OCR A-Level Geography Global Connections: a complete overview of trade, migration, human rights and borders

What Global Connections actually demands

Global Connections is the optional, two-part second half of Component 2 and forms Section B of Paper 02. OCR tests how a connected world is bound together by flows (a Global Systems option) and how it is governed and contested (a Global Governance option). The unifying ideas are interdependence, power, inequality and the contested governance of global connections. You study one Global Systems option and one Global Governance option.

This guide walks through all four options, then the exam patterns OCR repeats. Each option has a matching dot-point page with worked exam questions; this overview ties them together.

Global Systems: Trade in the contemporary world

Trade in the contemporary world covers the patterns and processes of global trade, comparative advantage, trade blocs and the WTO, TNCs and global production networks, and the interdependence and inequality trade creates. The key skill is evaluating the differential consequences of trade, from East Asian export-led success to primary-commodity dependence.

Global Systems: Global migration

Global migration covers the patterns and trends of migration, the economic, social, political and environmental drivers of voluntary and forced movement, the consequences for source regions (remittances, brain drain) and host regions (labour, service pressure), and the contested governance of migration by states and international bodies.

Global Governance: Human rights

Human rights covers the nature and variation of rights, the patterns and causes of violations, the governance of rights by states, the UN and NGOs, and the geography, effectiveness and consequences of intervention. The recurring tension is between sovereignty and the Responsibility to Protect, and the selectivity of intervention.

Global Governance: Power and borders

Power and borders covers sovereignty, the state, nations and borders, the threats to territorial integrity (secession, separatism, contested borders, fragile states), the governance of political and territorial issues, and the consequences of intervention. The big evaluation is whether sovereignty is being eroded, reshaped or reasserted.

How Global Connections is examined

A typical OCR profile for Section B of Paper 02:

• Data-response and resource questions. Reading trade, migration and development statistics, maps and graphs, and interpreting them (AO3).
• Concept explanation. Explaining comparative advantage, push and pull factors, sovereignty and governance.
• Case-study application. Using located examples (an export economy, a migration flow, a rights crisis, a contested border).
• Extended essay. A 16-mark question rewarding evaluation, for example on trade and inequality, the consequences of migration, the effectiveness of intervention, or the erosion of sovereignty.

Check your knowledge

A mix of recall and application questions covering Global Connections. Attempt them, then check against the solutions.

1. Define comparative advantage. (2 marks)
2. State two roles of TNCs in global trade. (2 marks)
3. Distinguish between voluntary and forced migration. (2 marks)
4. Define remittances and brain drain. (2 marks)
5. Name the 1948 document codifying universal human rights. (1 mark)
6. State two causes of human-rights violations. (2 marks)
7. Distinguish between a nation and a state. (2 marks)
8. Name two threats to territorial integrity. (2 marks)