| A | B |
|---|
| Annexation | To incorporate (territory) into an existing political unit such as a country, state, county, or city |
| Balance of power | a distribution and opposition of forces among nations such that no single nation is strong enough to assert its will or dominate all the others. |
| Boundary (Antecedent) | An (ethnographic/cultural) Antecedent boundary that was created before the present day cultural landscape developed, i.e., Malaysia/Indonesia on the island of Borneo. |
| Boundary (Geometric) | A (ethnographic/cultural) boundary that follow straight lines without regard to physical or cultural landscape. |
| Boundary (Relict) | A (ethnographic/cultural) boundary that ceases to exist, however the imprint of the boundary still remains on the cultural landscape, i.e., North/South Vietnam. |
| Boundary (Religious) | A (ethnographic/cultural) boundary delineated by where the majority of inhabitants practice a given religion. |
| Boundary (Language) | A (ethnographic/cultural) boundary delineated by where the majority of inhabitants speak a given language. |
| Boundary (Maritime) | A Maritime (ethnographic/cultural) boundary which follows a county’s coast line 12 miles into the ocean |
| Boundary (natural/physical) | Natural boundaries which existed before the area was populated. |
| Buffer state | A State lying between potentially hostile larger nations. |
| Capitol | A building or complex of buildings in which a state legislature meets |
| Centrifugal Force | Social or economic forces that divide people within the state (Opposite of Centripetal force). |
| Centripetal Force | Social or economic forces that unify people behind the state (Opposite of Centrifugal force). |
| City-state | a sovereign state consisting of an autonomous city with its dependencies (Precursor to the Nation-State.) |
| Colonialism | the control or governing influence of a nation over a dependent country, territory, or people. |
| Colony | a group of people who leave their native country to form in a new land a settlement subject to, or connected with, the parent nation |
| Confederation | a league or alliance of states more or less permanently united for common purposes |
| Devolution | the transfer of power or authority from a central government to a local or autonomous government |
| Domino theory | a theory that if one country is taken over by an expansionist, esp. Communist, neighbor, party, or the like, the nearby nations will be taken over one after another |
| Enfranchisement | to grant a franchise to; admit to citizenship, especially to the right of voting. |
| European Union | an association of European nations formed in 1993 for the purpose of achieving political and economic integration |
| Exclusive Economic Zone | A maritime area in which a country claims specific economic rights. |
| Federal state | Government that is characterized by power sharing between National and Local governments. |
| Forward Capital | A symbolic relocation of a capital city to a geographically or demographically peripheral location may be for either economic or strategic reasons EG; The Ming Emperors moved their capital to Beijing from more central Nanjing as to better supervise the border with the Mongols and Manchus |
| Frontier | That part of a country which fronts or faces another country or an unsettled region; the marches; the border, confine, or extreme part of a country, bordering on another country; the border of the settled and cultivated part of a country; as, the frontier of civilization. |
| Geopolitics | the study or the application of the influence of political and economic geography on the politics, national power, foreign policy, etc., of a state. |
| Gerrymandering | To divide (a geographic area) into voting districts so as to give unfair advantage to one party in elections. |
| Hierarchy of Political Administrative Units (Largest to Smallest) | (Largest to Smallest) 1) Empire 2) Nation-State 3) Province 4) County |
| Landlocked state | A state that has no border with the sea. |
| Microstate | An independent country that is very small in area and population. |
| NGO (Non Government Organization) | an organization that is not part of the local or state or federal government |
| Reapportionment | The redistribution of representation in a legislative body. |
| Sovereignty | Supreme and independent power or authority in government as possessed or claimed by a state or community including the use of lethal force. |
| State | An area organized into a political unit with sovereignty over internal and external affairs. |
| State (Compact) | Rounded countries with a geographically central Capitol. |
| State (Elongated) | States which are long and thin, they usually suffer from poor internal communication. |
| State (Fragmented) | A state divided into several discontinuous pieces of territory. |
| State (Perforated) | A state that is completely encircled by another state. |
| State (Prorupted) | A compact state with a large projecting extension usually with a strategic purpose. |
| Superpower | an extremely powerful nation, esp. one capable of influencing international events and the acts and policies of less powerful nations. |
| Supra-nationalism | State support of institutions outside or beyond the authority of one national government, as a project or policy that is planned and controlled by a group of nations. |
| Supra-national Organizations (N.A.T.O.) | North Atlantic Treaty Organization :An Alliance of European Nations, The United States, and potential membership by other proximal Westernized countries. |
| Supra-national Organizations (E.U.) | European Union: European countries united in a common economic market, with a common currency, and with a power sharing policy making governing body. |
| Supra-national Organizations (A.C.S.) | Association of Caribbean States |
| Supra-national Organizations (U.N.) | United Nations: World Parliament with non binding governing authority. The Security Council represents the will of the greatest military powers and therefore has the ability to shape the behavior of lesser states when the global political will is present. |
| Supra-national Organizations (O.P.E.C.) | Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries |
| Terrorism | The use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, a government and/or a population for political purposes. |
| U.N.C.L.O.S. | (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea) |
| Unitary state | A unitary state is a state whose three organs of state are governed constitutionally as one single unit, with one constitutionally created legislature, there is no power sharing with lesser jurisdictions. |
| United Nations | an international organization, with headquarters in New York City, formed to promote international peace, security, and cooperation under the terms of the charter signed by 51 founding countries in San Francisco in 1945. |
