Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
generally supported intervention in the Balkans but opposed it in Iraq, reflect this spirit of
fine distinctions. They intuited, however vaguely, a principal fact of geography: whereas
the former Yugoslavia lay at the most advanced, western extremity of the former Ottoman
Empire, adjacent to Central Europe, Mesopotamia lay at its most chaotic, eastern reaches.
And because that fact has affected political development up through the present, interven-
tion in Iraq would prove to be a stretch.
So what might that modest fate, that hidden hand, have in store for us in the years to
come? What can we learn from the map, to forewarn us of possible dangers? Let us review
some of the effects of geography on the grand pattern of world history through the eyes of
several great scholars of the twentieth century, and then look specifically at geography and
human intervention through the eyes of a great man of antiquity. That will prepare us to
probe the most time-tested and provocative geopolitical theories from the modern era, and
see where they take us in describing the world to come.
