#Things to consider

  1. The land on which we live has always shaped us.
  2. Russia is the biggest country in the world, 70 times bigger than the UK but has a relatively small population of about 144 million; fewer than Nigeria or Pakistan. Russia does not have a natural warm-water port, and that prevents the Russian fleet from operating as a global power. The only one is in Sevastopol, but getting out of the Black Sea and the Bosporus is limiting.
  3. Ukraine and its neighbors know that unless you are in NATO, Moscow is near, Washington DC is far away.
  4. If there’s one geographical jackpot you could have won it would have been the United States—there’s no place more geographically secure.
  5. America can be divided by three slices east to west. From the Atlantic to the Appalachian. Then the Great Plains to the Rocky Mountains. Then the rest to the pacific. The Appalachian mountains became the natural barrier for further westward movement by the first settlers in America.
  6. Spain will always struggle because of its poor inland rivers and its blocked access to market because of the Pyrenees.
  7. Kenya is one of the biggest up-and-comers in Africa. China is investing heavily there.