People with a shared culture and spread over several states, may need or want a nation at some point.

Examples:

 The Jewish people

Koreans

Germans (as a people)

Area where a group has some type of political autonomy. These regions have a degree of power and self-determination, but not fully like the autonomous regions.

Examples:

Native American Reservations

Hong Kong

Basque & Catalonia

Kurdistan

An area of a country that has a degree of autonomy, or has freedom from an external authority.

Examples:

Greenland  (Kalaallit Nunaat, owned by Denmark)

Northern Ireland (United Kingdom)

Gaza Strip and West Bank (Israel / Palestine)

An independent state with the ability to govern its territory free from control of its internal affairs by other states.

Examples:  

All 193 members of the United Nations

The U.S.

Mexico

Philippines

Political independence or the ability of a government to determine their own course, of their own free will. Sovereignty. A government free from external control. State.

Examples:

The desire for a larger Serb state that led to WWI.

Decolonization of Africa

Catalonia

Kurdistan

South Sudan

Barbs 

An attempt  by one country to establish settlements and to impose its political, economic, and cultural principle in another country.

Similar to imperialism.

Examples:

Scramble for Africa

British Empire

French Indochina

A policy or ideology of extending rule over peoples and other countries, for extending political and economic access, power and control, often through employing hard power, especially military force, but also soft power.

The transfer of power from one central government to many local or regional governments.  This can either lead to greater autonomy at the local level or can lead to balkanization if the country splits up.

Common causes are ethnic separatism, terrorism, irredentism, nationalism or self-determination movements.

An economic, cultural, political or military alliance involving 3 or more countries for their mutual benefit.  Member states surrender some measure of sovereignty.

Examples:

United Nations

European Union

North Atlantic Treaty Organization

Association of Southeast Asian Nations

African Union

Arctic Council

The economic, social, cultural or political control or influence of other countries, especially former dependencies / colonies, without directly possessing them.

Examples:

LDCs relying on MDCs 

Foreign ownership of land, businesses and resources

Use of former colonial occupiers language or currency.

Belgium in Congo

European countries in Africa

U.S. influence on global stage

Chinese influence in Africa and Asia

An area of instability situated between regions with opposing cultural or political values.

Examples:

Vietnam

Korean

Iraq

Sudan

Balkans (Yugoslavia)

Ukraine

Boundaries that are established after the settlement in an area. It changes as the cultural landscape changes and is drawn to accommodate developments due to a certain event, such as a war.

Examples:

Balkans & former Yugoslavia

Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland

Boundaries placed on an area by a conquering or colonizing power that ignores existing cultural patterns.

Examples:

African Countries following the Berlin Conference where boundaries were created by European imperial / colonial powers.

A strategic strait or canal which could be closed or blocked to stop sea traffic (especially oil). This type of aggression could surely cause an international incident.

Examples:

Strait of Hormuz (Persian Gulf & Arabian Sea)

Suez Canal (Red Sea & Mediterranean)

Strait of Gibraltar (Mediterranean & Atlantic Ocean)

Turkish Straits (Black Sea & Mediterranean)

Boundaries that no longer physically function but are still a visible imprint on the landscape or culture.

Examples:

Berlin Wall

Great Wall of China

A country.

It must have a permanent population, sovereignty, established borders and recognition by other countries.

Examples:

The U.S.

Every independent country in the world

Every member of the United Nations

Boundaries that are drawn before the cultural landscape emerged and before a large population was present.  These are often based on landforms such as mountains.

Examples:

Andes Mountains between Argentina and Bolivia

Himalaya Mountains  

Rio Grande River between U.S. & Mexico

Boundaries are drawn using straight lines.

Examples:

Canada and the U.S.

Indonesia and Papua New Guinea

A boundary established by a legal document, like a treaty or a survey.

Boundaries drawn in order to separate groups based on ethnic, linguistic, religious, or economic differences.

Examples:

India and Pakistan

Republic or Ireland and Northern Ireland

Serbia and Bosnia

There’s some regulation of activity at the boundary such as border crossing or some other monitoring.

Boundary drawn on a map.

Genocide.  Attempt to remove or exterminate a group of people based upon ethnicity, religion or cultural identity.

Examples:

War in Bosnia (Serbs and Bosniaks)

Uganda (Hutus and Tutsis)

A political movement in which its members claim, reclaim, and seek to occupy territory which they consider “lost,” based on history or legend.

Examples:

Germany between WWI and WWII

China claiming Taiwan and Tibet

The desire for self determination based upon ethnicity.

Example:

Breakup of Soviet Union

Chechnya in Russia and Georgia

Kurdistan

Extreme pride in one’s nation or policies that favor one’s nation.  This can be a centripetal force that brings people together, like national symbols, such as a flag.  

It can also lead to self-determination movements as nations seek independence.

Forces or attitudes that tend to bring a state together.

Examples:

National symbols, common language, common currency, primate city, public transportation systems, political stability, common ethnicity.

Forces or attitudes that tend to divide a state.  

Examples:

These can be based on ethnic differences, language differences, uneven economic development, different religions, unstable governments, physical geographic features that separate people. 

A political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government.  In other words, there are levels of government at the national level and state (regional) level.  These often occur in more diverse or multinational states and benefit minority cultural groups by allowing for local governance.

Example:

The U.S. 

A system of political organization in which most or all of the governing power resides in a centralized government, in contrast to a federal state.  These often occur in nation states and they typically favor the dominant cultural group.

Examples:

France

China

Japan

UK

The drawing of political boundaries to favor one political party when redistricting occurs following the census that occurs every 10 years.  Redistricting occurs to account for population changes and population increase or decreases in different parts of the state.

Examples:

All across the U.S.

Manipulation of internal boundaries

Cracking districts - splitting like voters across multiple districts so they cannot have a majority.

Packing districts - packing like voters into a single district so they cannot influence other districts.

A part of UNCLOS that gives exclusive rights to the seabed and subsoil to a nation, including natural resources like fishing and minerals up to 200 nautical miles from the shore.

An area in which treaties or agreements between nations, military powers or contending groups forbid military installations, activities or personnel.

Examples:

The 38th parallel separating North and South Korea

Territorial Sea 12 nm

Exclusive Economic Zones 200 nm

Right of transit passage

1884–1885, also known as the Congo Conference or West Africa Conference, regulated European colonization and trade in Africa during the New Imperialism period and coincided with Germany's sudden emergence as an imperial power.  

Example:

It led to the Scramble for Africa, resulted in superimposed boundaries and set the stage for neocolonialism in the present.