Exercise #1

The State

In international relations, the state continues to be a very important actor by being the primary organizer of people.  This exercise is a comparison between several types of states in the world.  Follow the paper guidelines in your syllabus.  Your paper only has to be as long as it takes you to answer these questions in a thoughtful manner (you shouldn't need more than a page or so).

Go to the CIA World Factbook site that provides a basic overview about all of the states in the world.  Your assignment is to:

  1. Compare the various country indicators listed in the left column for each of the following countries:  Vanuatu, Nigeria, Sudan, Sweden, China, and the United States.  You can copy and paste the chart and then just type (yes type, not write) in the information on your computer. 
     
  2. After you fill in the chart, describe what you see as three most significant differences between these states.  Use state examples to explain your answer.
     
  3. Each country below gets one vote in the United Nations General Assembly.  Explain whether you think it's fair or not that each of these countries has equal voting weight.
Country--> Vanuatu Nigeria Sudan Sweden China United States
Population            
Total Geographic Area            
GDP (in PPP)            
GDP per capita (PPP)            
# of Internet Hosts            
Names of Predominant Ethnic Groups (i.e. list what the main ones are--if the group makes up less than 10% of the population, it's not predominant)            
# of Airways with Paved Runways