The Importance of Geography

Let’s admit it. Only a handful liked the subject in elementary and high school because it entails the student to have a general idea where to situate 195 countries of the world. But current day geo-political issues that are crucial to nationalism have proven that a working knowledge of geography is most important. At the very least, it will enable thinkers and debaters to have a wider and deeper insight on world politics.

Take for example what is happening to Afghanistan. One would wonder why a seemingly barren valley is repeatedly brutalized by decades of war. Geography may offer an answer. The war-ravaged country lies between the major oil and natural gas producers like Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Putting a pipeline through the country to reach emerging economies like China and India will change the politics in the Middle East and may dislodge Iran as a power broker.

Brewing alliances between the countries involved and the intention to reduce Iran’s influence in the region could be reasons why the US and their allies were fast to pull out of the country. This goes to show that strategic alliances are nothing but temporary arrangements.

So what do we learn from the Afghanistan experience as highlighted by mastery of geography? The strategic location of a region like the West Philippine sea, for example, may be of current interest to world powers. However, this interest wanes in time or scuttled by bigger interests, alliances and priorities will quickly change. Foreign governments which have poured in billions or trillions of dollars and even led a thousand of their own soldiers to their deaths will later just pack up their bags and leave without any sensible reason.

N.B. What happened to Afghanistan can be the “mother of all arguments’ against the Mutual Defense Treaty between the US and Philippines.