Several of these rivers are expected to see reduced flow within the next few decades as the ice pack feeding them continues to shrink. Control over the Tibetan Plateau will become even more strategically important. Countries like Myanmar, Thailand, India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan may face increasing pressure to either cooperate with or push back against China's control of these critical water sources.
Reading this made me appreciate how fortunate we are to have the Mississippi River system. Our vast network of navigable rivers flows through some of the most fertile farmland on Earth. A huge strategic and economic advantage we shouldn’t take for granted.
Different time. Its interesting to see how many humanities and multidisciplinary historians and thinkers were around back then. Who crossed both the quantitative and qualitative disciplines in their thoughts.
Very high level of intellectual foundations and abstraction. Shows in how simply they can present and explain their ideas.
We tend to view history now as a very discrete and finite field these days, from what I've noticed. Facts are seen as finite truths, rather than debatable observations and perspectives that we can examine from different angles. In an age of complexity, the most dangerous minds are those trained to mistake data for destiny and metrics for meaning
When there's a larger movement, we've largely lost the ability to see how it fits in the big picture. Rather than go for narrative wins now. To think historically is to see across layers of time. What we now call ‘fact’ was once a wager, a hypothesis, a gamble on coherence.
I'll be following this up with two more articles about this. This one only covered one part of the strategic buffering that China does. But also the United States and other great powers have done in history.
Great post... really informative.
Several of these rivers are expected to see reduced flow within the next few decades as the ice pack feeding them continues to shrink. Control over the Tibetan Plateau will become even more strategically important. Countries like Myanmar, Thailand, India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan may face increasing pressure to either cooperate with or push back against China's control of these critical water sources.
Reading this made me appreciate how fortunate we are to have the Mississippi River system. Our vast network of navigable rivers flows through some of the most fertile farmland on Earth. A huge strategic and economic advantage we shouldn’t take for granted.
Thanks. Learned a lot.
Ferdinand Braudel would recognize your analysis. There's not enough of this type of thinking in DC.
Different time. Its interesting to see how many humanities and multidisciplinary historians and thinkers were around back then. Who crossed both the quantitative and qualitative disciplines in their thoughts.
Very high level of intellectual foundations and abstraction. Shows in how simply they can present and explain their ideas.
We tend to view history now as a very discrete and finite field these days, from what I've noticed. Facts are seen as finite truths, rather than debatable observations and perspectives that we can examine from different angles. In an age of complexity, the most dangerous minds are those trained to mistake data for destiny and metrics for meaning
When there's a larger movement, we've largely lost the ability to see how it fits in the big picture. Rather than go for narrative wins now. To think historically is to see across layers of time. What we now call ‘fact’ was once a wager, a hypothesis, a gamble on coherence.
Thanks for posting this. I’m interested in geography and how it relates to geopolitics, this article provides much to think about!
I'll be following this up with two more articles about this. This one only covered one part of the strategic buffering that China does. But also the United States and other great powers have done in history.
Thank you - great article. May Tibet one day be free again!
Great post. Your definition of power is more a dimension or aspect or power rather than definitive. Slippery concept power.