Abstract:
Ethnic divergence and investigation of its identity, spatial and political aspects is one of the
central topics of geopolitical studies. Although different disciplines have addressed the
fundamental applications of this cultural-geographical phenomenon, the ambiguities about
the position of ethnic studies in geopolitics sometimes results in blurred expression of its
epistemological domain with other scientific domains such as sociology, political science
and international relations. In this regard, the aim of this paper is to present a framework
and theoretical model for study of ethnic divergence in geopolitics. This is a descriptiveanalytical
study. The data were collected by library study. Results of this study show that if
the ethno-nationalism is based on two bases i.e. bedrock (spatial-politics) and mechanisms,
geopolitics will investigate the domain mainly focused on environmental elements (spatialpolitics).
This means that national, regional and global environments are the platforms that
facilitate ethnic divergence. Therefore, it can be said that geopolitics addresses effective
environmental bedrock contributing to formation of ethnic divergence which can play an
important role in the emergence of and guiding of divergence mechanisms.
Machine summary:
Although different disciplines have addressed the fundamental applications of this cultural-geographical phenomenon, the ambiguities about the position of ethnic studies in geopolitics sometimes results in blurred expression of its epistemological domain with other scientific domains such as sociology, political science and international relations.
Nevertheless, Hartshorne believed that a country has to consider spatial inequalities in terms of life standards, level of literacy, education and economics, institutions and racial and class differences (especially political philosophy) in addition to cultural features such as language, religion, ethnicity and race (Moyer, 2000).
When there is the risk of sub- cultures for attenuating the sense of common identity, the governments should reinforce national identity relative to ethnic one (Kymlicka, 1995: 72-3) because the function of national identity is to make people believe that their country exists since their ancestors established that and defended it against the enemies (Jordan and Rowntree,2001: 174).
Economic modernization will result in accumulation of capital, commercial-industrial development, personal, social, national and regional work division, mass production, creation of a national market and establishment of a monetary relationship among the people and therefore extends the governing economic structure throughout the country (Maghsoudi, 2001: 144).
This determines the type of political, cultural, economic and social behaviour of the ethnic groups in the framework of political borders relative to the governing majority.