Geopolitical Entity

A Geopolitical Entity is an entity that operates within geographical space (influencing political relations and territorial control).

• AKA: Geopolitical Actor, Political-Geographic Entity, GPE.
• Context:
  • It can (typically) have a Territorial Base, with boundaries (defining its spatial extent).
  • It can (typically) be a Composite Entity, with government, physical location, and population.
  • It can (typically) refer to a Nation, its Region, its Government, or its Population.
  • It can (typically) have Political Authority, over geographical areas (through governance mechanisms).
  • It can (often) include Countries, states, provinces, counties, cities, and towns.
  • It can (often) have Resource Control, over natural resources and infrastructure.
  • It can (often) have International Status, in global system (through diplomatic relations).
  • It can (often) form Strategic Alliances (with other geopolitical entities).
  • ...
  • It can range from being a Sovereign State to being a Non-State Actor, depending on its recognition status.
  • It can range from being a Global Power to being a Local Authority, depending on its influence scope.
  • It can range from being a Territorial Entity to being a Virtual Entity, depending on its physical presence.
  • ...
  • It can be part of Geopolitical Database.
  • ...
• Examples:
  • Nation-Level Entities, such as:
    • United States of America, as a nation-state
    • France, with sovereign status
    • Japan, with unitary system
  • Sub-National Entities, such as:
    • California, as a state within USA
    • Quebec, with provincial status
    • Bavaria, with federal state structure
  • Urban Entities, such as:
    • Paris, as a city in France
    • Tokyo, with metropolitan governance
    • Hong Kong, as special administrative region
  • Supranational Entities, such as:
    • European Union, composed of multiple nation-states
    • African Union, with continental scope
    • ASEAN, with regional integration
  • ...
• Counter-Examples:
  • Non-Governmental Organizations lacking territorial base.
  • Multinational Corporations without sovereign power.
  • Physical Geography Features lacking political influence.
  • Cultural Groups without territorial control.
  • Virtual Communitys lacking geographical presence.
• See: Organization Entity, Geopolitical Ontology, Geographic Data, Entity Type, Organization, ACE Program, Nation State, Citizen, Political Geography, International Relations, Territorial Politics, Geographic Information System.

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References

2017

• (Wiktionary, 2017) ⇒ geopolitical entity. (2017, May 25). Wiktionary, The Free Dictionary. Retrieved 15:12, April 22, 2018 from https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/geopolitical_entity
  • QUOTE: A geographical area which is associated with some sort of political structure.

2014

• (TAC-KBP, 2014) ⇒ TAC KBP 2014 Event Argument Extraction Assessment (PDF), Version 1.3 – May 1, 2014 Linguistic Data Consortium
  • QUOTE: Each geo-political entity or set of geo-political entities mentioned in a document gives rise to an entity of type Geo-Political Entity. GPEs are composite entities comprised of a government, a physical location, and a population, with common types including countries, states, provinces, counties, cities, and towns. Note, however, that for the purposes of TAC KBP, all top-level governments of GPEs should also be categorized as GPEs, not as ORGs.

2005

• (ACE, 2005) ⇒ Linguistic Data Consortium (PDF). (2005). ACE (Automatic Content Extraction) English annotation guidelines for entities.
  • QUOTE: GPE (Geo-political Entity) - GPE entities are geographical regions defined by political and/or social groups. A GPE entity subsumes and does not distinguish between a nation, its region, its government, or its people.

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