Geography Of The Peace

[Imelda Matchett]

Renewables are widely perceived as an opportunity to shatter the hegemony of fossil fuel-rich states and democratize the energy landscape. Virtually all countries have access to some renewable energy resources (especially solar and wind power) and could thus substitute foreign supply with local resources. Our research shows, however, that the role countries are likely to assume in decarbonized energy systems will be based not only on their resource endowment but also on their policy choices.

Robert Ross of Boston College reaches a more optimistic conclusion about the future of East Asian security. He focuses on the role of geography and structure in maintaining the current East Asian balance of power into the twenty-first century. Ross argues that U.S.-China bipolarity in the region will continue for at least the next quarter century. East Asia's two lesser great powers, Russia and Japan, will not be able to challenge this regional bipolarity because they "lack the geopolitical prerequisites to be poles." Although the United States and China may challenge each other in the future, the combination of "regional balancing trends, interests conditioned by geography, and the mitigating influence of geography on the security dilemma" bodes well for regional stability and relative peace in the decades to come.

The Peace Corps is a United States volunteer organization. It was created in March 1961 by President John F. Kennedy. Its headquarters are in Washington, D.C. The mission of the Peace Corps is to promote world peace and friendship by providing trained volunteers to countries who need them. By working together, people from the United States and countries around the world get to understand one another a little better.

The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit. The Rights Holder for media is the person or group credited.

For information on user permissions, please read our Terms of Service. If you have questions about how to cite anything on our website in your project or classroom presentation, please contact your teacher. They will best know the preferred format. When you reach out to them, you will need the page title, URL, and the date you accessed the resource.

The Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences (GSS) has nationally and internationally recognized faculty who are engaged in cutting-edge research and offer exciting educational opportunities for both undergraduate and graduate students.

GSS provides a unique perspective that seeks to explain patterns of differences and commonality across the human and natural environment. In the Department, students examine the physical properties of the natural environment and the role that human beliefs, activities and decision-making have in shaping the world around us.

The minor consists of a required core introductory course to introduce students to foundational concepts of peace and its role as one of the Sustainability Development Goals, impacting the social, economic, and environmental well-being of people and the planet.

Geographic Information Science (GIScience) is the analysis and mapping of large geospatial data sets to better understand the world around us. GIScience allows us to harness the large amounts of data being collected today for the betterment of the environment and society.

Emphasizing the importance of river systems in geography, Mr. Kaplan pointed out that in contrast to the river systems in Russia that run north to south, essentially separating the country, the rivers in the U.S., such as the Ohio, Mississippi and especially the Missouri, run in an east-west fashion and unite the country.

The same logic also applied to Egypt and the Nile Valley, which has been an age old cluster of civilization going back several millenniums. During the revolution, the structure of the state held while the problem was political. Both Egypt and Tunisia were established states in the first place that enabled an identity without undue repression.

Mr. Kaplan explained that in the case of Libya and Syria, however, the problem was whether there was a state to begin with. Without strong bureaucratic and institutional influences, both countries required higher forms of repression in order to enable a state identity.

Another example was Yemen, which also never had a strong unitary state tradition because it was ruled by several ancient kingdoms and various tribal militias. Geographically, it is also divided by mountains with a rugged interior terrain.

However, Mr. Kaplan believed that the two strongest states in the Middle East region are non-Arab: Turkey and Iran. With high literacy rates, a large population, and rich natural resources, Turkey and Iran are real states because of geography.

Turkey, which he describes as the Anatolian land bridge, historically has carved out an empire in the Balkans, which was relatively rich compared to Syria and the Middle East and though trade in the Balkans, developed the resources to establish an empire in the Middle East. Turkey also has the headwaters to the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

Iran, with its great Persian civilization held by the fortress of the Iranian plateau, is also rich with oil reserves. Mr. Kaplan believed that the U.S. will eventually have to go into a negotiation with Iran more so than with Saudi Arabia.

But with many different ethnic groups and different plateaus, China also has a geographical dilemma. With the influence of the world media, Tibet will still be an issue for China for many years to come.

The International Peace Institute is an independent, non-profit organization working to strengthen inclusive multilateralism for a more peaceful and sustainable planet. Through its research, convening, and strategic advising, IPI provides innovative recommendations for the United Nations System, member states, regional organizations, civil society, and the private sector.With staff from around the world and a broad range of academic fields, IPI has offices facing United Nations headquarters in New York and an office in Manama.

This year we're making it our goal to not only be familiar with the continents and their contents, but to really know where countries are, their topography, flora, fauna, people groups, and how all of those things fit together to compel us to love the Creator and the world He made.

Operative word: springboard. A good text should serve as a skeleton for the homeschool teacher and student. The bones, as it were. From there, you can fill in, go off on wonderful and interesting tangents, create projects, travel, watch great movies that highlight geography, and a host of other activities that get kids excited about the world.

We're using Bright Idea Press's North Star Geography as our text this year. It's geared toward junior high and high schoolers, but guess what? I'm using it with my 6th and 3rd graders. How does that work? I'll let you know in my next post.

Americans are particularly bad about this. The world doesn't actually revolve around the United States of America, and the way things are done here is not the only or best way. Embrace the attitudes, cultural norms, and customs of other countries and I bet you'll enjoy your studies a lot more.

Who wants to just study a text book about places? That's a sure-fire way to make everyone hate geography. Instead, incorporate places and people groups and stories into your every day conversations, and dream about where you'd like to go or what you'd like to see.

One of the topics I love to teach to my students is the geography of Israel. I have been to Israel many times and lived there for extended periods of time twice in my life, and my time in Israel has dramatically helped my understanding of the Old Testament. In several of my classes I require my students to memorize the major aspects of the geography of Israel, such as the two major roads, the various regions, and the most important cities. However, just having them fill in names on a map is not very exciting and could miss the essential element of how these geographic regions affect events.

Therefore, many years ago I decided to help my students immerse themselves in the topic through an in-class game. The game was a complete flop the first time I played it, but the students loved it and inspired me to work on perfecting it. I have continued to improve the game until I published it in the journal Teaching Theology and Religion in 2018.

The game, called War and Peace in Canaan, is influenced both by such general market games as Catan, Diplomacy and Risk, and more complicated games like The Campaigns of King David and Assyrian Wars. It focuses not only on geography but also how that geography influenced political and military decisions. Here is a basic overview of the game. The game has six turns (each turn is about ten to fifteen minutes of classroom time) over the course of the semester involving six groups, each assigned a city state in Canaan and the surrounding lands. Given the recent shift to remote instruction, I have now moved the game completely online and operate it through the VoiceThread platform. The groups usually have four to five members (and this is probably the upper limit if the active involvement of each student is sought). The cities receive a predetermined number of sheep (wealth) and chariots (military power) each turn. The city with the most sheep at the end of the game wins. Along with peaceful trade options, wealth can be acquired through conquering territory. However, since no city is powerful enough to conquer everything, cities must negotiate with each other to decide whom to attack and with whom to ally. The most powerful cities halfway through the game can become suzerains and take on other cities as vassals (for tribute); the advantage for the vassals is that if their suzerain wins the game they will receive a small amount of the winnings (such as extra credit if the professor desires).

c80f0f1006