The last part in out little series on the consequences of this war
According to Tim Marshall [1] and many others, the real cause of this war is Geography. Russia can never be secure while it is surrounded by wide flat plains over which invading armies can cross with ease. And so it must push out to create buffer zones in places like Poland or the Baltic States, to ensure that a Grand Armee or Wermacht can never threaten it again. And so in turn those neighbouring lands queue up to join NATO, the EU or anything else that will save them from subjugation to the Kremlin. Russia must always try to dominate, and its neighbours to resist, until the end of time.
Nothing kills so effectively as lines drawn on maps. A glance at the origins of the First and Second World Wars will reveal their deadly presence on places like Danzig or Belgium. Millions died so some cartographer could re draw them.
Russia could never invade the Baltic States if a World Government had an army to stop them. But why should they? Northumbria no longer wars with Mercia, firstly because the UK Government stops them. Secondly because both are in a larger polity-England. And so it is with France and Germany, because both are now in the EU. And this thought is true in most places in the world. Is there an armed frontier between Victoria and New South Wales? Yet there is between the two Koreas. Compare these two observations alone and you understand much about the problem.
So far the Nation State represents the highest and best form of human organisation. It is able to command great loyalty. Yet in a world with nuclear weapons these advantages may soon become impossible to sustain. Many things which were once good in their day outlive their usefulness. Videos. Horses and carts. Stone Tools. 45rpm records. Castles. Sailing ships. Burning witches. Might it be time now for the nation state to give way to a world government which would make people like Putin irrelevant? What form such a government might take, and how it shall be achieved will require much thinking. We shall certainly return to it.[1]
#ukraine #russia #poland #baltic states #putin #ukraine #geography
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