H3 NUS Geopolitics 2019 Examination

National University of Singapore DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY GEH1022/GEK1022: GEOPOLITICS: GEOGRAPHIES OF WAR AND PEACE SEMESTER 2: 2017/2018 EXAMINER: DR CARL GRUNDY-WARR 28 APRIL 2018 (9 AM) TIME ALLOWED: 2 HOURS INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES 1. Please write your matriculation/registration number only. Do not write your name. 2. This examination paper contains SEVEN questions and comprises seven printed pages. 3. Answer ANY THREE questions. 4. Start each question on a new page. Please write legibly. 5. This is a CLOSED BOOK examination.

GEH1022/GEK1022 Page 2 of 7 ANSWER ANY THREE QUESTIONS 1. Gearóid Ó Tuathail, a scholar of “critical geopolitics” argues that: ‘One reason why geopolitics has become popular once again is that it deals with comprehensive visions of the world political map. Geopolitics addresses the “big picture” and offers a way of relating local and regional dynamics to the global system as a wh ole.’ (Ó Tuathail, G., Dalby, S., and Routledge, P., editors (2003 edition) The Geopolitics Reader , London: Routledge, p.1 ). Discuss this notion of geopolitics with reference to at least two cases examined in this module. 2. ‘We live in a mediated world – all that we know about the world beyond our personal experience comes to us from us via various media, whether it is the printed word, the televisual, radio, or something else entirely. The media, even colonize our personal experiences; it is almost imposs ible to go somewhere without preconceived notions of what to look at and how to feel about it. (…) Thus, the media play a major role in not only how we see the world, but also how we make sense of it.’ (Jason Dittmer, 2010, Popular Culture, Geopolitics and Identity, New York: Rowman & Littlefield, pp.15-16). With reference to any two of the images below, plus other cases as appropriate, discuss how and why media shapes ways of seeing and thinking geopolitically. Figure 1 Picture by photographer Nick Ut , children fleeing napalm strike, Vietnam, 1972. Source: http://www.artnet.de/k%C3%BCnstler/nick-ut/

GEH1022/GEK1022 Page 3 of 7 Figure 2 Still shot from Rithy Panh’s 2013 film about life under the Khmer Rouge, The Missing Picture. Source: https://howardforfilm.com/2014/08/28/movie-review-the-missing- picture/ Figure 3 Nuon Chea, former Brother Number 2 of the Khmer Rouge, in a scene with one of film-makers and leading researcher, Thet Sombath, in the 2010 film Enemies of the People. Source: http://enemiesofthepeoplemovie.com/Press/DownloadPressKit

GEH1022/GEK1022 Page 4 of 7 Figure 4 Bradley Cooper as Chris Kyle in Warner Bros. Pictures' and Village Roadshow Pictures' American Sniper . Source: http://time.com/3712801/american -sniper-oscars-box-office/ Figure 5 Images by cartoon journalist, Joe Sacco. Source: http://www.hoodedutilitarian.com/2