More recently, in 2012, I was given another lesson in geostrategy: as Syria descended into full-blown civil war, I was standing on a Syrian hilltop, overlooking a valley south of the city of Hama, and saw a hamlet burning in the distance. Syrian friends pointed out a much larger village about a mile away, from where they said the attack had come.

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You could make the argument that President Putin did have a choice: he could have respected the territorial integrity of Ukraine. But, given that he was dealing with the geographic hand God has dealt Russia, this was never really an option. He would not be the man who “lost Crimea” and with it the only proper warm-water port his country had access

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Geography, technology, and institutions are subject to remarkable variability and change, and they interact powerfully to shape societies across place and time. Understanding the interplay of geography, technology, and institutions is fundamental to understanding human history. This understanding is also fundamental to navigating the changes under

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