Geopolitics Midterm Exam - Essay Example

to the challenges set globally, in regard to various areas such as culture, economy and politics, reveals the key characteristics of geopolitics for the 21st century. According to Huntington ‘the extensive conflicts between nations’ (16) is expected to be a common phenomenon in the near future. Moreover, according to the above researcher, these conflicts would be related mostly to culture and not so much to economic or political interests (Huntington 16). The same trend had also appeared in the long past; then, cultural conflicts were also related to social/ economic differences (Huntington 16).

The above view could be verified if checking the behavior of minorities globally: minorities tend to be involved in conflicts mostly for securing their traditions/ ethics (Mikesell and Alexander 585). Often, these groups have not the power to support their rights, due to their limited size, in terms of population; the case of ‘German speakers in Belgium’ (Mikesell and Alexander 585) is an example. In the future, there is no guarantee that even these groups will be involved in conflicts for promoting their rights.

From a different point of view, modern state is characterized by limited emphasis on identity. This trend is made clear in the case of European Union. In EU the need for integration is highly valued leading to the limitation of the value of national identity in regard to member states (Cram 11). On the other hand, due to the expansion of energy paths, the borders of certain regions have become quite valuable for ensuring security and economic development. For example, in the case of EU emphasis is given to the Eastern areas as a natural border with Middle East/ Asia (Murphy 588).

In other words, modern geopolitics need to take into consideration ‘peripheries’ (Murphy 588) as being able to play a critical role both in terms of security and of economic growth. Based on the issues discussed above it could be noted that modern state reveals the issues