The Impacts of Political Geography

So, when I first started this class, back in January, I didn't know much about global politics. To be Honest, I got my news from the E channel. Pathetic yes, but true. I was more concerned about how fat Kim Kardashian was getting with her unexpected pregnancy than what is going on in the rest of the world. OK, so I have a BBC app on my phone (which i rarely use)....but that is about as connected to the news as I get. I always used the excuse of "It's so gruesome and depressing, why would I want to watch the news? and even if I did, its totally biased". Well as truthful as that is, it is always important to be informed as to what is going on in the world.
The premises of political geography is to shed light on human interaction of spatially uneven outcomes of political processes and the ways in which political processes are themselves affected by spatial structures. This includes the inter-relationship between a nation state and its citizens, local and national elections, war and conflict, terrorism, historical and religious regions, religion, colonialism, hegemonic global roles and border impacts. The god father of Political Geography is Halford Mackinder. Mackinder developed his theory of the geographical pivot of history, which states that the world will be divided into a heartland consisting of eastern Europe, a world island made up of Eurasia and Africa, peripheral islands and the new world. His theory said that whoever controlled the heartland, controlled the world. Territorial arrangement and its correlating political forces, along with its interaction with other groups or countries is what defines their socioeconomic status. Mackinder believed this was eastern Europe, the global hegemon. little did Mackinder know that the big bad wolf, America, was about to dominate.

All in all, I learned alooooot in this class and this is probably the best and most interesting class I have ever taken at Florida State. Seriously. I not only learned alot about global politics and how geography affects countries, but as well as how I personally view America versus the rest of the world, along with my political positioning and how i incorporate my moral values. I now watch the news as well.....which shocks my mom haha.