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<JournalTitle>ELECTRONIC JOURNAL OF SOCIAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES</JournalTitle>
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<Volume-Issue>Volume 5 Issue 3</Volume-Issue>
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<IssueTopic>Multidisciplinary</IssueTopic>
<IssueLanguage>English</IssueLanguage>
<Season>Dec 2024-Jan 2025</Season>
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<IssueOA>Y</IssueOA>
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<Year>2025</Year>
<Month>01</Month>
<Day>31</Day>
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<ArticleType>International Relations</ArticleType>
<ArticleTitle>Geography as a Decisive Factor of National and International Phenomena</ArticleTitle>
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<ArticleLanguage>English</ArticleLanguage>
<ArticleOA>Y</ArticleOA>
<FirstPage>413</FirstPage>
<LastPage>428</LastPage>
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<Author>
<FirstName>Y Yagama</FirstName>
<LastName>Reddy</LastName>
<AuthorLanguage>English</AuthorLanguage>
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<DOI>10.47362/EJSSS.2024.5301</DOI>
<Abstract>The diversified forms on the earth surface are essentially the raison d’etre of geography. In view its being the most everlasting and ultimately inevitable factor, different facets of geography become a boon or bane to the interests of the state. Geographical causation in history, consequences of geography upon nation-state, role of geography in international studies, and relevance of geography to both geopolitics and globalization are, among others, the manifestations of geographical determinism. This study justifiably presents the candid illustrations bearing testimony to the impact of geography on ancient civilizations, human settlement evolution, Indian Ocean’s maritime character predisposed to monsoon rhythm, maritime history and European colonization, dynamics of population, location as strategic significance, and the US strength hinging on location. In addition to the limitations of geography on Russia and Canada, this article deals with the restrictions of geography posed by size, shape, landlocked-ness and mountainous terrain.</Abstract>
<AbstractLanguage>English</AbstractLanguage>
<Keywords>Geography,Geopolitics,Ancient Civilizations,Indian Ocean,Maritime Geography,Nation State</Keywords>
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<Abstract>https://ejsss.net.in/ubijournal-v1copy/journals/abstract.php?article_id=15566&title=Geography as a Decisive Factor of National and International Phenomena</Abstract>
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<References>
<ReferencesarticleTitle>References</ReferencesarticleTitle>
<ReferencesfirstPage>16</ReferencesfirstPage>
<ReferenceslastPage>19</ReferenceslastPage>
<References>Miller B (2000).. Geography and Social Movements: Comparing Anti-nuclear Activism in the Boston area, London: University of Minnesota Press, p.178.
Singh, Harjeet (2009). India’s Strategic Culture: The Impact of Geography, Manekshaw Paper # 10, New Delhi: KW Publishers Pvt Ltd in association with Centre for Land Warfare Studies.
The factors / tangible elements of national power based on geography include area, configuration, location, population size and its characteristics, raw materials / natural resources, industrial and technological capacity, and military strength. So intimately connected to the national power are the intangible elements comprising ideology, national character, national morale, leadership, power over the public opinion, organisational efficiency and quality of diplomacy.
The limitations on national power incorporate: balance of power, international law, international morality, international organisations, disarmament and arms control. Collective security, and world public opinion.
Diamond, Jared (1999).. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (Topeka, Kansas: Bt Bound, p. 498. Jared Diamond, Professor of Geography at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), is the awardee of research prizes and grants including Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, National Geographic Society.
Kaplan, Robert D (2010). South Asia’s Geography of Conflict, Washington: Center for a New American Security, p.10.
Aziz, Muhammad Suliman and; Abbas, Brduman Waisi (2021). “Geography and Politics in a World Divided,” International journal of Rural Development, Environment and Health Research, vol.5, Issue 1, pp. 12-18.
The study of geography for enriching the knowledge of spatial dimension concerning the historical events has thus become part of the world history courses in many American Universities.
Chapman, Bert (2011). Geopolitics: A Guide to the Issues, INDIGO Meeting, Bloomington: Indiana University, May 20.
Kaplan, Robert D. (2009). “The Revenge of Geography,” Foreign Policy, May/June 2009.
Meinig, Donald (1987). The Shaping of America: A Geographical Perspective on 500 Years of American History, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Kaplan, Robert D., (2010), South Asia’s Geography of Conflict, Washington DC: Centre for a New American Security, p.10.
World Ocean as an all-pervasive spatial phenomenon amounts to 360 million sq. km of area accounting for about 70 % of the planet’s surface (510 million sq. km)i and contains more than 95 % of the water.ii Alongside about 60 % of the world population living within 60 km of the coast, Ocean could well impact the lives of three quarters of the world’s population.iii [Sources: i Eric Cheng, “The Physics Factbook: An Encyclopedia of Scientific Essays,” Area of Earth’s Oceans, (Chicago: 1997). https://hypertextbook.com/ facts/ 1997/ Eric Cheng.shtml (Accessed June 5, 2019. ii Ruben Zondervan and others, “Ocean Governance in the Anthropocene,” The International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) Global Change Magazine, No. 81, October 2013. www.igbp.net/ news/ features/ features/ ocean governanceintheanthropocene. 5.64c 29410 14 29ba9184d483.html (Accessed May 18, 2019). iii UNESCO, “A Sea of Troubles,” Press Release No. 2001-129. http:// www. unesco. org/bpi/eng/unescopress/2001/01-129e.shtml (Accessed May 26, 2019)].
If maritime geography is the study of human interaction with sea, maritime history focuses on the narratives of human activity at sea; and their collaborative approach is all about the maritime trade that embarks on exploring and establishing contacts with new lands.
Gottmann, Jean (2011)., Geography and International Relations, Cambridge University Press, July 18, 2011.https://www.cambridge.org/core/ journals/world-politics/article/abs/ geography -and-international-relations/1EF901B3AD0C77CC7966C2AE8DA7C513 (Accessed April 23, 2024).
Nicholas J. Spykman, an American political scientist and one of the founders of the classical realist school in American foreign policy, offered the US to develop a grand strategy for both war and peace based on the implications of its geographic location in the world. See Nicholas J. Spykman. Americaand;#39;s Strategy in World Politics: The United States and the Balance of Power. (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1942).
Important among them are: Geography and Foreign Policy (1938), Geographic Objectives in Foreign Policy (1939) and The Geography of the Peace (1944).
Bert Chapman, op. cit.
Gordon East W. (1967). The Geography Behind History, New York: W.W. Norton and; Company, p.182.
Robert D. Kaplan, 2009.
Ibid.
Halford John Mackinder (1861-1947), besides being a geography professor, was the vice-president of Royal Geographical Society, Director of London School of Economics, member of British Parliament and British High Commissioner. Regardless of the contempt of the Allied Powers for war-guilty Germany at the Treaty of Versailles, Mackinder (1919) put forward a three-line strategic formula, ‘Democratic Ideals and Reality,’ cozily known as Heartland theory. At the close of Second World War, Mackinder (1943) had once again justified his geopolitical views in yet another piece of writing, ‘Round the Table and Winning the Peace.’
Toth, Colonel James E., USMC (Ret.) (1995). "Military Strategy Note: Strategic Geography," Washington D C: Industrial College of the Armed Forces, p.1.
Cohen, Saul Bernard (2014), Geopolitics: The Geography of International Relations Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and; Littlefield, 3rd Edition..
Robert D. Kaplan, 2010, p.10.
Pattanaik, Devdutt, (2024). Ahimsa: 100 Reflections on the Harappan Civilization, (New Delhi: Harper Collins India, p. 272.
Anonymous, “How Does Geography Affect Civilization? Exploring the Impact on Settlement Patterns,” Spatial Post, June 18, 2023. https://www.spatialpost.com/how-does-geography-affect-civilization/ (Accessed October 23, 2024).
Szczepanski, Kallie (Apr 2023). “The Yellow Riverand;#39;s Role in Chinaand;#39;s History,” ThoughtCo, April 5, 2023. https:// www. thoughtco.com/yellow-river-in-chinas-history-195222 (Accessed June 12, 2023).
Lehr, Franz Peter (2005). “Prospects for Multilateral Security Cooperation in the Indian Ocean: A Skeptical View,” Indian Ocean Survey, vol.1, No.1, pp. 1-15.
Mahan, Alfred Thayer (1890). The Influence of Sea Power upon History 1660-1783, (Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1890; reprint, New York: Dover Publications, 1987), p. 138.
The unique pattern of monsoon winds: (i) South East Monsoons which originate from northwestern Australia in April-May would become (ii) South West Monsoon winds upon crossing the equator (June-September). During the October-December period they would become Retreating Monsoons which are known as (iii) North East Monsoons (north of equator) and (iv) North West Monsoons (south of the equator). See Y. Yagama Reddy, “China’s Upstream Projects – Threat in the Offing to the Downstream Riparian States in South and Southeast Asia,” Journal of Polity and Society, vol.6, Issue 2, July- December 2014, pp. 61-74.
The extensive mountain ranges are the north-south trending ones all along the eastern coast of Africa, west coast of Indian peninsula and the mountain chains running parallel to the west and east coasts of Bay of Bengal and Annamite cordillera as well as the east-west trending mountain chains in the insular Indonesia, in addition to the plateau region in Western Australia.
Reddy, Y. Yagama (Dec 2012). “Geographical Pivot of Indian Ocean and the Scope for both Regional Cooperation and Geopolitical Context,” Journal of Indian Ocean Studies, vol.20, No.3, December 2012, pp. 387-405.
Curzon, George N (1909). The Place of India in the Empire, London: John Murray.
Romeo, Nick (May 2015). “How Geography shaped American History, Law and Politics,” National Geographic, May 3, 2015. https. //www. Nationalgeographic.com/ adventure/ article/ 150503-geography-america-law-politics ngbooktalk (Accessed October 23, 2024).
Miller, Aaron David (Apr 2023). “The Link between Geography and U.S. Foreign Policy has grown more Complex,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, April 10, 2023. https:// carnegieendowment.org/posts/2023/04/the-link-between-geography-and-us-foreign-policy has-grown-more-complex?lang=en (Accessed October 23, 2024).
Alfred Thayer Mahan who served as the US naval officer was also a historian and the author of The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783.
Aziz, Muhammad Suliman and Abbas, Brduman Waisi, op. cit.
The disadvantages of landlocked countries include: dependence on their neighbours for gaining access to global markets, reliance on neighbouring states entailing greater transport costs and higher transit times, cost-intensive infrastructure development, limited or lack of access to natural resources, higher vulnerability to land disputes, limited options for tourism development, limited maritime-related job opportunities and less attractive for foreign direct investment.
The parallel mountain series of Himalayas had begun to form between 40-50 million years ago, through folding and uplift of the crust of the Thethys sea as a result of convergence and collision of the Eurasian and Indian and Plates, the geological process known as geosyncline theory. The east-west mountain ranges extending for about 2400 km have trended southward near Nanga Prabat (in the west) and at Namcha Barwa of Arunachal Pradesh (in the east). These southward bends, termed as syntaxial bends, have made Indus River and Brahmaputra River to change their directions abruptly from their east-west tendency to the south.
Reddy, Y. Yagama (2004). “Geographical Causation in Southeast Asian History,” Journal of Contemporary Asia and Europe, Vol.1, No.2, July-December 2004, pp.81-97.
WHO, “World Malaria Situation in 1994, Part I,” WHO Weekly Epidemiological Record, 1997, 36, pp. 269-274.
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Apr 2018). "Natural disasters since 1900: Over 8 million deaths, 7 trillion US dollars," ScienceDaily, April 18, 2016. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/ 2016/ 04/160418092043.htm (Accessed August 9, 2024). The death toll in natural disasters (over 62 million people world-wide since 1900) was approximately the same number as all those killed in both World Wars.
Gallup, John Luke, Sachs,,Jeffrey D. and; Mellinger, Andrew D. (1999). Geography and Economic Development, Center for International Development at Harvard University, Working Paper no. 1, March 1999.
Landlocked Countries of the World, WorldAtlas. https://www.worldatlas.com/ articles/ landlocked-countries-of-the-world.html (December 22, 2022).</References>
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