Great Power Competition
Japan controls a 1200km chain of islands that sits across the Chinese navy’s main routes to the Pacific. In peacetime, Chinese warships sail through the gaps legally, but in a war, the Ryukyu Islands could become a giant wall. With China historically sensitive to being hemmed in by foreign powers, how has Japan managed to control the Ryukyus, and what impact does this have on geopolitical strategy?
Read MoreMany people only know New Zealand from Lord of the Rings. But geopolitically, it’s a fascinating case, because after decades of hedging between China and the West, it’s moving firmly to one side while tightening its hold on the islands tied to it, behaving less like a neutral small state and more like a regional power. So why are New Zealand’s geopolitical dynamics changing?
Read MoreIf we look at a map of modern Thailand, we’ll see that it’s wedged between former French and British colonies. But if nearly all of southeast Asia was dominated by foreign powers, why is Thailand the exception, and how does this influence its geopolitical dynamics?
Read MoreIf you were to look at a breakdown of Papua New Guinea's natural resources, you'd see vast reserves of gold, copper, and natural gas at the top of the list. But PNG faces severe poverty, terrible infrastructure, and human development ranked 154th out of 193 countries. So why isn't Papua New Guinea rich?
Read MoreYou might think that Hawaii is as far west as the US goes, but you'd be wrong. Guam is over 6000km west of Hawaii and nearly 10000km from California, making it the most distant populated US soil. So how did the US gain control of Guam to begin with, and how does it change the US’s geopolitical dynamics?
Read MoreSri Lanka is one of those places that most people have heard of but know next to nothing about. But the country is a fascinating place with a bloody history, and it’s disproportionately important to geopolitics. So what makes Sri Lanka more important than you might expect?
Read MoreMongolia is a genuine multiparty democracy wedged between two enormous authoritarian powers in the form of Russia and China. So how has Mongolia managed to stay free and independent?
Read MoreThe Yellow Sea is one of the most strategically sensitive bodies of water in the world. It's bordered by China, North Korea, and South Korea, and the United States gets pulled in by treaty. The Yellow Sea’s inner gulf, the Bohai, reaches to within about 150 kilometers of Beijing. So how exactly does the Yellow Sea shape geopolitics?
Read MoreThe Federated States of Micronesia, or FSM, has only about 700 square kilometers of land, but it governs an Exclusive Economic Zone of about 3m square kilometers. That's an ocean to land ratio of roughly 4000 to 1. For a country of less than 100,000 people, that's an awful lot of territory to control, and it doesn't go unnoticed by countries like the US and China. So how does FSM's unique geographical situation influence its geopolitical dynamics?
Read MoreThe US has been openly campaigning to acquire Greenland since 2025, even refusing to rule out the use of force against one of its own NATO allies to obtain it. But what many people don’t know is that the US military has had a substantial presence in Greenland already for decades, including its northernmost permanent military installation. So how is the US allowed to operate in Greenland, what impact has the current administration had on this dynamic, and what role does Pituffik Space Base have on all of this?
Read MoreIf you look at a map of North Korea’s nuclear facilities, you might notice that they’re mostly clustered in the west-central part of the country, north of Pyongyang, and along the east coast. But if you look a little closer near the border with China and Russia, you’ll see some unique infrastructure, including a nuclear test site and several undeclared bases that operate intercontinental ballistic missiles. So why would North Korea be putting some of their most sensitive nuclear infrastructure so close to China and Russia?
Read MoreTucked between India and China is a tiny Buddhist kingdom best known for its monasteries, fortresses, and incredible Himalayan landscapes. Bhutan has only about 800000 people, but its critical position with India and China has made it disproportionately important in the realm of geopolitics. So why has such a small country managed to stay independent between two major powers, and what impact does Bhutan actually have on the world?
Read MoreThe country of Timor-Leste is Asia’s youngest state, having restored its independence in 2002 after 24 years of Indonesian occupation. But Timor-Leste is increasingly being courted by Indonesia, China, Australia, Japan, and the US despite occupying only half of a single island. So what makes Timor-Leste so interesting to the region’s far more powerful stakeholders?
Read MoreVietnam is the only country on Earth that has top-tier strategic partnerships with China, Russia, the United States, Britain, and France. That’s all five permanent members of the UN Security Council, plus many more like India, Japan, South Korea, and Australia. All of these countries view Vietnam as a strategic partner, even if they don’t get along very well with Vietnam’s other allies. So how did Vietnam become so universally attractive to other countries?
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