Words&Dirt

“Broadly speaking, geopolitics looks at the ways in which international affairs can be understood through geographical factors: not just the physical landscape––the natural barriers of mountains or connections of river networks, for example––but also climate, demographics, cultural regions, and access to natural resources. Factors such as these can have an important impact on many different aspects of our civilization, from political and military strategy to human social development, including language, trade, and religion.

The physical realities that underpin national and international politics are too often disregarded in both writing about history and in contemporary reporting of world affairs. Geography is clearly a fundamental part of the ‘why’ as well as the ‘what.’ Take, for example, China and India: two massive countries with huge populations that share a very long border but are not politically or culturally aligned. It wouldn’t be surprising if these two giants had fought each other in several wars, but in fact, apart from one monthlong battle in 1962, they never have. Why? Because between them is the highest mountain range in the world.”

––Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World, by Tim Marshall, pg. 2