The Law of the Sea

When running a country it is pretty easy to determine borders with fences or walls, but determining your coast and how far a countries claim goes is harder to determine, well if your landlocked I guess it doesn't matter as much. For example how far does your sovereignty go out from the coast or how much sovereignty? A total of 165 states have signed a United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which sets the standards for this type of stuff. 

There are different types of waters and how much jurisdiction a state has them. The first are internal waters, these are water ways that are in the land part of the country the state has full jurisdiction in these waters and foreign ships are not at all to pass through these.

The next are territorial waters, this makes up the coast of a country and are based off the countries baseline on the sore. Territorial waters go out 12 nautical miles (22 kilometers; 14 miles) off the baseline. Governments can set up laws and regulations and foreign vessels can pass through here under "innocent passage". Innocent passage in a peaceful matter and no fishing, polluting, weapons practice or spying are not considered innocent, which should be obvious. And underwater vessels like submarines are required to on the surface and fly their nation's flag. And beyond the territorial waters there is the contiguous zone, which is another 12 nautical miles from the territorial waters and states are allowed to enforce laws on customs, taxation, immigration and pollution.

Next there are Exclusive economic zones. These go out 200 nautical miles out from the baseline. Here coastal nations have all rights to exploit the natural resources in this range, from fishing to mining operations and oil drilling.

The last one is the continental shelf. Nations are allowed exploit natural resources that are located within their coasts continental shelf. But if their countries continental shelf exceeds 350 nautical miles, they can only go up to 350 nautical miles.

These sea claims will be under constant dispute. Claims will overlap each other and as different nations claim to control islands that are near each other. For example the sea claims of he South China Sea, with the countries of China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and Indonesia, with sea claims that overlap the other.

More on the Law of the Sea

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/588351/territorial-waters

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Convention_on_the_Law_of_the_Sea

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_waters

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_waters

Global Cities

As the world becomes more globalized, cities around the world are connected on a larger scale. There has probably always been cities that have connected people from different parts of the world and have had a huge influence and impact on the economics, culture, politics of the world, but recently people have been calling the major cities of today "Global Cities". There has been research done to determine on how to define what a global city is. Global cities are home to a major stock exchange, participates in international finical services like banking, accounting, and marketing, has great influence in international politics, has world-renowned cultural institutions, world renowned universities and high international student attendance, major media hub, a large public transit network to connect the city, has a large international airport, and has an amazing sky-line. A city that has all of these points would be considered a higher tier of a global city compared to one that has one or two less.

Global cities are split into four tiers, sometimes being categorized by calling the top tier Alpha, then goes to Beta, Gamma, and Sufficiency at last tier. The top 10 global cities as of 2012 are New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seoul, Brussels, and Washington D.C. It is predicted that as time goes one that other Asian cities will rise to or near the top ten. It is predicted that Singapore, Beijing, and Shanghai will rise into the top ten as these cities continue to be influential. New York and London continue to be on the top 2, New York being first and London second, of all of the Global Cities Indexes, from global power, economic power, wealth, and competitiveness. 

While many cities will continue to rise, others struggle to keep their position and might fall in position in the future. Mexico City for example is the most likely to lose its rank. Mexico City has the highest vulnerability score on emerging global cities, it has a score of  7.8, with 10 being the most vulnerable to fall. The highest factor to this is instability in the city and corruption, no doubt because of the war on drugs that continues throughout the city. 

Global Cities play a major role in today's world and will continue to rise and fall.  

More on Global Cities
http://www.newgeography.com/content/003292-what-is-a-global-city
http://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch2en/conc2en/map_worldcities.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_city
http://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch2en/conc2en/map_worldcities.html

Hong Kong and Macua

Hong Kong, the city in China with a blending of Chinese and British culture and Macau blending Chinese and Portuguese culture. These cities are in unique situations compared to the rest of mainland China, because of their history and how there are governed.

Both of these city states used to be colonies of European nations; Hong Kong, a colony of the United Kingdom and Macau, a colony of Portugal. The two cities were handed over to the Chinese government, Hong Kong was handed over in 1997 and Macau in 1999. The cities came into China under the "One Country, Two Systems" policy or all so known as "One China, Two Systems". The "One Country, Two Systems" policy was first suggested by the Chinese government in the 1980's and it called for the reunification of China and that there could only be one China, however regions could keep their capitalist economy and political systems, instead of following China's socialists system. The regions that were to fall under "Two Systems, One Country" were Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. Of the three only Hong Kong and Macau accepted the deal, while Taiwan has rejected it. The Taiwanese government claimed that there are 169 incidents where China breached the rights of the people of Hong Kong, and others claimed that the Republic of China (Taiwan's Government) should be the One China, not the People's Republic of China (Government of mainland China). The system allows Hong Kong and Macau to keep their way of life and a high degree of autonomy for up least to 50 years after reunifying, but it never has been publicly stated what will happen to the two after the 50 years.

Hong Kong and Macau are responsible for their domestic affairs and are not required to broadcast and publish things in Mandarin and Simplified Chinese. While the Chinese Government is responsible for national defense and diplomatic relations. Hong Kong continues to follow English Common Law and Macau continues to follow Portuguese Civil Law. 

Hong Kong Macau not only have different economic system and laws but different cultures from that of mainland China. Macau was used as trading post and colony under the Portuguese Empire in 1537 and was the last European colony in Asia after its handover in 1999. Because of over four-hundred years of Portuguese influence and control the city and its people have created a blend of Chinese and Portuguese culture, by following traditions and celebrating events of both cultures. A similar thing can be said about Hong Kong, but with British and Chinese culture. In the 1840's Hong Kong was used by the British as a trading post and in 1898 Hong Kong was leased to the United Kingdom for 99 years. Hong Kong is a trade hub and an entertainment hub. Hong Kong is well known for its martial arts movies and actors, most famous one being Bruce Lee, which there is a statue of in the city.

These two cities still get to keep a high amount of control on how they run themselves and their lifestyles, at least until the fifty year deal expires. 

More on Hong Kong and Macau

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_country,_two_systems

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macau