Sociology

Geopolitical interests have gone miles ahead in building and constructing the history of the world, and the world itself.  The world has kept on changing politically, development wise and humanity characteristics. Geopolitics is defined as the use of political power to certain territories.  It involves analyzing social sciences, history and geography in relation to the spatial politics and the geo-economics patterns locally and internationally.

Ethnocentrism, however, is the inclination that people may have that makes them feel as though their culture and ethnic practices are better than others.  Many people have the tendency to judge others by the degree of perfection on own culture religion, customs, language and behavior.  However, it should be noted that each culture or ethnicity is unique in its own ways.  Ethnocentrism majors on the promotion of own culture and having the mentality that own culture is superior the other cultures (Charles, 1997).

This has lead to numerous conflicts among many ethnic groups. For example, the Muslim culture feels greater than the Christian culture and the vice versa, hence at times, there are cases of practical bloodshed events due to the lack of appreciation of other cultures.  It is also evident that the Western culture is thought of as been greater and better than the African or the Asian culture.  The key aspect of ethnocentrism is the fact that builds upon assumptions that one is right but not others (Mantovani, 2000).  The problem is that misunderstandings are really common due to the false assumptions oftenly made because others cultures and practices are rendered meaningless if not functionless or useless, invoking disagreement which may lead to political crises or ethnic wars.

Cultural relativism is defined as the view of all religions, culture and ethnicity as equal to one another and with no superiority of any.  This kind of comparison of cultures is based on the moral systems, the nature of the laws and the politics that guide certain communities or religions and regions. The belief of equal cultures is based on the fact that culture is relative to the different individuals who own the cultures (Lambert, 2006).  The political life, religious lifestyles, ethics, and situations are all said to be relative and dependant on the personal and situational judgment.  

Cultural relativism is applicable in the case where one does not interfere with others freedom or right, for example, in setting of rules and regulations regarding a group, society or organization in order to operate as a unit.  Schools set up rules to be followed while at the institution regardless of ones background.  Work places, government institutions and religious groups co exist under the rule of culture relativism.  Driving rules and regulations of a certain country are universal and have to be adhered to by all regardless of their ethnicity, cultures, religions orientations or level of education (Norris, 1996). If one breaks them, they wrong not only the victims involved but also the state and need resolution by the stipulated code of ethics.  This is culture relativism.

Geopolitics is the practice of interpreting cultural diversities and their effectiveness in the expression of power which is in most cases an imagination.  Geopolitics comprises of the social activities, matters pertaining territories and state economics.  It widely deals with the diplomacy, war dynamics as well as peace.  In terms of power, geopoliticians ranks the United States as the sole super power because of its dynamics in leadership, political development, war organization and strategic management of crisis as well as the influence it has had in the world round dominating the different spheres of development. However, the U.S economics is deteriorating and its military context is threatened more than it was decades ago.  Its persistence in the geopolitical campaigns is threatened in the 21st Century (John, 1994). The current state of geopolitics is dominated by cold war.  The worlds geopolitical interrelationships are prominently shared among the Japan, US, Europe and the Korea (south).

The geopolitical condition created by the interaction of geopolitical order, techno- terrorism, geopolitical economy and the hegemony, and their complex natures breeds the current  cultural order called the time- space communication for geopolitics experiences.  Geopolitical order entails the current power system, pecking order, and the interstate antagonism.  Geopolitical cultures develop superiority of nations or state against others that are referred to as backwards or the underdeveloped, resulting in discourse of imperialism, ideological, and naturalization geopolitics. Known features of geopolitical imagination include the ethnocentrism and euro-centrism which imply the viewing of the world as an amalgamated whole that super powers should review and conquer (Brunn, 2004).  This attitude covert the spatial differences between nations into chronological differences.  It makes a powerful state to ambush world politics converting it to a defensive conflict in states environment.

The geopolitical cultures can be developed from the current public opinions which concern the security set up of a states system, the foreign affairs state and its roles on the national strategic plans and perceptions. Cultural interpretations of a states surrounding geographical location in relation to the world can also develop the states geopolitical status. For example, geopolitical culture of the United States of America has been captivated by the perception it has gained against competitors in Europe and Asia. The perception guarded the U.S. against many attempted attacks by the terrorists because it was believed that the U.S. was unbeatable (Agnew, 2003). Although this perception was almost a misconception and unjustified, it protected the U.S. making it invulnerable to world attacks for a long time until recently when terrorists started making attacks.

For the case of Russia, their geopolitical culture was founded on its stiff competition to the Western perception of its territory position that formed its own sphere named the Eurasia and some times partly Europe.  Apart from the physical participation of the nations in the development of geopolitical arena, geopolitical data can be collected through the surveys carried on by the media groups in the analysis of the cultural diversities and political affiliations of the diverse humanity.

The effect of geopolitics is usually felt when the developed countries work actively towards the exploitation of the third world countries.  The exploitation may range from human resource deployment, brain drain and conservative practices of the Western culture that overrules the other cultures as well as the failure to recognize other nations abilities (Gray, 1998).  A series of wars that cropped during the scramble and partition for Africa which was then called the black continent affected their level of development.

Their economies have since them crippled due to the exploitation of the minerals and other natural resources.  It is however argued that the inversion of the Europeans to the Africa positively impacted civilization and initiated development.  This is undisputable but after the initiation of the development was the start of exploitation.  This has far reaching implications because some nations economies are found to crawl on their knees with the inherited nature of war and underdevelopment.
 
The fall of the first and the second world wars was a sign of the desire of the super power superiority and the yarning to recapture territories and economic development zones for the developed nations.   The Vietnam War was an imposition by the U.S. to combat communism which was practiced in the Northern Vietnam, yet the result was very destructive.  In the need to become a super power, millions of people lost their lives while others were held to captivity in the developed States.  The rupture of the Cold War after WWII brought more struggle for prominence among the worlds most developed economies at the expense of the compromised developing economies (Peter, David, 1994).  These have resulted in the existence of the first world nations, the second and third class world nations.    
In conclusion, the notion of series of conflicts in interests, power and developmental strategies is the order of the day with the developed countries that want their culture to be upheld as the best.

Superpowers are ever egocentric and therefore ethnocentric in upholding their tradition of being the most developed and conquering the up coming economies.  For example, the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing was not a polite measure to achieve superiority at the expense of the lives of thousands that were endangered. Humanity should be preserved at all costs.  In order to preserve humanity, we should come to an agreement on a code of ethics that govern human lives, protecting them among other values, which shall promote cultural relativism.  However, this is controversial thinking among the superpowers where they say that culture relativism is non existent.