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These kind of stories reveal how brutal geopolitics are. Nation states are organized by power laws. Out of the 200+ countries, more than 150 are effectively "i
by fleddr 5y ago
These kind of stories reveal how brutal geopolitics are.
Nation states are organized by power laws. Out of the 200+ countries, more than 150 are effectively "irrelevant". These small "sovereign" countries are geographically outside the main power blocks (US/Canada, EU, SE Asia, Russia) and thus have fragile security.
Which means they're not really sovereign. They're forced to align with a power block (in a rare case multiple ones) to get access to trade in exchange for security.
Sounds like a mob deal really. Give me access to your commodities (most of these countries are commodity producers, not advanced economies) or you get no aid in security. Some countries are so irrelevant that despite trading commodities, they still get no security when the need is there. Not worth defending.
Or, the aggressor is too big to take on, so we stand by and do nothing. Altogether it's a geographic lottery of arbitrary nation-states.
- jdrc 5y agoThere is also an obsession in that part of the world with Geopolitics. It's no coincidence that some of the most popular youtube geopolitics channels are from that region. I think it's more a remnant of soviet mentality and the fact that (absent the ideology of communism) territorial gains/losses seems to be the only motivator. China for all its rhetoric has not changed its borders in many decades, yet russia/ turkey are using militarism and territorial conquest as an end rather as means to prosperity.
- fleddr 5y agoI've travelled a lot and if there's one thing I learned it's that we're all the same. We all share the same ideology: to live a dignified life in peace, in good health and in reasonable wealth. It's what we all desire and have in common. It's not even an ideology, they are common sense motivators for any living thing in general. Everything else is learned behavior: nationalism, culture, religion. False ideologies that divide instead of unite.
- throwaway_4ever 5y ago> It's no coincidence that some of the most popular youtube geopolitics channels are from that region. Interesting, I hadn't considered that. Caspian Report is a big one, from an Azeri.