arctic on an
unprecedented scale, expected to spend$100 billion there over the next decade,
according to Lloyds of London, the worlds oldest insurance market.
o Plans by the largest U.S. oil company, ExxonMobil (34%), to drill an Arctic well this year
with Russias state-owned giant, Rosneft (66%).

Local people: Want a share of the economic pie, fishing industries might be affected; concerned
about immediate environment
o Alaskans might not be that happy with their oil being piped to all over mainland USA
depending on their national identity
o Fisheries are important to the identities and traditional livelihoods of the coastal
communities (Norway, Inuit fishing culture)
Arctic fishery Management area created to protect fisheries and prevent a
collapse of fish stocks

Other states (affected by North West trade route and/ or want a part of the resource)
(Arctic Council created to accommodate different parties (see part A)

E. Environmental Issues and Ecological Security

Need to consider connections between systems and the interactions of various ecological phenomena
Environmental processes transcend boundaries and state-based geopolitics: Flows and movement that
happen with regards to hydrology, sedimentology, ecology, cannot be contained within territory
-

Implications:
o If calamities do occur, it is difficult to control the level of devastation and impose
proportional punishment (strong enough deterrent)/ control externalities
eg. Gulf of Mexico oil spills, caused by a few, affects many humans and non-humans,
years after the disaster
o Current changes to the Arctic are affected by processes far away, and requires action to
be take on a global scale beyond the Arctic region
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol
o Requires a new framework of thinking

Anthropocene: Need to consider the rapid change humans are inflicting with each decision; especially
seen in the Arctic
-

Positive feedbacks of resource extraction:

The Arctic, the roughly 8 percent of the earth above latitude 66 33' north, is warming faster than
many climate scientists expectedat nearly twice the rate of the rest of the planet. The years
20072013 saw the six lowest levels since satellite imaging began in 1979. Overall, the ice cap has
retreated about 40 percent over this period.
o The Pole-bound atmospheric and oceanic circulation systems and rivers drain into the
arctic waters, including the pollutants they carry
o Low temperatures create an arctic cold trap, or sink, for some of these POPs,
preventing further transport.
o Higher Albedo of sea as opposed to ice
o Release of carbon trapped within ice

Altering natural non-human habitat

o New era of Arctic exploration and development could spoil one of the planets last great
frontiers, a pristine habitat home to iconic wildlife and native communities that have
subsisted there for thousands of years

Counter-factors:
-

Falling oil prices/ investors pulling out

Potential treaties

WWF, Greenpeace strengthen instruments to protect nonhuman nature- human ambitions have
nonhuman consequences
o Harnessing of popular support through awareness campaigns, world-wide movements
and use of celebrities
o Donations from the public to support conservation efforts
o Publicity- magazine (The circle)
The Circle will in each publication focus on one specific issue related to the
Arctic ask the key international actors working within that particular area to
share their thoughts and ideas on various aspects of that issueto ensure that
you will get a wide and well-informed perspective on the most significant current
issues related to the Arctic- from first issue

G. Inuit and Indigenous people (socio-cultural aspects)

- Very different imaginary of the space
o Specific demarcations of zones and space (UNCLOS, CCLS) as opposed to traditional
Inuit maps depicting inter-relations in nature
o Human residence without much disruption to landscape; contrast with many human
activities transforming the meaning and imaginaries of the landscape

Interests in the Arctic

Home for thousands of years, live in harmony with the surroundings: One persons backyard is
another persons homeland
Traditional culture and way of life
Needs to balance ecological and cultural needs above with search for economic opportuinity (many do
not necessarily oppose development but want to receive a fair slice of the pie)
Own cultural/ social identity could conflict with larger national identity
-

Canada's third territory joining Yukon; received many self governing powers, government of
nunavik has inherent limited role in domestic economic and social issues because canada rules
over it; greenland is not like nunavik (separated from demark vs contiguous space of canada)

Assertions of perspectives/ rights

-

Inuit circumpolar council (icc) has regular negotiations with states, ngos, un bodies, discussing
inuit self determination and rights, relative autonomy in many parts of the arctic

A lot of knowledge going into development of resource, knowledge gained into how to manage
the environment, much implication for scientfic studies (Qapirangajuq film, Siku: knowing our
ice publication)

social media and identity, empowerment and democratisaton of knowledge production; Inuit
rock bands