HARM DE BLIJ: WHY GEOGRAPHY MATTERS STUDY GUIDE

CHAPTER ONE: WHY GEOGRAPHY MATTERSStudy Questions Pg 3-4

1. What changes occurred from 1985-1995? o The Soviet Union had split into 15 independent countries, China’s Pacific Rim was

transforming the economic geography of East Asia, South Africa’s first president was Nelson Mandela, NAFTA linked Canada, the US, and Mexico in an economic union, the European Community was renamed the European Union and added 3 members to its roster to create a 15 nation entity, Yugoslavia collapsed, flooding of the 1993 Mississippi-Missouri Rivers. New terms: ethnic cleansing, greenhouse warming, Gulf War, El Nino. (Pg 3)

2. What events during the past decade,1995-2005, show that the pace of change has not slowed down?

o American troops fought in Afghanistan and invaded Iraq, North Korea was ambitious in nuclear warcraft, wars and AIDS in Africa costs millions of lives, EU expanded and took in 10 new members, Yugoslavia disappeared from the map and others emerged. New terms: pandemic, jihad, War on terrorism, Sunni Triangle. (Pg 3)

3. What is GIS?o Geographic Information Systems. (Pg 4)

Pg 4-74. What led De Blij to become a geographer?

During WWII, while he was stuck in the middle of Holland with Nazis bombing all around him, he read books by Willem van Loon. The books described places far away where skies were blue, palm trees swayed in the breeze, and food could be plucked from trees. Islands, bustling cities, and powerful kingdoms. De Blij dreamed of the day when he could see these worlds for himself. (Pg 4-5)

5. How did the field of geography originate and develop? Thousands of years ago, geography was about discovery, like the discovery of the

shape of the earth. Several centuries later, geography was about exploration and cartography. Today, geography is about new technology, such as satellites and computers. (Pg 5)

6. Who are some of its leading figures? Geographers

7. Alexander von Humboldt, after whom Humboldt State University is named, did much of his pioneering work in the New World and had a profound influence on the early political science work of Francis Lieber. What four traditions does De Blij identify?

1. Geography deals with 1. the natural world as well as the human world, 2. health and disease, 3. foreign cultures and distant regions, 4. location (human-geographic). (Pg 6-7)

Pg 7-128. As in the cases of the economists Paul Krugman and Jeffrey Sachs, as well as the physiologist Jared Diamond, how may geographers help strengthen the work and correct the misconceptions of specialists in other fields?

o9. What are some fields in which geographers work?

o Area specialists, regional scientists, urbanization from various spatial standpoints. (Pg 8)

10. What view of geography was represented by Carl Sauer? o Society’s life ways would be imprinted on the earth as a cultural landscape that could

be subjected to spatial analysis wherever it was found. (Pg 9)

11. What is the gravity model (and decay) concerning interaction between cities? o Multiply the two urban populations and divide the total by the square of the distance

between them. (Pg 10)12. What are some of the geography specializations?

o Cultural geography, biogeography, geomorphology, historical geography, physical geography, political geography (Pg 11)

Pg 12-2213. What is some evidence for the geographical illiteracy of Americans?

o President Nixon mixed up the country Mauritius, a subtropical island off the coast of India, with the country Mauritania, a dry desert country in West Africa. (Pg 13-14)

14. How did professional educators contribute to the problem through social studies? o They teach history, government, and geography combined in a subject called social

studies. (Pg 15)15. What sorts of steps have been taken to reverse the trend, and by whom?

o Colleges have offered more geography courses, and campaigns have been launched to put geography in schools’ curriculums. (Pg 16-19)

16. Why is it important to resurrect regional studies?o To ensure that a growing staff of field-experienced, language-capable locally

connected scholars would populate government, intelligence, and other national agencies. (Pg 22)

CHAPTER TWO: READING MAPS AND FACINGTHREATSStudy Questions Pg 23-30

1. What contributions were made by Gerardus Mercator to mapmaking? o He made a grid for the evolving map of the world, and it allowed navigators to plot a

straight line compass (Mercator Projection), and he invented the atlas, a collection of maps. (Pg 23)

2. How do small-scale and large-scale maps differ? o The larger the area represented on a map, the smaller the scale of the map and the

less detail it can display. Small scale maps are of large areas, and large scale maps are of small areas. (Pg 25-26)

3. What is the “Great Circle Route”? o A route, taken by intercontinental aircraft for instance, which is the shortest distance

between two destinations on the surface of the Earth; an arc of a great circle4. What is the “compass rose” and how does it reflect the culture of its origin?

o The compass rose consists of N, S, E, W and everything in between. We use it for direction.

5. What is topography? o Illustration of hills, valleys, slopes, and flatlands on a map. This can be done in

various ways. One is to create an image of sunlight and shadow so that wrinkles of the topography are alternately lit and shaded. Another way is to draw contour lines, which connects all points that lie on the same elevation. (Pg 29-30)

6. What was the township-and-range system used in the Ohio Valley (and, later, further west)?

o In the Ordinance of 1785, land in the Midwest was laid out based on six-mile “township” squares along parallel baselines. (Pg 30)

Pg 30-457. Longitude (meridians)—vertical lines running north to south across maps and measure

east to west in degrees (Pg 31)Latitude (parallels)—horizontal lines running east to west across maps and measures north to south in degrees (Pg 31)

8. Identify some types of projections. A globe or map grid. They are cylindrical, conical, or equal-area. (Pg 33)

9. What is GPS? Global Positioning System—a navigational system involving satellites and computers

that can determine the absolute location of a receiver on Earth.10. What contributions were made by the 19C London physician, Dr. John Snow, to epidemiology, public health, and geography?

He made a map of cases of cholera in a specific area and drew dots on the places where people died from it and where it was found. He discovered that the disease was around a free water pump, where most people went, so they contracted the disease. (Pg 42-43)

Pg 45-4612. What are some of the domestic political factors that have had a negative impact on American global leadership?

o13. What changes in graduate education in America have contributed to geographic illiteracy?

o Pg 46-51

14. What is remote sensing? o Small or large-scale acquisition of information of an object or phenomenon, by the

use of either recording or real-time sensing device(s) that are wireless, or not in physical or intimate contact with the object. (Pg 46)

15. What are GOES and LANDSAT? o Geostationary Operational Environment Satellite, an earth-orbiting satellite that

monitors the ocean and coastlines for storms. Land-use Satellite, four satellites that monitor geologic structure, expansion of deserts, shrinking of tropical forests, growth and contraction of algae in oceans, world agriculture, forestry, ocean pollution, etc. (Pg 46-47)

16. How has the GIS changed mapping? o Created more jobs, see anything in the world. (Pg 48)

17. Identify three challenges to the United States as the world’s sole superpower.o Accelerating climate change, the rise of China as a global force, and the increase of

the extremist-Islamic terrorist campaign. (Pg 50)

CHAPTER THREE: EARTH’S CHANGEABLEENVIRONMENTSStudy Questions Dramatic Beginnings (Pg 53-57)

2. Trace the development of the ideas of continent drift and plate tectonics. o According to the theory of continental drift by Alfred Wegener, the world was made

up of a single continent through most of geologic time called Pangaea. That continent eventually separated and drifted apart, forming into the seven continents. The hypothesis asserts that the continents consist of lighter rocks that rest on heavier crustal material—similar to the manner in which icebergs float on water. Wegener contended that the relative positions of the continents are not rigidly fixed but are slowly moving—at a rate of about one yard per century. According to the generally accepted plate-tectonics theory, scientists believe that Earth's surface is broken into a number of shifting slabs or plates, which average about 50 miles in thickness. These plates move relative to one another above a hotter, deeper, more mobile zone at average rates as great as a few inches per year. Most of the world's active volcanoes are located along or near the boundaries between shifting plates. (Pg 54-57)

3. What was Alfred Wegener’s unsolved problem?

o Why the slab-like plates move. (Pg 55)4. What is meant by subduction?

o A geological process in which one edge of a crustal plate is forced sideways and downward into the mantle below another plate. (Pg 55)

Ice on the Globe (Pg 58-62)5. What is the basis of the theory known as Snowball Earth? What explanations are offered?

o Snowball Earth—hypothesis that the Earth’s surface became nearly or entirely frozen about 570 million years ago. Explanations—temporary but significant decline in the sun’s radiative output, a rapid decline in methane-producing microorganisms with the rise of oxygen-generating microbes, decline of volcanic activity. (Pg 58)

7. What challenges are caused by ice ages?o It causes mass extinctions. (Pg 60)

Sudden Death (Pg 62-63)8. What is the K/T Boundary? Where is it most visible to us today?

o A mass extinction occurring during the end of the Cretaceous period and beginning of the Tertiary period. It was caused by the Chicxulub asteroid that struck near where the Yucatan peninsula is located in Mexico. (Pg 63)

Back to the Future (Pg 63-65)10. What is the greenhouse effect?

o Warming that results when solar radiation is trapped by the atmosphere. (Pg 63) Climates and Primates (Pg 65-68)

12. What are glaciations and interglacials? o Glaciations—advances of ice into lower latitudes and altitudes during a cold ice-age

period. Interglacials—temporary warm-ups between glacial advances. (Pg 65)13. Why does the author suggest a dual migration of great apes?

o The apes migrated from Africa to Eurasia because Eurasia became environmentally diverse. (Pg 67)

The Frigid Pleistocene (Pg 68-71)14. What is the significance of the Sinai land bridge and the Bab-al-Mandab?

o They are pathways that the first humans took to migrate from Africa to Eurasia. (Pg 69-70)

A Close Call (Pg 71-73)15. What happened at Toba?

o Toba, a volcano, not only erupted, but it exploded 73,500 years ago. This explosion sents millions of tons of debris into orbit, blocking the sun and putting the earth into long term darkness and shifting global climate. Eventually, the sky cleared, the atmosphere cleansed, and normal conditions resumed. (Pg 71)

16. Is global warming during the present interglacial (Holocene) the greatest of any of the interglacials?

o No, the Eemian interglacial was the warmest about 120,000 years ago. (Pg 72)

CHAPTER FOUR: CLIMATE AND CIVILIZATIONStudy Questions Pg 74-81

1. In the author’s judgment, what is different about the Holocene Epoch (if, in fact, it is anepoch)?

o Scientists believe that it not an epoch, it is another Pleistocene interglacial. (Pg 75)2. What are some of the chief climatic events of the last roughly six thousand years?

o Postglacial Optimum, Medieval Optimum, Little Ice Age, Industrial Optimum. (Pg 76)3. How did the Medieval Optimum help the development of Europe and China?

o The Roman Empire appeared in western Eurasia and the Han Empire appeared in eastern Eurasia. The silk route transferred goods between the east and west. (Pg 77)

4. What came with the Mongol migrations?

o The Yuan Dynasty formed. (Pg 77)5. How were Europe and China affected by the Little Ice Age?

o Harvests diminished because of the short growing seasons, famines broke out, temperatures decreased, rivers dried up, etc. (Pg 78)

6. How did the Little Ice Age affect European agriculture and trade? How did it affect the settlement of America?

o Farm practices were improved, field methods (planting, sowing, watering, weeding, harvesting) got better, and transportation and storage of produce involved less waste and loss. Trade decreased between Europe and Asia. The settlement of Jamestown collapsed so fast because of a seven year drought. (Pg 79-80)

7. How did the eruption of Tambora affect the world?o Killed thousands on the island, tens of millions of tons of ash went into orbit and

darkened skies around the world. There were food shortages in Europe and the US had a “year without summer.” (Pg 81)

Pg 81-908. Can we say anything definite about the effects or the occurrence of planetary temperature increases?

The effects will be regional—not worldwide. (Pg 83-84)9. What is significant about the quick drying up of the Sahara Desert about five millennia ago?

It converted from a fertile landscape with rivers and lakes into a parched, rocky, sandy wasteland in a matter of decades.

10. Summarize the chief categories of Vladimir Köppen’s classification of climate. A: equatorial, tropical, moist. B: desert, dry. C: midlatitude, mild. D: continental,

harsh. E: polar, frigid. F: highland11. What did Ellsworth Huntington believe about the effects of midlatitude cyclonic zones?

He said, “The people of midlatitude cyclonic zones rank so far above those of other parts of the world that they are natural leaders… they lead in terms of productivity, but their greatest products are ideas and the institutions to which these give rise. The fundamental gift of the cyclonic regions is mental activity.”

CHAPTER FIVE: A FUTURE GEOGRAPHY OF HUMANPOPULATIONStudy Questions

Pg 91-931. What has changed since 1650 that has led to a global spiral of population growth?

o Death rates have declined while birth rates have increased. (Pg 92)2. Why is there a gap or time lag between the decline of the death rate and the decline of the birth rate?

o Death rates began to decline in the 18th century while birth rates remained high. That created a widening gap. This lag is still in effect today. (Pg 92)

3. Identify some factors that have lowered the death rate. o Progress in hygiene and medicine, effective soap, toilets, refrigeration, water

purification, etc. (Pg 92-93)Pg 93-97

4. Who is Paul Ehrlich? o He raised the “population explosion” alarm and predicted vast famines

afflicting billions across the planet. (Pg 93)5. What is ZPG?

o Zero Population Growth. (Pg 93)6. What are some of the variable factors that affect population increase/decline?

o Religion, democracy. (Pg 94)7. What demographic crisis is being faced by Europe and the developed world?

o Europe’s population is decreasing, causing the continent to not become a superpower. However, if population decreases, life expectancy will increase.

8. What level of immigration would it take to stabilize Europe’s population?o Ten-fold. (Pg 95)

9. Identify some of the worldwide changes that are in the works?o More children from marriage, numbers of youngsters shrinking, longer life

expectancies, higher schooling and literacy rates, and more common life styles around the world. (Pg 96)

Pg 97-10110. Identify the location of the three greatest concentrations of humanity? [We may add other, smaller concentrations, including Honshu, Java (127 million people in 49,000 sq. mi.), the Mekong River delta, south India, the Nile River valley, and west Africa].

o India, China, Western Europe into Russia. (Pg 97-98)11. What is Megalopolis?

o The coalesced cities of Eastern America. (Pg 99)12. What are some of the consequences of rapid population growth and urbanization, and the resulting conflicts?

o Overpopulation. (Pg 100)Pg 101-105

13. Another example of human destructiveness is the clearing (by burning) of what are now the Great Plains by early Americans. Concerning AIDS, 8% of the adult population ofsub-Saharan Africa is infected. In some areas the number approaches half thepopulation. Malnutrition affects about one-eighth of the world’s population.

Pg 105-10714. How did the Rev. Thomas Malthus, whose 1798 essay on population gave economics its reputation as the “miserable science,” prove wrong on some points of his theory? Where did his critics make a mistake?

o He said that the population in Britain was growing faster than the means of survival, and he predicted that population growth would be checked by hunger within 50 years. He was proven wrong; food production has grown exponentially, recently during the Green Revolution. (Pg 105)

15. What did the neo-Malthusians believe? Where did they go wrong?o They believe that overpopulation will lead to mortal struggle for survival. (Pg

105)16. What factors account for the destruction of the rainforest?

Consumer demands for products yielded by the forests, such as lumber and leather. (Pg 106)

CHAPTER SIX: THE MESH OF CIVILIZATIONSStudy QuestionsPg 108-111

1. The days of unclaimed frontiers and open spaces are over, except where? o In the high seas and Antarctica. (Pg 108)

3. What underlies the actions of North Korea, Iran, and Israel in seeking nuclear capabilities?

o Nationalism. (109)4. How did the concept of the nation-state originate?

o From Europe 1650-1850. (Pg 110)6. Distinguish between unitary and federal states. What do these forms have in common?

o The unitary states had highly centralized, powerful governments; some still with royal power. Federal states had regional-cooperative government, in

which some power was assigned to provinces. However, they both define a portion of the earth’s surface, have boundaries, contain one or more of Europe's nations, and had governmental system centered in a capital city. (Pg 110-111)

Pg 111-1137. How did Friedrich Ratzel view the nation-state?

o He proposed a theory that the nation-state would mirror the life cycle of a human. It would have to be nourished by absorbing other cultures and by expanding into other lands. (Pg 111)

8. How did Karl Haushofer bring geopolitics into disgrace? o It was part of Nazi ideology, so it went into scholarly disuse for decades. (Pg

111)9. How was the present-day boundary framework created?

o European powers laid out a map and colonists drew borders where there had been none and built capitals where none had existed. (Pg 111)

10. How was the colonial map of Africa created? o Colonial powers met in Berlin and divided the continent into their colonies.

(Pg 111)13. What provided the opportunities for the horrific extremes of Amin, Bokassa, Mobutu, Saddam, and Pol Pot?

o Opportunities their bounded nations provided. (Pg 113)Pg 113-116

14. What was the big issue in the Gulf War? o Sacredness of international boundaries. (Pg 113)

15. What are some of the practical peculiarities of international boundaries? o They are not lines, they also divide what’s below the ground and the space

above. (Pg 113)16. What happened to the Rumaylah reserve after the Gulf War?

o The Iraqis accused the Kuwaitis of drilling their oil, because the Rumaylah Oil Field stretches from Northern Kuwait to Southern Iraq. (Pg 114)

17. What is an EEZ? o Exclusive Economic Zone. The area of sea up to 200 nautical miles from a

country's coast. The country has control over the living marine, mineral and energy resources in its EEZ. (Pg 115)

18. What are some practical difficulties with the concept of the territorial sea and marine boundaries?

o Narrow straits between countries’ coasts, such as the Dardanelles, and small seas where EEZ’s overlap, such as the Caribbean. (Pg 116)

Pg 116-12019. What makes the state an open system?

o Migration, trade, finance, transportation, information, etc. (Pg 116)20. What are some different ways that what Robert Ardrey calls the “territorial imperative” is expressed?

o He says we have an innate need to divide and subdivide our activities in our activity space, encoded in our genes and shared with many animals. (Pg 117)

21. It may be difficult to distinguish the relative how much the dispute over the Kurile Islands is symbolic and how much is substantive. What does the author’s experience with real estate surveys suggest?

o He had to sign many documents just to buy a house on an acre of land, so imagine how many documents are needed to make legal the surface boundary between two countries. (Pg 118)

22. What stages are necessary in the establishment of boundaries? o Definition in legal language, delimitation (making a map of it), demarcation of

the boundary (marking boundary on ground in some way). (Pg 118-120)

23. What is the McMahon Line and why did the Simla Convention cause so much trouble?

o A line agreed to by Great Britain and Tibet as part of Simla Accord, a treaty signed in 1914. Although its legal status is disputed, it is the effective boundary between China and India. (Pg 119)

Pg 121-12424. Was the clash of civilizations thesis original with Samuel Huntington?

o25. From where are the real short-term and long-term challenges to Western supremacy likely to come?

o China and India. (Pg 120)26. What are the four mega states of our era?

o United States, China, India, Orthodox-Christian Russia. (Pg 124)

CHAPTER SEVEN: RED STAR RISING: CHINA’SGEOPOLITICAL GAUNTLETStudy QuestionsPg 125-127

1. What brought China, the slumbering giant, into the middle of Big Power politics years after the Communist revolution and its immediate aftershocks?

o When president Nixon asked to meet with China’s premier, Zhou Enlai, and its Communist Party Chairman, Mao Zedong. (Pg 125)

2. Why did Mao Zedong launch the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in 1966? What did it do? What were its results?

o He launched it against what he viewed as an emerging exclusiveness in Chinese society. He assembled young people into Red Guards and ordered them to attack “bourgeois” elements throughout China, called on them to criticize Communist Party officials, and encouraged them to get rid of opponents of the system. The results were disastrous. Thousands of China’s leading scholars were killed, and the elderly were tortured to confess crimes they had not committed, and as the economy suffered, food production and industrial output declined, and violence and famine killed millions. (Pg 126)

3. What geographical factor may have helped bring the end of Mao’s rule? How did Chou En-lai contribute to it?

o Twin earthquakes that struck the city of Tangshan, about 100 miles east of Beijing. Chou En-lai promoted party leader Deng Xiaoping, who boosted China’s economy to what it is now. (Pg 127)

Pg 128-1294. What did Halford Mackinder imagine with regard to the possible rise of Eurasian states in global geopolitics?

o Unconquerable land-based strongholds would come to dominate geopolitics. (Pg 128)

5. Summarize the Heartland theory. o Interior Eurasia contained the ability to allow a future power to successfully

challenge for world domination. (Pg 128)6. What was Nicholas Spykman’s later negation?

o No matter how powerful a Soviet Union would emerge from WWII, its strategy should be to extend its domination into the Eurasian Rim; a Eurasian Rim power or alliance would ultimately and successfully challenge for supremacy. (Pg 128)

7. Historically, how did the succession of power in Europe proceed?o First, latitudinal: from Egypt to Crete to Greece to Rome to western Europe.

(Pg 128)8. When did a longitudinal succession begin and how?

o Great Britain was the world’s first naval superpower, then Germany mounted two world wars, the second for world domination. Then came the Russian challenge, the heartland power at its zenith. (Pg 128)

Pg 129-1329. What are some of the indications of what DeBlij calls China’s “economic success andstrategic frustration?”

o China’s rising tide of nationalism. (Pg 130)10. What are some signs of the rise of Chinese nationalism?

o Perceived superpower superiority of the US, its omnipresence in the region, its role involving Taiwan, criticism of China’s human-rights practices, refuge given to protesters, and other irritations. (Pg 130)

11. What are some consequences of China’s growing demand for oil?o China has to negotiate with other countries, such as Russia, Kazakhstan,

and Japan. (Pg 132)Pg 132-136

12. What must Americans do to internationalize their viewpoint?o Be better informed about the countries and societies on which the US has an

enormous impact. One good way is to study global geography. (Pg 132)13. What are some of the characteristics of China’s regional geography?

o The US is slightly larger than China. China’s northeastern provinces have bitterly cold winters and short summers. In the south, China is very tropical. Westward, China becomes more mountainous and drier, with ice-capped mountains in the southwest and vast deserts in the northwest. Few people live in this area. (Pg 133)

14. Where do China’s origins lie? o In the fertile farmlands of its great rivers, the Yellow (Huang He) and Yangtze

in the middle, the Xi-Pearl in the south, and the Liao-Songhua in the north. Here, more than 5,000 years ago, arose the communities that would one day be turned into a unified state, the core of an empire that eventually reached far into Asia in all directions.

15. What is the situation of China’s farmers in the headlong rush to modernize? o China’s planners discriminated against the farmers once again.

16. Summarize China’s historical origins and growth. o China is probably the oldest continuous civilization on the planet. It had many

dynasties during the past few thousand years. The start of the dynasties began in the area where the Huang He and Wei Rivers met. Some of the dynasties were the Shang, Han, Ming, and Qing. The city of Xian was like the “Rome of China.” The silk road was a busy trade route.

17. How far did China reach during the Qing dynasty? o They conquered much of Indochina, Myanmar, Tibet, Xinjiang, Kazakhstan,

Mongolia, eastern Siberia, the Korean peninsula, and the islands of Sakhalin and Taiwan.

18. The earlier extent of China’s ecumene [homeland] is the source of China’s irredentist [unredeemed] claims and ambitions today. BTW: If Islam’s aspirations are also a form of irredentism and the umma [the worldwide community of Muslims] is the Islamic “homeland,” can any boundaries ultimately be recognized?

o19. Boundaries are a Western conceit. What made the 19C (and then the 20C) catastrophic for China?

o Overextension, European colonial invasion, and Japanese intervention. British merchants weakened China’s economy, opium flooded into China from India and destroyed the fabric of China’s society. When the Chinese tried to stop this British import, they were defeated in the First Opium War and the breakdown of Chinese rule was under way. The Qing Dynasty collapsed in 1911. (Pg 134-136)

Pg 136-13820. Why did scholars draw parallels between the earlier dynasties and the new communist one?

o21. What were some of the consequences of Mao’s mobilization of the populace? The Great Leap Forward? The conquest of Tibet and the Sinicization of Xinjiang?

o Mao’s mobilization of the populace—land was taken from the wealthy and subsistence farmers, farms were collectivized. Great Leap Forward—peasants were forced into collectivized villages, families were torn apart, and the historic rhythm of agriculture was severely disrupted. (Pg 137)

22. How did China’s population policy change? o “One Child Only” policy—only 1 child per family (Pg 137)

23. What became of the legacy of Confucius?o Confucian Classics. (Pg 138)

Pg 138-14424. Identify the four layers of administration within the modern Chinese empire.

o At the top are 4 central-government-controlled cities: Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing. Next come China’s 22 provinces. Third comes the Special Administrative Regions (SAR). Lastly, there are Autonomous Regions (AR).

25. What are the SEZs (Shenzhen is one)? o Special Economic Zones—a series of port cities and coastal areas where

foreign technologies and investments were welcomed and where investors were offered capitalist-style incentives. (Pg 141)

26. What is the importance of the Northeast? What caused it to turn into a Rustbelt? o The northeast had large coal reserves and oil fields, agriculture, and

factories. It turned into a rustbelt because it could not compete with the new SEZ’s. (Pg 142)

27. What are the conditions of Hong Kong? The so-called Autonomous Regions?o

Pg 144-14928. Where are China’s expansionist objectives evident?

o Taiwan, NE India, Mongolia. (Pg 145)28b. Who are its chief rivals?

o Japan, Vietnam, Phillippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia. (Pg 145)28c. How is the strategic picture changing? The economic?

o29. What are some of the minuses and pluses of the United States/China relationship?

o30. What has characterized the post-WWII actions of the American superpower?

o31. What is new in the wake of 9/11?

o32. How do the geopolitical circumstances differ from those of the Cold War?

o33. How could a new cold war be averted?

o

CHAPTER EIGHT: TERRORISM’S WIDENING CIRCLEStudy QuestionsPg 150-151

1. What parallels does the author find between the German attack on Rotterdam and the events of 9-11?

o They were both acts of terror, and the countries both blamed their governments for it. (Pg 150)

2. What about Dresden, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki? o

3. Why is it difficult to define terrorism?o

Pg 151-1564. What does the author mean by saying that “no such clarity marks the form of terrorismthat has become dominant in the twenty-first century world: Islam-inspired violence?”

o5. What was lacking before the early 1980s?

o Global network connecting terrorist groups. (Pg 152)6. Why does the author consider American support for the anti-Soviet mujahideen to be thoughtless?

o It was a Cold War strategy. (Pg 153)7. What were some of the consequences of the role played by Saudi Arabia?

o They were the source of the megafunds for muhjahideens. 8. What is the educational and political significance of the Pakistani madrassas?

o They were religious schools where the students intensively studied the Quaran. Using taxes to run, they provided food, lodging, and education on the Quaran for sons of poor families. During the Afghan war, many young boys took refuge in these schools,

9. What is the link between the Saudi royal family and the Wahhabi dogma? o When the kingdom of Saudi Arabia was established, the ruling family made

Wahhabism the state religion.10. How has the Saudi royal family used its growing wealth?

o They gave it to mosques and schools to fuel Islamic revivalism while creating funnels to channel such money to fanatics willing to take up arms, and give their own lives, on behalf of extremist causes.

11. What was the third element in “the transformation of Afghanistan from isolatedbackwater to terrorist base?”

oPg 156-161

11. Who are the taliban? The ulema? o Taliban—students from madrassas in Pakistan. Ulema—teachers who had

turned them into religious fanatics12. It was not just sharia law that the Taliban imposed; the even more severe tribal pustunwali is to blame. What were some of the rules and practices endorsed by Mullah Omar?

o13. What makes Afghanistan favorable to its role as a terrorist stronghold? [It is easy enough to imagine J.R.R. Tolkien’s Mordor being located in a place like this].

o Physiography of the country and its relative location.14. What are some characteristics of the cultural geography of Afghanistan, including vital statistics?

o15. Why did farmers welcome the Taliban?

o They were a welcome stabilizing force after decades of wartime interruption.16. What was the connection between heroin trafficking and terrorism?

o Taliban-ruled Afghanistan continued to produce more than 70% of the world’s heroin.

16b. What do Islamic terrorist groups have in common?o Lack of definition

Geography of Rage Pg 161-167

17. How widespread is the map of the umma? o Extends from West Africa to Central Asia, and from Eastern Europe to

Bangladesh, with an outlier in Southeast Asia.18. What are the psychological factors that complicate relations between the Muslim and the West?

o 19. The author’s summary is very incomplete. He does not mention that most areas in theMediterranean basin had been predominately (although often heretically) Christian beforethe 7C Arab conquests. How do the majority of Palestinians differ with al-Qaeda and itsallies?

o20. Is it sufficient for the West to offer an olive branch? BTW, Islamic law isincreasingly being recognized in European courts.

o21. What are some of the geographical qualities associated with Islam?

o Islam’s harshest forms of Islam seem to prosper in the toughest environments like in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Sudan. The milder forms appear to predominate under milder conditions in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Bangladesh.

22. How do the core areas of Islam differ with the periphery? o

23. Cosmopolitan coastal areas with the interior? o

24. Does moderation have a chance given the level of intergroup violence? o

25. What is the future prospect?o

Migrants and Militants Pg 167-17326. What are the limits of hospitality in Muslim countries? 27. What resulted from the presence of American troops and bases in Saudi Arabia? 28. What is the ultimate goal of the terrorists? 29. Where are the largest concentrations of Muslim immigrants in America? 30. What are some factors that account for the large number of Muslims in Europe? 31. What are some of the sources and characteristics of the Muslim immigrants? How well do they assimilate? 32. Omar Bakri Mohammed, known as the radical sheik, was now allowed to return to Britain in August 2005. Under European free speech protections, what have imams been free to say? On the other hand, there is considerable international counterterrorism cooperation. 33. What has been the fallout from the assassinations of Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh? 34. What accounts for India’s comparative success in integrating its very large Muslim minority?

CHAPTER NINE: FROM TERRORISM TO INSURGENCYStudy Questions1. According to a United Nations panel, what have been the costs, particularly the economicfallout, inflicted by the 9-11 terrorists? How has Israel learned to deal with terroristattacks? (174-76)2. Routes and Regions of Risk What three geographical circumstances andenvironments are especially favorable to Islamic terrorists? What are some especiallyvulnerable places? (176-78)3. Risk in the Western Hemisphere What is the Triple Frontier or Triborder area? Howdoes it satisfy the three criteria above? What other connections may enhance itsimportance as a potential staging area for infiltrating terrorists into the United States?

How dies Venezuela complicate the picture? (178-81)4. The Islamic Front in Africa The spread of Islam actually reach Morocco before the endof the 7C. How long ago did it reach places like Tanzania and China? What is the“double complementarity” that characterizes Africa’s west coast states? How wasIslam spread to the region? Where did Christianity predate and successfully resistIslam? What problems were created by the Conference of Berlin of 1884? Identify somecountries that are deeply divided along religious lines. What challenges are faced byDarfur, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, and the Ogaden? Where is the greatest potential forterrorist activity in the Horn of Africa? American airstrikes were launched on the areaearly in 2007. How is Somalia divided? Who are the shifta? Where may the IslamicFront spread? What is the situation around Cape Town? (181-87)5. Financing Terror What are the chief sources of terrorist funding? Where are terroristslikely to find relatively safe havens? (187-88)6. From Terror to Insurgency: Implications for Iraq Identify the principal reasons fordiverting attention from Afghanistan to Iraq? Where did things go wrong? What makesIraq the pivotal country in the Middle East? What are some of the divisive factors? Howdo Iraqi Shi’ites differ from Iranian Shi’ites? How did Saddam Hussein wage a campaignof environmental terrorism? [A book entitled Resource Wars covers similar issues].What is the corridor of Sunni habitat? Who are the Kurds and what is their situation?What have been the effects of the Iraq War and what are the implications for the future ofthe continuing campaign? (189-96)Reviewgeographic circumstances favorable to Islamic terrorism characteristics of Triple FrontierIguazu Falls Sao Paulo Ciudad del EsteDarfur Sudan OgadenPuntland Zanzibar Waziristanreasons of the shift of American focus from Afghanistan to Iraq marshlands of southern IraqShi’ites, Sunnis, Kurds

CHAPTER TEN: EUROPEAN SUPERPOWER?Study Questions1. What was globalization before it became “Americanization”? What revolutions didEurope generate? What have been the dominant events of the last half century?(197-98)2. Assets and Liabilities Why does this realm remain a Tower of Babel? If Europe’scultural diversity is a challenge, why is its natural diversity an opportunity? Why doesEurope’s economy struggle today? How is overcrowding avoided? What accounts forlong traffic jams? What factors account for Europe’s population stagnation? What aresome of the troubling implications? (198-204)3. Where and What Is Europe? Why is the issue of whether Russia a part of Europe soimportant? What are some of the differences between the two? What happened toprevent North Africa from becoming European? What does Europe stand for today?(204-05)4. Fractious Europe What accounts for Europe’s political map? What are some of thecurrent disputes? (205-07)5. Remaking Europe How did the European unification movement get started? How didthe Marshall Plan and NATO provide a framework? What political and institutions grewout of these multinational scheme? (208-11)6. Too Far, Too Fast? What advantages did Portugal, Spain, and Greece derive from EUmembership when they joined? What practical dilemmas does the EU face? Whatdifficulties regarding labor and migration have arisen? Why does the voting plan call for asupermajority of 55% or 65%? Why has the rise of the euro and its potential adoption bynew members been a source of worry? (211-13)7. A Federal Europe? German and French leaders have long been committed to a moreclose-knit “federal” system, while British leaders have been less enthusiastic. But the EUConstitution was rejected in referenda, first in Belgium (May 2005) and then in France the

following month. Later that Fall, the Socialist president of Germany, Gerhard Schröder,was replaced and succeeded by Angela Merkel, a Christian Democrat. (214-15)8. European Governance What are the “four pillars”? Where does the EP meet?(215-17)9. A Geographical Paradox How does the “seven-rank perspective” help give form toEurope’s hierarchy of political entities? Given the decentralization of France and othercountries into regions, how are taxation and economic policy being affected? Whatproblems arise from devolutionary pressures? Why has European supranationalismintensified the devolutionary spirit? How do the territorial fragments of history, such asGibraltar, Ceuta, Melilla, Kaliningrad, and Cyprus, represent minor irritants of longstanding? (217-25)10. The Perils of Exclusion What have been some of the effects of the new geographicboundary created by the European Union itself? Why is Ukraine a distance prospect foradmission to the EU? How does its outside status affect the Poles? Summarize thechallenges that the EU must coordinate and stabilize? (225-28)11. An Islamic EU Member? Why has Turkey’s candidacy divided EU members andleaders for so many years? What positive changes in Turkey have resulted from thesetalks? What paradoxes are involved? (228-29)12. Ally or Adversary? Is Europe a superpower? How consistent has been Europe’suneasy relationship with the United States? What are some of the paradoxes? Whatwould it effectively take to develop a potent all-European armed force? (229-30)Reviewfactors in the shrinking population of nearly half of Europe’s countriesMarshall Plan NATO Council of Europewhat thwarted the Europeanization of North Africa Turkey and the EUEuropean Union’s aspiration to superpower status George C. Marshall

CHAPTER ELEVEN: RUSSIA: TROUBLE ON THEEASTERN FRONTStudy Questions1. How much difference did a decade make in Russia between 1985 (when Gorbachevcame to power) and 1995? What was Russia’s major contest early in the newmillennium? What has been the cost of this tragedy? (231)2. Geographic Problems of a Territorial Giant? How many neighbors does Russia have?Count them. How do the “internal republics” of Transcaucasia and other factorscomplication such calculations? Why did the Kazakh government move its capital toAstana? Besides China, Mongolia is developing close ties to Japan. What is happeningwith China and North Korea? How did Russia’s quest for warm-water ports shape itshistory? What are some of the geographical drawbacks of its location? What did bordercrossing entail during the Soviet era? (231-37)3. A Vast Realm How cold is Russia? Where does the population cluster? Does“European Russia” truly end at the Urals? What are some of the characteristics ofSiberia? Why did much of Soviet industry shift to Omsk and Novosibirsk? How areKamchatka and Sakhalin characterized? What accounts for the Soviet Union’s limitedinteraction with the rest of the world (i.e., its autarky)? What was its chief export? Whatis its chief commodity? What is its downside? What accounts for “crony capitalism?(237-41)4. Soviet Legacy, Russian Challenge Administrative consolidation has always posed achallenge throughout the vast sweep of Russia (and the earlier Mongol Empire). How didthis fact figure into the American purchase of Alaska? Why did the imperial state fallapart? What sort of framework did the Bolsheviks design? Identify the four levels of thesystem. What made Primorskiy Territory so important? What happened to the Chechenswhen they were deported in 1944? (241-43)5. Trouble in Transcaucasia How did the Chechen troubles get started? Where havemost of the conflicts been fought? What is the background of the chief rebel/terroristleader, Shamil Basayev (who was killed in the summer of 2006)? (243-48)

6. Demographic Disaster What demographic changes followed the collapse ofcommunism? What is causing the calamity? What is happening in the Far East?(249-50)7. New Era, Old Problems How has Vladimir Putin asserted greater administrative controlover the country? (250-51)8. Russia and the World Today Why has Russia been taking independent, sometimesobstructionist positions in international strategic matters? Why has Russia never signeda peace treaty with Japan? How are relations between Russia and NATO? The EU?(251-54)ReviewAstana Kazakhstan Catherine the Greatimportance of Sakhalin and the Kurile Islands ChechensShamil Basayev Tatarstan Primorskiy krayGroznyy characteristics of Russia’s demographic catastropherelations with Japan, NATO, and the EU

CHAPTER TWELVE: HOPE FOR AFRICA?Study Questions1. What did E. O. Wilson reveal about our ideal natural landscape? What sort of aidprogram has been proposed by Jeffrey Sachs?2. Eight Formative Disasters Why do farming subsidies need to be ended in the West?What are the eight sources of Africa’s plight? What have been the consequences of thewarming trend of the last few thousand years? How have the resistance of Africananimals to domestication and generally poor health held Africa back? What role hasbeen played by the spread of Islam, the European slave trade, and the (roughly) centuryof colonial rule? (257-62)3. What factors contributed to the horrors associated with the Congo Free State, which wascreated during the Berlin Conference of 1884-85? What made the Murdock Mapsomewhat misleading? Who was responsible for the retribalization that has becomesuch a serious problem subsequent to the end of the colonial period? How are differentcolonial policies and practices reflected in the challenges faced by countries like Ghana,Nigeria, Congo-Kinshasa, and Kenya? How did the Cold war distort relations betweenthe West and Soviet bloc with Africa? Why is globalization increasing the gap betweenthe poor and the well-off? How has the failure of Europe been both an African and aninternational problem? (262-68)4. Why Africa Matters If social stability is a precondition for progress, what are thegreatest threats to stability? What is the Islamic Front? How large an impact would theend of agricultural subsidies in the West have on African economies? What problemshave been created by the African governments themselves? What does mineral-richAustralia have in the regional and global that Africa needs to develop? Why is it “in theentire world’s interest to improve public health in this, the sickest part of the planet? Whyhave parts of Brazil (such as Bahia) be become more closely tied to Africa culturally?(269-74)Revieweffects of western subsidies Jeffrey Sachs state of health in AfricaEuropean slave trade Leopold’s reign of terror in the Congo Free Statenature and effects of globalization retribalizationdisease vectors (carriers)

EPILOGUEStudy Questions1. What are some of the “might-have-beens” of the 20th century? Why does the Dutch-American author believe the world was fortunate that it was the United States thatemerged as the leading contender for dominance? What is one of America’s proudesttraditions? What are some of the challenges that the United States faces in the worldtoday? What should be done to prepare for energy challenges? What about abruptclimate change? Why does the author call for a revival of the massive program of grain

and canned food storage? What will be required to prolong the American century? (275-82)Reviewprogram of grain and canned food storage climate fluctuations