SATISH SHARMA - not just Rotigraphy.: But geography explains American capacity. It does not explain American choices. Geography did not decide to overthrow Mossadegh in Iran in 1953.

https://x.com/nxt888/status/2090504232621474234

Sony Thăng

The hyperpower geography argument is real, but incomplete.

Yes, American geography is exceptional. Two oceans. No great-power neighbors. Navigable river systems feeding into the world's best natural harbor network. Arable land on a continental scale.

Alfred Thayer Mahan wrote the definitive analysis of this in 1890. The Americans read it and built a navy. The argument is solid.

But geography explains American capacity.

It does not explain American choices.

Geography did not decide to overthrow Mossadegh in Iran in 1953.

Geography did not assassinate Lumumba in the Congo in 1961.

Geography did not drop more bombs on Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia than fell in all of World War II.

Geography did not decide to invade Iraq in 2003 based on intelligence that senior officials knew to be false, killing hundreds of thousands of people and generating the regional instability that produced ISIS.

These were choices.

Made by specific people.

In specific rooms.

For specific reasons that can be examined, analyzed, and judged.

Your geographic determinism converts choices into inevitabilities after the fact, which is extremely convenient for the people who made the choices.

Realism as a framework is most useful to those whose choices it naturalizes.

You should notice who benefits from the framing before you adopt it.

Quote

Richard Medhurst

@richimedhurst

Aug 20

What's actually exceptional/unique about the United States is their geography and their status as a hyperpower. Both are unrivaled throughout history.

But in terms of great-power competition, America plays the game like everyone before it — from Athens and Rome to Britain.