Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
THE REVENGE OF GEOGRAPHY
The debacle of the early years in Iraq has reinforced the realist dictum, disparaged by ideal-
ists in the 1990s, that the legacies of geography, history, and culture really do set limits on
what can be accomplished in any given place. Yet those who were opposed to Iraq should
be careful about taking the Vietnam analogy too far. For that analogy can be an invitation to
isolationism, just as it is to appeasement and, in the words of the Middle East scholar Fouad
Ajami, to the easy prejudice of low expectations. Remember that the Munich conference oc-
curred only twenty years after the mass death of World War I, making realist politicians like
Neville Chamberlain understandably hell-bent on avoiding another conflict. Such situations
are perfectly suited for the machinations of a tyrannical state that knows no such fears: Nazi
Germany and Imperial Japan.
Vietnam is about limits; Munich about overcoming them. Each analogy on its own can be
dangerous. It is only when both are given equal measure that the right policy has the best
chance to emerge. For wise policymakers, while aware of their nation's limitations, know
that the art of statesmanship is about working as close to the edge as possible, without step-
ping over the brink.
1
In other words, true realism is an art more than a science, in which the temperament of
a statesman plays as much of a role as his intellect. While the roots of realism hark back
2,400 years to Thucydides' illusion-free insights about human behavior in
The Peloponne-
sian War
, modern realism was perhaps most comprehensively summed up in 1948 by Hans
J. Morgenthau in
Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace
. Let me pause
awhile with this topic, the effort of a German refugee who taught at the University of Chica-
go, in order to set the stage for my larger discussion about geography: for realism is crucial
to a proper appreciation of the map, and in fact leads us directly to it.
Morgenthau begins his argument by noting that the world “is the result of forces inherent
in human nature.” And, human nature, as Thucydides pointed out, is motivated by fear
(
phobos
), self-interest (
kerdos
), and honor (
doxa
). “To improve the world,” writes Mor-
genthau, “one must work with these forces, not against them.” Thus, realism accepts the
human material at hand, however imperfect that material may be. “It appeals to historical
precedent rather than to abstract principles and aims at the realization of the lesser evil rather
than of the absolute good.” For example, a realist would look to Iraq's own history, ex-
plained through its cartography and constellations of ethnic groups, rather than to moral pre-
cepts of Western democracy, to see what kind of future Iraq would be immediately capable
of following the toppling of a totalitarian regime. After all, good intentions have little to do
with positive outcomes, according to Morgenthau. Chamberlain, he explains, was less mo-
