Political Geography Theory

This research paper analyzes the contributions of various

political geography theories to an understanding of the current

and possible future geopolitical world orders. Recently, world

political and economic power alignments have undergone basic

changes. The three most important changes are: (1) the ending of

bi-polar dominance and the shift to a multi-power system; (2)

the transition of a globalized world economy via economic

restructuring from the Industrial to the Information Age; and

(3) the threat to the stability of the international order posed ì

by the intensification of aggressive nationalism and communal and

religious strife in the Third World. Traditional political

geography theory has only limited relevance to an understanding

of (1) above. The long cycle and the modern systems theorists

help clarify the meaning of all three types of changes, but the

latter's thought process reflects various biases. (The terms

"core-states," the "semi-periphery," and "peripheral areas," as

used herein, have the meanings assigned to them by world systems

theorist, Immanuel Wallerstein, -i.e. respectively, Great Powers,

states approaching Great Power status and all others.)1

The Partial Relevance of Traditional Political Geography

Traditional or pre-World War II political geographers

. . .
ates of which have surpassed those of the United ì States in recent decades. Taylor concludes that the United States ì will remain a powerful core-state, but "it will not necessarily ì have either the will or the resources to be the world ì leader."9That decline will continue to be gradual as other regional powers rise in East Asia, Europe and elsewhere. The ì international order has already become multi-polar, a complicated ì system which involves reaching consensus among the core-states = 7 É3
 èbefore action is taken and which may involve the risk of war among them.10 The world economy has been going through a difficult period ì of restructuring as it transists from the Industrial to the Information Age. Nineteenth century Russian economist Kondratiev said that the world capitalist economy which emerged after the breakdown of the feudal system in Europe after 1450 has since ì passed through four long waves of growth and stagnation/ contraction. Taylor says that each phase of rapid growth was largely spurred by technological innovation and was eventually ì followed by over production and a contractionary phase during which "it become
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Approximate Word count = 2002
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)