Political Geography

What is political geography? Political geography is the study of political processes and outcomes relative to international states, territories and people. Put simply, it is the study of human geography. The primary concern of political geography is to understand how people and politics interact with one another and how that affects the rest of the world around them, hence international relations studies. These studies hold a crucial validity because not one human on this planet is able to have an individual incentive without it concerning others and the outcomes of those actions. Historical tyrants such as Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Ivan the terrible and countless more have always had someone or state to explain their actions to, and eventually were put to an end. Is political geography fighting with global domination or fighting to decentralize it, creating individual state policies? with that question in mind we must also ask ourselves:

-How and why states are organized into regional/territorial groupings? does religion, culture, identity play a role? 

-What is the relationship between states and former colonies, and how these territories came about over time, through neo-colonialism? (geopolitical practice of using capitalism, business globalization, and cultural imperialism to control a country, with either direct military control or centralized political control)

-What the relationship between a government and its people, along with the relationships between states including international trades and treaties.

-How and why the functions, demarcations and policing of boundaries/territories became. 

-The influence of political power on geographical space (is it surrounded by water? is it land locked? who is their neighboring countries? what resources are being allocated? what advantages and disadvantages does it have within that territory? does the geography bring security? or wealth?)

-The study of election results. Is it a democracy? what is the political processes and how much of the population has involvement and direct influence?

-Does one country have more of a say than another country because they are bigger? wealthier? have more resources? geographical advantage? and if so...does that country have a duty to step foot in international affairs that don't directly concern them? (For example, America. Does America have a duty to the rest of world to step in, without direct involvement with the issue just because America has the resources and wealth to help? or is this more of an issue with morality and what "should" be done because we can?)

I often ask myself...where do we draw the line? is there a line? I don't believe there is one answer, or at least one answer that the whole world can agree upon. So if the majority of the human population doesn't care about getting involved, or they think their individual opinions wont matter anyways with political and international issues...then who or what group is making all these decisions?

That is what Political Geography is all about. Asking and wondering how you as an individual affect the world with your actions and individual incentives where you are geographically located, versus how the world perceive you as a part of a group who shares the same views as a nation or country.