The History of Geopolitics in Vietnam Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays

Abstract

Vietnam is a country situated on the eastern edge of the Indochinese Peninsula. China is located on the northern side while Cambodia and Laos are to the west. Some seas border the coastline of Vietnam. These are the Gulf of Tonkin, the South China Sea, and the Gulf of Thailand. The seas allow the country to access its land territory and provide direct access to the Pacific Ocean. Vietnam comprises two geographic and population centers — the Red River Delta and the Mekong River Delta, which are located in the north and south, respectively (Burns et al., 2017). Notwithstanding the presence of mountains and jungles, the north side of Vietnam is known for being invaded by the Chinese forces, hence the long history of geopolitics in Vietnam.

As a result of these endless invasions, the early leaders of Vietnam were forced to expand their boundaries to the south and the west. The boundary expansion hence led to the present day Mekong River Delta located southwards and Laos and Cambodia to the northern side. However, that did not make things better. Since then, up-to-date, the geographical separation of the north side from the south side led to political, social, and cultural differences in Vietnam. Therefore, it risked the country's invasion of foreign powers, such as the Chinese, American, and French forces. The main geographical challenge facing Vietnam is protecting the defense areas inland and the sea on both the northern and southern cores. Currently, Vietnam's attempts to secure the South China Seas border and surroundings are hindered by China's expansion of the maritime services. The paper will utilize various theories such as Rimland and Heartland theories to help explain in detail how Vietnam fought against geopolitics.

Introduction

In Vietnam, geopolitics created various challenges, even to the neighboring countries such as America, China, and many more. The challenges revolved around economic, political, and cultural issues. Therefore, the individual states were forced to employs various techniques of combating these impacts of geopolitics. America was leading in military power possession, thus, using it in the geopolitics of Vietnam. It escalated the Vietnam war and forced other countries as well to use military powers in the war. The US used nuclear power to demonstrate the significance of warfare. However, the small American government supported in southern Vietnam faced rebellious communism. Moreover, the Chinese and northern Vietnam forces joined hands with the union of south Vietnam, Soviet in the fight against America.

America's commitment to the war increased due to the increase in the number of forces against it. The US began by attacking the strongholds of Vietnam, the coastal regions. These regions were also critical to the American troops as they acted as deployment regions (Burns et al., 2017). The attack on the stronghold regions was tactical since America built up good infrastructure, which gave them direct access to the interior. Eventually, America won the Vietnam war due to its tactical strategies and increased commitment to the war. The victory earned America a great deal of reputation, which still runs up-to-date.

Moreover, America used advanced technology in the war. Hence, it encouraged some forces such as the Chinese, to invest more in technology, and as a result, China is leading in technology today. The end of the Vietnam war did not end the relationship between America and Vietnam and China. The international relationship developed to significant impacts on the individual countries. China utilized this relationship to improve its economy through incorporation with America in global issues. On the other hand, Vietnam acquired military training from America and up-to-date, Vietnam military troops are known for its great defense.

Since the development of the Vietnam war, there have been various advancements such as technology, the industrial revolution and many other factors. Therefore, the need for this research is to understand the positive and negative impacts of these advancements. The impacts will be based on political, social and cultural grounds. There will be various theories that will help in breaking down this issue such as the Heartland and the Rimland theories. The heartland theory is based on analyzing the country’s political and economic success based on its geographical areas. The theory was developed by Halford Mackinder. The Rimland theory on the other hand is based on developing security measures based on geographical factors in a country. The theory was developed by Nicholas John Spykman who defined geopolitics as planning security measures based on geographical features. The two theories are important in developing important techniques and strategies that will help combat the implications of the Vietnam geopolitics.

Research Objectives

To determine the impact of Vietnam geopolitics on technology
To determine the impact of Vietnam geopolitics on political environment
To determine the level of geopolitical impacts on the economic aspects
To determine the impact of geopolitics on culture
To determine the impact of geopolitics on the environment

Literature Review

There has been in-depth research on the Vietnam war by diverse researchers. The researchers based on different variables. The following section will therefore review sample articles on Vietnam geopolitics. In the process of reviewing the articles, the paper will identify the niches of the research which will then develop the foundation of the research study. The article by Giovannini, 2018, talks about the implications of geopolitics in Vietnam. However, the primary focus of the article is to breakdown the bilateral relationship between Vietnam and Laos over the construction of the Xayaburi dam. The dam was built in 2012 and completed in 2019 (Stone, 2016). This was as a result of the strong relationship between Vietnam and Lao during the war. The article explains that the foundation of the relationship was based on the friendship and cooperation treaty that was signed in 1977.

The article used various variables such as economic, social and cultural relationship. The treaty was used by the two countries to build its economic status. For instance, the dam was constructed to serve both the people of Vietnam and Laos. This brought about peace and unity. As a result, the two countries indulged in business relations that helped improve their individual market. The article explains in detail the legal policies that were used in the dam construction. The legal policies were formulated by Laos because of its hydropower developments (Giovannini, 2018). Vietnam and Laos however had negotiations before implementing the legal polices for dam construction. This strengthened their political relations as well. The article is related to the research objectives of the paper because it was used to determine the impact of geopolitics on the economy. Therefore, the heartland theory will be useful in determining the country’s success based on its geographical factors, the Xayaburi dam construction. Another theory that will be useful in the research is the sea power theory that was developed by Alfred Thayer Mahan. The theory states that the country could extend its military powers to the sea. The theory is applicable because the dam was constructed along the Mekong river therefore acting as a stronghold for defense.

The second article in relation to geopolitics in Vietnam talks about the vulnerability of the geopolitics on the environment and other surrounding factors. the author uses various variables that relates to geopolitics such as exposure, sensitivity and adaptability (Fei, L., & Suocheng, 2019). The context of exposure is the extent of the impact of geopolitics in various grounds such as the environment. The context of sensitivity is how the geopolitics negatively affected the environment such as global warming due to development of military tools for example bombs. Lastly, the context of adaptability is the journey in which the country got used to the new era of geopolitics. The article is related to the research objectives since it touches on various variables such as technology, environment, economy, politics and many more.

In relation to that, the Rimland theory will be useful in defining the security measures against geopolitics. It is because the article mentions the negative impacts of geopolitics. Therefore, in an aspiration to mitigate these challenges, the theory will be useful. The Rimland theory was based on defining the maritime border of a country in a densely populated western, southern and eastern regions of Eurasia. Therefore, according to Spykman, a country that rules the Rimland rules over the entire Eurasia (Zheng, 2018). Therefore, since the geopolitics of Vietnam affected the greater part of the world, they rule, it rules over Eurasia. It implies that its political, economic, cultural, and social factors improved at a greater percentage spreading to other parts as well.

Methodology

Research Design

The research design that the study will employ is the quantitative research design. It is because the research design utilizes empirical and scientific methods to evaluate observable phenomena (Creswell & Creswell, 2017). Hence making it easy to convince the target population to participate during data collection. Quantitative research design can be subdivided to four, namely, descriptive, quasi-experimental, experimental and correlational research design. The type of quantitative research design that will be used is descriptive research design. It is effective because it gives information as they are, without deduction or addition. Thus improving the validity and reliability of the research. In addition to that, this research design gives room for problem-structuring which gives a clear understanding. Descriptive research design describes the features of the population thus answering the question ‘what’ (Cuneen & Tobar, 2017). The characteristics of the population will then be used to categorize the population to groups. As a result, sampling will be easily done. Moreover, the researchers will be able to evaluate its variables based on the sampled population.

The research will utilize case studies. It is because case study has many advantages over case comparison. First case studies enable one to conduct an in-depth, complicated and diverse research on real-life situations (Yin, 2017). Therefore, increasing the validity and reliability of the research. Moreover, case studies are common in successful researches. Therefore, selecting cases in a case study involves seven steps. The first procedure is identifying the purpose of the case study. It will enable the research team identify the main points of the research, choosing the target audience and eventually enable them to come up with the appropriate way of presenting their case study.

The second step is to determine the size and shape of the case study. The research team will then be able to know how long the case study should be. They will also be able to know how to shape the materials that will be used in the case study. The third procedure of selecting cases is the form of the case study. The team will be able to choose the tone, language and style of the case study. The following procedure is medium of the case study. The procedure is important in choosing the medium of presenting the case study. The sixth step is currency. This is where the team will choose the case study that they can manage financially. The last step of selecting cases is complexity. The team will be required to choose the case study that they can manage, not the complex one.

The involved variables of the research are technology, politics, economy, culture and the environments. In relation to geopolitics, technology, economy and politics can be defined as a positive impact to most parts of Vietnam. This is because since the warfare, there has been strong relationships established among various nations. In the process of building good relationships, the political conflicts reduced. Nevertheless, the countries improved their individual economies due to multilateral trade and it also led to development and advancements of technology due to the pooled resources and hands. However, environment and culture can be defined negatively in terms of geopolitics. First and foremost, since geopolitics brought about advancements in technology, the environment has been polluted. The industries nowadays are using the technology behind steam engines and other machines that causes pollution in the air, land and water. Therefore, despite the integration of technology in industrial revolution, it has negatively affected the environment. The main challenge brought on the environment as a result of technology id global warming. It has continued to threaten the future of the word as there will be no green energy in the coming decades. Culture has also been negatively affected since technology has taken over the role of culture in the current generation.

Sampling

The target population of the study will be 100 people. They will include the youth, the old people and executive members from a political office. The sampling frame of the target population will comprise of 30 youths, 20 old people and 50 executive members. The sample size is a small representation of the whole target population. The sample size of the research will be 50 which will represent the entire number of target population. The unit of analysis is the major entity used for analysis in a research study. The unit of analysis in this case are the individuals. There are various types of sampling techniques, namely, random, stratified, opportunity, and systematic sampling designs (Etikan & Bala, 2017). The sampling method that will be used by the team is the stratified sampling technique.

In this technique, the research team is required to differentiate the types of people in the target population. The people are categorized into groups called strata. Thus creating room for administering the correct data collection instruments on the target population. Hence increasing the success of the study. The main advantage of this sampling method is that the sample represents the higher percentage of the target population. Thus the research team can generalize the results easily. The biasness of stratified sampling is that it cannot be used in research with a large number of target population and sampling size since it is time consuming when grouping people to strata. Therefore, the risk of having errors during the research is high.

Data instrument

The data instruments that will be used in this study are interviews and questionnaires since the unit of measurement are individuals (Canals, 2017). The questionnaires are data collection instruments that contain a series of questions which the individuals are supposed to fill out. The questions in the forms will be both open ended close ended questions. The open ended questions will give room for the individuals to pour out their thoughts. The open ended questions will be more on the variables of the research. The close ended questions will have options from which the individuals will choose. The questions will involve the age, education level of individuals. The interviews on the other hand entails one-on-one conversations between the interviewee and the interviewer.

Results and Discussion.

The results of the study were as follows. Out of the total sample, 48 participants responded to the data collection methods. Some of them filled out their questionnaires while other conducted interviews organized by the research team. Out of the 48 respondents, 20 were the executive team. 15 were the youth and 13 were the old people. From the results, it can be concluded that the issue of geopolitics has affected the executive team in a political office. This is a representation of the working class. Therefore, technology, politics, economy are the major variables affecting this stratum. Moreover, this stratum confirmed that global warming is a major challenge that is threatening the future of the world. Therefore, there is need to come up with techniques and strategies of minimizing global warming. Moreover, from the results, it can be concluded that economy in various countries has been boosted due to strong political ties. For instance, China joins forces with US to improve their economies. On the other hand, the youth has also been affected largely. Technology is the main variable affecting the youth. It is because of the availability of the social media platforms. The old people argue that geopolitics did away with their culture and a new era of technology has taken over the world.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Geopolitics is a diverse topic that needs to be taken into considerations because of its huge implications such as technology, politics, economy and many more. These factors are the driving forces for any country like Vietnam. However, there factors also have the negative impacts such as global warming that need to be mitigated to salvage the future of the world.

The History of Geopolitics in Vietnam - Research Proposal Example

Extract of sample "The History of Geopolitics in Vietnam"