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The Geopolitics of the United States, Part 1: The Inevitable Empire

August 25, 2011

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Take a good look at the image below. You'll see how a picture is not only worth a thousand words, but can explain the success of an entire nation. Crops to rivers, rivers to ports – the trade foundation of a country can be summarized in a single image. Sure it stirs up memories of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn and the Mighty Mississippi, but this is the foundation of the US as a global power and a fascinating look at the backbone of the American economy.   

We all remember junior high geography (well, some of it, anyway). But somehow it didn't cover how critical geography is in the development of a nation... and that it is, for example, the primary reason the United States became a global power. The territory of the U.S. simply comprises all the right geographic elements to make its occupants an inevitable global force. Yesterday, STRATFOR, my favorite source for geopolitical analysis of world affairs, published The Inevitable Empire, part I of a fascinating assessment of the United States. In it you'll learn how geography shaped the nation's behavior throughout history, and what it means for U.S. foreign policy today. It's a perfect example of the kind of insight STRATFOR provides that you won't find anywhere else.   

>> Join STRATFOR at the special rate for OTB readers << just in time for their release of The Geopolitics of the United States, Part 2: American Identity and the Threats of Tomorrow. In addition, you'll get a copy of The Next Decade, the New York Times bestselling book released earlier this year by STRATFOR Founder and CEO George Friedman. But check it out now, I hear this deal only lasts until Monday.   

Your proud to be an American analyst,

John Mauldin, Editor
Outside the Box

JohnMauldin@2000wave.com

The Geopolitics of the United States, Part 1: The Inevitable Empire

August 24, 2011 | 1556 GMT

Editor’s Note: This installment on the United States, presented in three parts, is the 16th in a series of STRATFOR monographs on the geopolitics of countries influential in world affairs.

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Quinn Sowell

Aug. 27, 2011, 8:12 a.m.

Great article but I disagree with the paragraph following my comments. I believe leaders in the named countries might have used al Qaeda to further their agenda but would never have allowed al Qaeda to threaten their rule. Could al Qaeda have displaced Sadam Hussein? Not in my opinion. Al Qaeda became a force in Iraq after we removed Sadam. Which leads to one more question. If we had not invaded Iraq with the cost of lives and treasure, would the people of Iraq now be removing Sadam and his government as we’ve seen in other countries this year? Perhaps there is a lesson here. Whereas a small amount of intervention around the world might be good, as in other things, too much of a good thing can be bad.

“As for Iraq, one must bear in mind that Saudi Arabia funded many of al Qaeda’s activities, Syria provided many of its recruits and Iran regularly allowed free passage for its operatives. The United States lacked the military strength to invade all three states simultaneously, but in invading Iraq it made clear to all three what the continued price of sponsoring al Qaeda could be. All three changed their policies vis-a-vis al Qaeda as a result, and the recreation of the caliphate (never a particularly likely event) became considerably less likely than it was a decade ago.”

Jim Johnson

Aug. 26, 2011, 8:54 p.m.

Does the emergence of Muslim terrorism constitute a non-geographical paradigm shift in maintaining power or is it an insignificant irritation, or something in between?
In response to Andrew Fately, if Germany bails out the rest of the Eurozone, the Germans know that they will be too impoverished to pose a threat to anybody.

John Seater

Aug. 26, 2011, 8:48 p.m.

Though geography is relevant to economic development, this analysis seems very superficial. First, I see no real testable hypotheses, just a collection of assertions. Second, I think it is obvious that the main advantage the US had over everyone else was its commitment to capitalism (a commitment that now is disappearing under the current Marxist administration), which unleashed the great productive potential of human beings by letting them be, in the words of Spencer Tracy at the end of the movie How the West Was Won, “free to dream, free to act, free to mold their own destiny.” Third, if geography is the be-all and end-all of economic development, how do you explain the successes of ancient Greece and Rome (both mostly mountainous countries with few significant rivers) or of modern Japan or Hong Kong (same story, plus limited or non-existent natural resources), and how do you explain the last 800 years of Chinese failure? In my opinion, a theory with such spectacular failures is a failure.

Richard Miller

Aug. 26, 2011, 4:46 p.m.

The article was quite thorough and interesting in that the point of view implied that a great deal of thought and planning was involved in the growth of the country. Unfortunately I have never been exposed to any “planner” of this stature in my study of US history.
The one major error that I noted was the complete ignorance of the importance of the Erie Canal in the unbelievably swift settlement of the Northwest Territory. It was far more important than the National Road and as this article brings out, it was far more economical.

Paul Weaver

Aug. 26, 2011, 3:50 p.m.

A first class review. It is to be remembered that the general rule is for a great empire to first decay from within while looking around for the next external enemy as in the rise and decline of Rome.
Paul C weaver

Andrew Fately

Aug. 26, 2011, 1:24 p.m.

This is a quite interesting article. But it begs the question about Europe. In the current situation, if Germany decides to essentially pay for the rest of Europe’s profligacy, and becomes Europe’s de facto master, would that not lead to potential conflicts down the road? As such, strategically, is it in the interest of the US to make sure that the European debt crisis never resolves such that Germany becomes the super regional power that may otherwise result? Food for thought

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