Human and physical influences on global interactions practice questions.

Bolivia has had no coastline since 1884 and moves most of its exports by road and rail to Pacific ports in Chile and Peru. Which mechanism best explains the resulting weakening of its global trade interactions?

• Its exports are commodities for which world demand is falling steadily
• Its currency cannot be converted for international payments
• Foreign firms are legally barred from owning Bolivian assets
• Transit costs and delays add to the delivered price of exports

Answer: Transit costs and delays add to the delivered price of exports

A landlocked state pays twice for distance: the inland haul itself, and the passage through a neighbour's customs, roads and ports, over which it has no control. The barrier is physical in origin but political in its day-to-day operation.

A government blocks foreign social media platforms, filters search results at the national internet gateway and requires data about its citizens to be stored inside the country. Which kind of influence on global interactions is this?

• A physical barrier created by terrain and distance
• A political influence restricting information flows
• An economic influence created by tariffs on services
• A technological limit set by network capacity

Answer: A political influence restricting information flows

Censorship weakens global interaction by decision rather than by geography or by cost, which is why it can be reversed overnight while a mountain range cannot. Classifying the influence correctly is exactly what a Paper 3 part (a) rewards.

Two countries have similar income levels, but one has far higher internet use. Which explanation belongs to the concept of the digital divide?

• Differences in infrastructure, affordability, skills and language content
• Differences in the physical distance between the two countries and cable routes only
• Differences in the total population of the two countries
• Differences in the number of satellites visible from each country

Answer: Differences in infrastructure, affordability, skills and language content

The divide is multi-dimensional: a network must exist, a household must be able to afford a device and data, users must have the literacy and skills to use it, and there must be content in a language they read. Access measured as coverage alone consistently overstates real use.

A government filters internet content, requires data on its citizens to be stored domestically and restricts foreign platforms. How is this best interpreted?

• The state reasserting territorial control over a flow that crosses borders
• Evidence that global interaction has no political dimension
• A purely technical response to limited bandwidth capacity
• Proof that information flows cannot be regulated by any state

Answer: The state reasserting territorial control over a flow that crosses borders

Information appears borderless but runs through physical infrastructure and legal jurisdictions that states can reach, so filtering, localisation requirements and licensing are territorial instruments applied to a non-territorial flow. This is the clearest counter-example to the claim that technology has ended state control.

A student writes: 'Bolivia is a lower-middle-income country because it is landlocked, so having no coastline makes a country poor.' One step of this reasoning is wrong. Which statement identifies that step?

• It applies a national-scale generalisation to a case that is only local.
• It confuses the cost of moving goods in transit with the tariff charged at the border.
• Having no coastline is not sufficient on its own: Switzerland and Austria are landlocked and high-income.
• It assumes that goods can leave a landlocked country only by road and rail.

Answer: Having no coastline is not sufficient on its own: Switzerland and Austria are landlocked and high-income.

Being landlocked raises transport and transaction costs, but it only becomes a serious constraint where the transit neighbours' routes are poor or politically unreliable. Switzerland and Austria are landlocked and prosperous because their transit routes are short, well built and secure, so the factor is contributory rather than sufficient.

From January 2020 Indonesia banned exports of unprocessed nickel ore so that smelting and refining would have to take place inside the country. Which outcome was the government seeking?

• Lower ore costs for the steelmakers in the countries that had been buying it
• A larger tonnage of raw material leaving Indonesian ports each year
• An end to foreign direct investment in the country's mining sector
• Capture of a higher-value stage of the production network inside Indonesia

Answer: Capture of a higher-value stage of the production network inside Indonesia

An export ban is a way of climbing the value chain: unprocessed ore earns little, so the state uses access to its deposits as leverage to make the processing happen at home, moving jobs, tax revenue and bargaining power to the producing country. It raises the price for foreign buyers and is meant to attract investment in smelters, not to end it.