The Kennet Geog Blog

  This article demonstrates the links between superpowers, their spheres of influence and what happens when these spheres are contested by other actors. Read more  here!

  The US air force has taken the unusual step of holding joint drills   with Guyana   as the United Nations scheduled an   emergency meeting of the security council   to discuss Venezuela’s threat to annex more than two-thirds of the oil-rich South American country. Guyanese president, Irfaan Ali,  appealed to Washington and to the UN  after the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, announced that he had taken steps to formalise the incorporation of Essequibo – an oil-rich 160,000sq km region of neighbouring Guyana – as part of Venezuela. Maduro is a populist nationalist and a dictator, whose country is wracked by poverty. This has contributed to the exodus of  more than seven million citizens . Mindful of the fact that presidential elections are due in Venezuela in 2024, Maduro has turned to an issue that he hopes will lead to a rapid turn-around in his popularity. Venezuela’s territorial dispute with neighbouring Guyana is a  longstanding o...

In December 2013, following a political struggle between Salva Kiir and Riek Machar that led to Machar's  removal  as vice president, violence  erupted  between presidential guard soldiers from the two largest ethnic groups in South Sudan. Soldiers from the Dinka ethnic group aligned with Kiir and those from the Nuer ethnic group supported Machar. Amid chaos, Kiir announced that Machar had  attempted  a coup, and violence spread quickly to Jonglei, Upper Nile, and Unity states. From the outbreak of conflict, armed groups  targeted civilians  along ethnic lines, committed rape and sexual violence, destroyed property, looted villages, and recruited children into their ranks. Read more  here ,  here  and  here!

  The EU and the Nato have proved crucial in bringing together their member states around a coordinated response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Recognising the continued Russian aggression, the two organisations recently signed a  joint declaration  committing to play mutually reinforcing, complementary and coherent roles while also reaffirming Nato as the foundation of Euro-Atlantic security. Read more  here.

  On the morning of December 6 1917, a French cargo ship called SS Mont-Blanc collided with a Norwegian vessel in the harbour of Halifax in Nova Scotia, Canada. The SS Mont-Blanc, which was laden with 3,000 tons of high explosives destined for the battlefields of the first world war, caught fire and  exploded . The resulting blast released an amount of energy equivalent to roughly 2.9 kilotons of TNT, destroying a large part of the city. Although it was far from the front lines, this explosion left a lasting imprint on Halifax in a way that many regions experience environmental change as a result of war. The attention of the media is often drawn to the destructive explosions caused by bombs, drones or missiles. And the devastation we have witnessed in cities like Aleppo, Mosul, Mariupol and now Gaza certainly serve as stark reminders of the horrific impacts of military action. However,  research  is increasingly uncovering broader and longer-term consequences of war ...

 Video's more your thing? The Viking Geo has a wide array of fantastic videos to support your learning, browse through the channels playlists to find the units that fit our course.  The channel can be found  here.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the world’s longest-running and most controversial conflicts. At its heart, it is a conflict between two self-determination movements — the Jewish Zionist project and the Palestinian nationalist project — that lay claim to the same territory. But it is so, so much more complicated than that, with seemingly every fact and historical detail small and large litigated by the two sides and their defenders. Although there is much to read and learn,  here  is a good place to start!

The currently globalising society is characterised by a tension between increasingly intensive transnational mobility of people and continuous territorial regulation of these flows. This situation has led to the increasingly selective opening and closing of borders, providing territorial access to some while keeping out others. In this paper, I reflect on how such management of people’s (in)ability to cross borders has become a geopolitical instrument. View the full journal  here.

 The UK’s island identity has long shaped its political outlook – is that why it currently feels so adrift? The article below explores the identity of the UK with a particular focus on politics and the links this creates with sovereignty.  The link to the article can be found here:  https://theconversation.com/the-uks-island-identity-has-long-shaped-its-political-outlook-is-that-why-it-currently-feels-so-adrift-209276