1. Figure 9.3 in the textbook shows claims made by various nations to Antarctica. Why do you think countries want to lay claim to a large, ice-covered wasteland?
2. Sometimes the people of the United States seem unified and at other times deeply divided. What are the centripetal and centrifugal forces acting on the U.S. that cause this bipolar character?
3. Using published news sources, hypothesize about the problems the European Union (EU) might face over the next ten years. Do any of the challenges faced by the EU relate to geography? How?
4. Nearly every state in the United States recently underwent redistricting following the 2000 census. Was the process in your state controversial or politically motivated? If so, why and how?
5. How do ministates such as Nauru, San Marino, and Djibouti survive? What are their sources of economic income? In the modern global economy, what are the drawbacks to being small? Are there advantages as well?
6. Central and Eastern European nations have become increasingly fragmented, and less ethnically and religiously diverse, since the end of the First World War. The division of India and Pakistan, and of Singapore from Malaysia, as well as the recent genocides in Rwanda and Darfur, indicate a similar rejection of diversity elsewhere in the world. How do you account for the increasing disinclination of people to live in the same state with others sometimes only slightly different from themselves?
7. Organizations such as the European Union and NAFTA have attempted to overcome national divisions through free trade. Do you think these forces for economic unity will overcome ethnic, linguistic and religious differences in shaping the world of the twenty-first century?
