Forbes
Date: Sep 29, 2020
By: Loren Thompson, Senior Contributor

At the dawn of the 20th century, British geographer Halford MacKinder proposed that there was a “geographical pivot of history” in central Asia from which a nation such as Russia could potentially dominate all of Eurasia.

MacKinder’s idea was a counterpoint to the writings of his contemporary, American historian and naval officer Alfred Thayer Mahan, who argued that command of the seas was the surest path a nation might follow to global power.

Mahan’s writings have tended to hold up better over time, although the theories of both men were undercut by the advent of long-range air power and other innovations that diminished the strategic significance of geography.

Nonetheless, the notion of a geographical pivot upon which great historical trends might turn retains its value. There are some places in the world that are of such extraordinary military and economic importance that a change in their status might signal the end of an era, or the beginning of a new global order.    [FULL  STORY]