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THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
Course Outline
Department/Program: Geography
Year: 2014, Term 1
Course Title: GEOG 220: Geopolitics
Course Schedule: MWF: 2-3 p.m.
Location(s): Geography building, room 200
Instructor: Philippe Le Billon
Office location: Geog 216
Office phone: (604) 822-5218
Office hours: MW 1-2 p.m.
E-mail: [email protected]
Teaching Assistant: Wesley Attewell
Office location:
Office phone:
Office hours:
E-mail address:
Course description and learning objectives:
The term geopolitics increasingly comes up in accounts of complex international issues, such as security,
migration, and environmental degradation. But what does it mean to describe and analyze something as
geopolitical?
In this course, to speak about geopolitics is to investigate the ways in which the debates about and policies
toward international issues are informed by particular geographical understandings of the world. For example, it
is to examine the ways in which commonsense conceptions of identity and belonging are underpinned by the
idea of the nation as a territorial community. Engaging a wide range of contemporary issues from a
geographical perspective, the course will help students to explain geopolitical concepts and demonstrate how
they function in contemporary societies.
Prerequisites and/or Course Restrictions: Second year standing.
Format of the course: Three lectures per week, with class discussions.
Course website:
http://www.ibis.geog.ubc.ca/courses/geog220
Attendance in lectures is expected. Text slides from the lectures are made available on the course website but
are not a substitute for lecture notes.
Required Reading: See course list below with URL for text (first reading available from class website).
Students are expected to do the required reading by the beginning of the week for which it is assigned.
Course Assignments, Due Dates and Grading:
Attendance: 10%
Mid-term examination on October 20: 30%
Critical geopolitical analysis on November 7: 20%
Term paper due in class on November 17: 40%
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Details on assignments:
Attendance and participation: Class participation is important in this course and the instructors will take
attendance frequently, with attendance being graded proportionally to recorded presence in class. We also
encourage active class participation, which means asking questions, providing examples and general
reflections. Recognizing that this is a relatively large class, we do not formally grade participation.
Mid-term examination: This exam will take fifty minutes and consist of a series of ‘short-answer’ and essay
questions (the latter will number one to two). The mid-term is based on lecture notes (slides and notes taken in
class) and mandatory readings (see list). The mid-term will cover material from weeks 1-7 (inclusive).
Critical geopolitical analysis: Find a press article or official press release and provide a critique of the
geopolitical narrative provided in the text. Your critique should be between 600-800 words long. Provide a
photocopy of the article/press release used. Some examples of press articles or releases will be provided.
Term paper: Instructions are provided below. Length is 2000 words max, excluding bibliography.
Examination will require answers in full sentence or essay form: point form is not acceptable. Our marking
practices will take into account your ability to express yourself clearly (this includes your command of grammar,
spelling and punctuation).
Course Policies: Regular attendance is expected of students in all their classes (including lectures,
laboratories, tutorials, seminars, etc.)… Students who are unavoidably absent because of illness or disability
should report to their instructors on return to classes.
Withdrawal from the course
Last date for withdrawal without a W on your transcript: September 16.
Last date for withdrawal with a W instead of an F on your transcript: October 10.
The University accommodates students with disabilities who have registered with the Disability Resource
Centre. The University accommodates students whose religious obligations conflict with attendance, submitting
assignments, or completing scheduled tests and examinations. Please let your instructor know in advance,
preferably in the first week of class, if you will require any accommodation on these grounds. Students who plan
to be absent for varsity athletics, family obligations, or other similar commitments, cannot assume they will be
accommodated, and should discuss their commitments with the instructor before the drop date.
Late assignments: Deducted 2% per day (of overall course mark).
Participation: Graded through attendance (10%).
Academic Dishonesty: Please review the UBC Calendar “Academic regulations” for the university policy on
cheating, plagiarism, and other forms of academic dishonesty. Also visit www.arts.ubc.ca and go to the
students’ section for useful information on avoiding plagiarism and on correct documentation.
Students should retain a copy of all submitted assignments (in case of loss) and should also retain all
their marked assignments in case they wish to apply for a Review of Assigned Standing. Students have
the right to view their marked examinations with their instructor, providing they apply to do so within a month of
receiving their final grades. This review is for pedagogic purposes. The examination remains the property of
the university.
GEOG 220: Class Schedule and Reading list (subject to minor changes): The material is divided into
a series of themes, each of which will be the focus of several lectures and each of which will cover
several concepts and examples. All readings are available through the UBC online library, except the first
one; they are arranged chronologically in the order in which they are discussed in the class.
Week 1: September 3, 5
Theme: Introducing geopolitics.
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Reading: Ó Tuathail, Gearóid. 2006. “Thinking Critically about Geopolitics” in G. Toal, S. Dalby and P.
Routledge (2006) The Geopolitics Reader. Oxford: Routledge, pp. 1-13. [course website]
Week 2: September 8, 10, 12
Theme: Geopolitical perspectives on war and peace. Examples: Europe, Iraq, Colombia
Reading: Koopman, Sara (2011) Alter-geopolitics: Other securities are happening. Geoforum. 42(3): 274–
284. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016718511000091
Week 3: September 15, 17, 19
Theme: Borders and borderlands. Examples: US/Mexico; Sudan/South Sudan; Ukraine
Reading: Corey Johnson, Reece Jones, Anssi Paasi, Louise Amoore, Alison Mountz, Mark Salter, Chris
Rumford (2011) “Interventions on rethinking ‘the border’ in border studies”, Political Geography 30: 61-69.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0962629811000060#
Week 4: September 22, 24, 26
Theme: Territory and territorialities. Examples: First Nations; Guantanamo
Readings: Alexander B. Murphy (2012): Territory's Continuing Allure. Annals of the Association of
American Geographers. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00045608.2012.696232
Simon Reid-Henry (2007) Exceptional Sovereignty? Guantánamo Bay and the Re-Colonial Present,
Antipode 39(4): 627–648. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8330.2007.00544.x/pdf
Week 5: September 29, October 1, 3
Theme: Territorial disputes. Examples: Kashmir; Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands
Reading: Cohen, Shaul and David Frank (2009) Innovative Approaches to Territorial Disputes: Using
Principles of Riparian Conflict Management. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 99(5):
948-955. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00045600903202897#.VADNv2d0y70
Week 6: October 6, 8, 10
Theme: Regions and regionalism. Examples: Artic, Europe
Readings: Hurrell, Andrew (1995) Explaining the Resurgence of Regionalism in World Politics, Review of
International Studies, 21: 4, 331-358. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20097421
Week 7: October 15, 17
Theme: US Geopolitics
Readings: Pamment, James (2014) Strategic Narratives in US Public Diplomacy: A Critical Geopolitics,
Popular Communications 12: 48-64. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/15405702.2013.868899
October 17: Q&A on the term paper.
20 OCTOBER: MID-TERM EXAM
Week 8-9: October 22, 24, 27, 29, 31
Theme: Geopolitics of flows. Examples: Migration, Internet, Food, Oil, International aid
Readings: Castells, Manuel (1999) Grassrooting the spaces of flows, Urban Geography,
20:4, 294-302. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.2747/0272-3638.20.4.294
Ashutosh, Ishan and Alison Mountz (2012): The Geopolitics of Migrant Mobility: Tracing State Relations
Through Refugee Claims, Boats, and Discourses, Geopolitics, 17:2, 335-354.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14650045.2011.567315
Week 10: November 3, 5, 7 [CRITICAL ANALYSIS DUE ON NOVEMBER 7]
Theme: Diplomacy and international relations. Examples: United Nations, EU
Readings: McConnell, Fiona, Moreau, Terri, Dittmer, Jason (2012) Mimicking State Diplomacy: The
Legitimizing Strategies of Unofficial Diplomacies, Geoforum 43: 804-814.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016718512000322
Week 11: November 10, 12, 14
Case study 1: The Islamic State and the Kurdish Regions
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Readings: to be confirmed.
Week 12: November 17, 19, 21 [TERM PAPER DUE ON NOVEMBER 17]
Case study 2: West Africa and the Ebola crisis (tbc)
Readings: to be confirmed.
Week 13: November 24, 26, 28
Case study 3: GEO-politics and climate change
Readings: Dalby, Simon (2013) The Geopolitics of Climate change, Political Geography 37: 38-47.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0962629813000875
Instructions for the term paper
The maximum length will be 2000 words, excluding the bibliography (words count to be reported on front
page). We have no preferred bibliographic style, just keep it consistent. We do not expect a specific
number of references, but a range of 6-10 is usual – more important is the quality and originality of your
sources.
The term paper will be an essay that answers one of the following five questions:
1. Is the world becoming more regional in the sense of based on regional alliances and enmities?
Why so or why not?
2. Is the world becoming borderless, and what political functions do borders continue to serve?
3. Do governments still govern global flows?
4. What are the new forms of diplomacy and how should we study them?
5. What is securitization and how does it work, especially from a geographical perspective?
The answer will have to engage with any three readings from the suggested reading list distributed in
class later in the term, in addition to the further reading you will do on your own. We ask you to use the
suggested readings as the starting point to ease the research process and to link your efforts to the
themes of this class in a clear and sustained manner. These three readings count as part of your 6-10
sources total.
The handout of the required readings and further tips on writing research papers will be distributed in
class on October 24. We encourage you to start reading and thinking about it early, and not to wait until a
few days before the deadline to write it. You can contact me in advance to discuss ideas. Please consult
the ‘Evaluating and Citing Sources’ guide available on the UBC Library website under the ‘Get Research
Help’ tab (http://help.library.ubc.ca/). An original essay is one that has been written by you; that has not
been submitted as part of the requirements for any other course; and that does not copy directly from
books, articles, or web sources. To guard against plagiarism, the instructors reserve the right to inspect
notes for and drafts of essays and to examine students orally on the final version of their essays. Please
refer to the above library link for information on UBC policies regarding plagiarism.
Papers will be graded according to the following criteria: originality of argument(s) and case study, quality
of the research/sources, structure and logic of the paper, quality of the writing. Late submission will incur
a deduction of 2% from the overall course mark per day, including weekends. You will be required to
submit it in paper copy and through ‘turnitin’ – website: https://turnitin.com/;class ID: 8530748; class
name: GEOG 220 – Geopolitics - 2014; enrollment password: geopol220. Before being able to access
the site you will need to create an account. Please read http://elearning.ubc.ca/toolkit/turnitin/for-students/
and let me know your ALIAS and do not include identifying information (e.g. name, student number).
Term paper is due on November 17, in class or dropped off before 3 pm in the assignment box outside
the Geography administration office. Questions about the term paper should be addressed to the
instructor.
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