GEO1206 Economic Geography and Resource Management

• Course Description: This course teaches political geography, with an emphasis on space and power. By the completion of the course, students should be able to understand the links between geography and politics, as well as how geography may be used as a political tool in a political process. Course content: Geography and politics, concepts of political geography, fields of political geography, national political systems; state, nations, and nation-states, geographic characteristics of states, frontiers and boundaries, type of boundaries, classification of boundaries, boundaries as sources of conflicts, centripetal and centrifugal forces, cooperation among states, national symbols, role of capital city of the state, regional alliance, unitary, federal and regional states, imperialism, colonialism, and decolonization. Analyze the spatial dimensions of political power, territoriality, and governance, examining how geography shapes state sovereignty, borders, identity politics, conflict, and resistance — with a special focus on female dynamics in post-colonial states, using Somalia as a critical case study.
• Course objectives

By the end of this course, students should successfully be able to:

1. Understand the fundamental concepts and significance of political geography as a discipline
2. Analyze how geographical factors influence political structures, processes, and relationships.
3. Distinguish between the concepts of territory (physical space) and territoriality (the behavior associated with controlling space).
4. Analyze the components of the state, including population, territory, government, sovereignty, and organized economy.
5. Understand the nature of frontiers and boundaries, their development, and their role in international relations.
6. Discuss how natural resources influence national power dynamics and international relations.
7. Textbook
8. Maps and Atlases for economic geography
9. Geographic information systems (GIS) and simulation software for visualizing geological processes.
10. Journals
11. Environmental models
12. Environmental models such as Soil test kits

• Required Materials
• Textbook
• Maps and Atlases of political geography
• Geographic information systems (GIS) and simulation software for visualizing geological processes.
• Journals