Lesson 9: Population Growth in India

Review:

• Quiz 04
• Russia
• Economist on Litveninenko Affair
  • Putin approval
  • A Very Expensive Poison

Presentation:

• South Asia Geography:

  • 

  • 

  • Map Quiz Game
• Front lines of climate change, rising sea levels
  • Maldives (Recommended: The Island President)
  • Bangladesh 

• Population Growth
  • World Population in 2015 (Economist video)
  • Population Pyramids
•  India
  • Population
    • 2017: India = 1.34B, China = 1.39B, US = 326M
    • 2022: India ~ 1.42B, China = 1.41 B, US = 338M
    • Time Plot
  • Economy
    • Growth rate in 2018 = 7%
    • “Middle Class” in India larger than the entire US Population
      • George W. Bush quote (Reuters)
      • India to America: Eat Less, Fatties (Time)
    • Projections
      • world’s 3rd largest economy in 10 years
      • world’s largest economy in 30 years
  • Video
    • India Rising (Foreign Policy Association)

Assignment:

• Watch India Awakes (Free to Choose Media)
• Read India’s missing middle class (Economist)

Lesson 8: Middle East, Europe and Russia

Review:

• Quiz 03 Results

• Quiz 04 Option

Quiz 04 Topics:

• Theories of Uneven Economic Development
  • Jared Diamond – Guns, Germs and Steel
  • Niall Ferguson – 6 Killer Apps
• Middle East
  • Oil and Conflict – a brief history
  • US and the Iraq War
  • Saudi Arabia
  • War in Syria
  • Proxy War: Iran vs. Saudi Arabia
  • Refugee Crisis
• Europe
  • WWII + post-war order
  • Advanced Manufacturing in Germany
  • European Union
  • Sovereign Debt Crisis
  • Putin’s Russia

Assignment:

• Watch Inside Brexit: How Britain lost Europe (Financial Times)
• Study for Quiz 04

Lesson 7: Oil and Oligarchy in Putin’s Russia

Review:

• Quiz 03
• European Union
• Sovereign Debt Crisis

Presentation:

• Russia and Central Asia Geography
• Map Quiz Game
• Geopolitical Constraints (from Mapping Russia’s Strategy by George Friedman)
  • Map Deck
• Oil & Gas Contribution to Russian Economy
  • ~15% of GDP
  • 52% of Government Revenue
  • >70% of Export Revenue
  • Sources: Worldbank, EIA
• Oil Prices (NY Times article)
  • Putin elected President in 2000
  • Until 2015 oil prices had gone up steadily, except during the 2008-2009 global recession

• Sphere of Influence: Russia’s Foreign Policy
• Russian Oligarchy
  • Organized Crime power structure
  • Pay “tribute” to power brokers above you
  • Pueblo connection: EVRAZ owner Roman Abromovich (Forbes)

Assignment:

• Read A Hollow Superpower (Economist article)
• Watch Putin’s Way (Frontline video)

Lesson 6: European Union

Review:

• Quiz 02 Results

• World War II
• 20th Century Europe

Presentation:

• European Union
  • Established formally in 1993 under the Maastricht Treaty
  • Political and Economic union with 28 current member states
  • Internal market enabling free movement of people, goods, services and capital
  • Monetary union with common currency: Euro (€)
  • EU vs US Economy
  • European Union (EU) Explained (6 min)
• Sovereign Debt Crisis
  • circa 2010-2014
  • Catalyst was the 2008 US Mortgage/Financial Crisis
    • Explained in The Big Short (recommended), Too Big to Fail, and  Inside Job
    • Or…here’s a short version (warning: Rated R for language)
  • Some EU countries were extended easy credit and borrowed too much
  • Crisis highlighted a weakness in the EU
    • centralized monetary policy
    • decentralized fiscal policy
  • European Debt Crisis Documentary (Wall Street Journal, 23 min)

Assignment:

• Watch these videos on “Grexit” and “Brexit”
  • Understanding the Financial Crisis in Greece (7 min)
  • Brexit Briefly (7 min)
• Study for Quiz 03
  • WWII European Theater
  • Germany’s economic engine
  • European Union
  • Sovereign Debt Crisis
  • Map of European Countries

Lesson 5: World War II and 20th Century Europe

Review:

• Quiz 02
• Oil and conflict in the Middle East
• Saudi Arabia

Presentation:

• Geographic Focus: Europe + Russia

• Europe (Google Maps)
• Europe Map Quiz Game

• World War II
• Intro to “The War” by Ken Burns
• World War II in European Theater
  • Estimated casualties by country (60M worldwide)
  • Timeline of Key Events
    • Geographic time-lapse depiction of WWII European Theater 
    • 1939
      • Hitler invades Poland
      • Britain and France declare war on Germany
    • 1940
      • German Blitzkrieg overwhelms Belgium, Holland and France
      • Churchill becomes Prime Minister of England
      • Britain holds off German invasion in the Battle of Britain
    • 1941
      • Hitler begins invasion of Russia
      • US enters war after Japan attacks Pearl Harbor
    • 1942
      • Ferocious Russian-German combat, millions of soldiers and civilians killed
      • (recommended: City of Thieves by David Benioff)
      • Holocaust begins at Auschwitz
    • 1943
      • German army suffers major defeat in Battle of Stalingrad
      • Allies invade Italy
    • 1944
      • Russian Army advances into Eastern Europe
      • Allies invade France on D-Day
    • 1945
      • Russian Army captures Berlin
      • Hitler commits suicide and Germany surrenders
  • Map of European Theater
• Post World War II
  • European Recovery Program (The Marshall Plan)
  • Iron Curtain
  • NATO
• Cold War
  • Iron Curtain
  • Collapse of Soviet Union and opening of Eastern Europe (1989)
• European Union
  • Maastricht Treaty, signed Nov 1, 1993
  • Original Members: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands
  • How Germany Became Europe’s Richest Country

Assignment:

• Read The Fragmentation of Europe by George Friedman
• Resources (optional)
  • If you don’t know much about WWII and want a quick fix, you might try watching:
    • Crash Course World History: World War II
  • For more in depth understanding, I recommend:
    • The War – Ken Burns et al.
    • Band of Brothers – Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks et al.
    • Historical Atlas of World War II – Swanston and Swanston

Lesson 4: Saudi Arabia and the Future of Oil

Review:

• Quiz 01 Results

• Map Quiz Game for Middle East
• Oil and Conflict in the Middle East
• Losing Iraq
  • Iraq War (based on shaky justification, but that’s another story)
    • US-led coalition forces invade Iraq and easily take Bagdhad
    • Seemingly no plan to secure Iraq after invasion
    • Limited understanding of internal Iraqi affairs, politics, culture
  • Paul Bremer
    • Disbanded Iraqi army, etc
  • Cheney-Rumsfeld-Wolfowitz – axis of neocon nincompoops
    • Torture at Abu Ghraib
    • Support for Iraq War effort falls
  • Obama withdraws US troops
    • Radical al-Qaeda fighters allowed to regroup
    • Form ISIS and begin grabbing territory in Iraq and Syria
• Rise of ISIS
  • BBC maps
• War in Syria Explained (Vox)

Presentation:

• Major powers in the Middle East
  • Saudi Arabia – Sunni majority
  • Iran – Shi’a majority
  • Shi’a vs Sunni
  • Map of Shi’a vs Sunni population concentrations
• Is Saudi Arabia entering a new era of instability?
  • Saudi economy is struggling with low oil prices
  • In addition, House of Saud leadership in transition
  • Watch Saudi Arabia Uncovered 
    • segment: 03:15 to 09:00
  • Saudi Aramco
    • World’s largest (energy) company (CNN Money video)
    • IPO
    • Now Publicly Traded
    • Use proceeds to finance industrial diversification
    • Saudi Arabia Shifting to Solar
• Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia
  • CIA believes MBS ordered Khashoggi murder
  • More recently, MBS hacked Jeff Bezos

Activity:

• You’ve been hired as an economic advisor to MBS.
• What do you advise him to do to diversify the Saudi economy?
• How does geography play a role in Saudi Arabia’s options?

Assignment:

• Watch the rest of Saudi Arabia Uncovered 
• Listen to Geopolitical Futures (GPF) Podcast: State of the Middle East
• Read The Saudi Government’s Global Campaign to Silence Its Critics
• Prepare for Quiz 02
  • Oil and conflict in the Middle East
  • Saudi Arabia and Saudi Aramco
  • Middle East Geography

Lesson 3: Oil and Conflict in the Middle East

Review:

• Quiz 01
• Theories of Economic Disparity

Presentation:

• Geography of the Middle East

• Oil and Conflict in the Middle East
• Oil Price Volatility
• Middle East
  • Oil prices decline = longer term economic instability
  • Political instability = shorter term oil price increase/volatility

Assignment:

• Watch Losing Iraq and The Rise of ISIS
• Prepare to discuss the future of oil

Lesson 2: Theories of Economic Disparity

Review:

• Attendance
• Syllabus
• Final Exam: Tue, Apr 28 at 10:30am
• World Regions (Boyer)

Presentation :

• Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
  • agricultural practices spread easily in mideast/eurasia
  • easily domesticated animals were plentiful in mideast/eurasia
  • both facilitated development of technology
• 6 Killer Apps by Niall Ferguson
  1. competition
  2. scientific revolution
  3. private property rights
  4. modern medicine
  5. consumer society
  6. work ethic

• Niall Ferguson – 6 Killer Apps of Prosperity
• Great Divergence
  • 1500 – 1970
  • 1970 – present

Activity:

• Group discussion
• Keys to Economic Disparity
  • Role of Geography
  • Role of Institutions and/or the “Killer Apps”
  • Rank Order 1-7

Assignment:

• Study for Quiz 1
  • Jared Diamond – Guns, Germs and Steel
  • Niall Ferguson – 6 Killer Apps
  • World Regions

Lesson 1: Introduction to Geography of World Economy

Presentation:

• Course Overview
  • Syllabus: ECON 320 SP20 Holman
  • Blackboard and grading
  • Bookmark this course page
• World Regions and Partitions
  • Continents
  • Global Sales Territory Partition (typical) in Business
    • Americas – North and South America
    • EMEA – Europe, Middle East and Africa
    • Asia Pacific – South, East and Southeast Asia + Australia/Oceania
  • World Bank Regions
  • The Plaid Avenger (John Boyer) – World Regions
• Theories of Uneven Development
  • Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel – Episode 1
    • Summary of Diamond’s arguments
    • Agricultural Revolution in the Fertile Crescent 
    • Domestication of animals
      • Sources of meat, milk, leather, wool, etc
      • Source of muscle power for plowing, transportation
      • Only cows, horses, pigs, goats, sheep are readily domesticated
        • all these animals were available in Eurasia, not so elsewhere
      • Zebras, llama, buffalo, elephant, etc
        • from other continents
        • not too easy to domesticate
    • Spread of agriculture and animal domestication practices, geographically
      • Easy in Eurasia due to latitudinal (east-west) orientation where climate is relatively consistent.
      • Difficult in South America, Africa
    • Technology:
      • advances in tool-making, steel, military weapons, etc
      • enabled by agriculture and animal domestication food surplus
    • Germs
      • Native people in the Americas were susceptible to small pox and other diseases
      • Eurasian people developed immunity to disease due to animal domestication
  • Niall Ferguson, 6 Killer Apps – Ted Talk, PBS page
    • Institutions and culture, not geography, are pillars of economic development
    • Competition, science, private property, modern medicine, consumerism, work ethic
    • Examples of geography not making a difference
      • East-West Germany
      • North-South Korea

Activity:

• World Map

Assignment:

• Watch Guns, Germs and Steel – Episode 1 (6 videos, 55 min combined)
• Watch Summary of Diamond’s arguments (18 min)
• Watch Niall Ferguson, 6 Killer Apps Ted Talk (20 min)