News analysis
War is forcing the world to reckon with geography’s power
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Everyday assumptions have been challenged by the economic havoc wrought by the blockage of a single vital shipping and energy route in the Persian Gulf.
ILLUSTRATION: TIMO LENZEN/NYTIMES
Patricia Cohen
- War and conflicts have highlighted the enduring power of geography, disrupting vital shipping routes like the Strait of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab, impacting global energy and trade.
- Climate change is reshaping strategic geography by altering key waterways, such as the Rhine, Danube, Panama Canal, and opening new Arctic routes, affecting transport and industrial production.
- The postwar global order is breaking down as geography regains importance, with rising confrontations over critical regions like Ukraine and Taiwan, signalling increased geopolitical struggles ahead.
AI generated
LONDON – For decades we have lived in a world that seemed to transcend geography.
Information, money, goods, germs and weapons have come to defy distance. Whispered confidences and billion-dollar bounties are traded instantaneously.