jwoody - things change over time, nations, their boundaries and their relative locations all shift as the world changes around them. Russia, when St. Petersburg was made the capital, looked west - it would have been fair to label them "European" (as many did for a long time). Then they turned inwards. Now, their future is tied increasingly to the east.

The former eastern bloc is now very integrated into the Western european sphere - 20 years ago, this was not the case.

China is now part of the Pacific Rim economies - until Deng Xiaoping came along, that was not so.

Hence, you are correct - definitions of "east" and "west" etc are fuzzy as they change constantly.

Many geographers break the world into 12 seperate parts or realms to recognize a degree of homogeneity and linked or similar economies and politics, and then further break those realms down into regions to better define things.

Those realms are:

North America
Central America/Caribean
South America
Europe
SW Asia/North Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa
South Asia
East Asia
Russia
Australia
SE Asia
Pacific Islands

what are you basing your east/west assumptions on?

how developed the countries are? their mentalities? their culture? wth?
how globalized they are?? what?

I know how to solve all of this.

Go get a boardgame called RISK...They have already colored in all the countries.


Besides I always thought Russia and China were red, Europe was blue, and Africa was tan.

Just kidding.

If you are talking Western Civilization, all of Middle and South America should be west.

To answer your question, everything to the left of England will be blue and everything right of England will be green.
On a sphere (earth), the Prime Meridian run through Greenwich England (0° longitude). Everything from 0° longitude to 180° W longitude is west. Everything from from 0° longitude to 180° E longitude is east.
Any other "East/West" notation would be strictly political and can change overnight.
http://wwp.greenwichmeridian.com/

Well - in terms of society, you'd better colour Australia and New Zealand as "west".

That one is as clear as mud. Australia and NZ were settled by the brits, so our culture and population (ethnicity) is strongly biased in that direction.

Singapore is east, in my view. Ditto Hong Kong I think.