BRINGING GEOGRAPHY AND CLASSICAL GEOPOLITICS TO THE PEOPLE
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Wendover Productions is a You Tube channel created by American-British educator, producer and podcaster Sam Denby (b. 1997). His channel was started in 2010 when a first video was produced. As of 2020 Denby has around 2,1 million subscribers and 235 million views in all.
Among the subjects Denby has chosen for his educational videos are geography and classical geopolitics.
CRG has found that there are especially 4 videos that are of interest. They explain the reaso for the geopolitical power of the United States as well as why China and Russia are geostrategically vulnerable. Of interest is also a video explaining why Australia has a China problem:
”How Geography Gave the US Power”, Wendover productions, 2,74 million views
The United States has been favorably placed in the healthful northern temperate zone. That has kept it away from the Eurasian conflict zone. It is a center for seafaring with excellent harbors, internally navigable rivers and large resources of natural and energy sources. It has consolidated control over the rich lands from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Western Europe and East Asia has similar advantages but not enough to compete with the United States.
”China’s Geography Problem”, Wendover Productions, 8,2 million views
China has been placed in a region that includes India, Japan, and South Korea along with Taiwan and the Philippines. That clearly restricts the possibilities of China to expand in East Asia. The Donald Trump administration has shown that China poses a comprehensive and formidable challenge to American hegemony. It is a view increasingly shared by American political parties, the national security community, and the general population. At the same time there are serious questions concerning China’s economy, especially the financial and banking system.
The Chinese Communist Party is very active in attempting to pursue grand strategic policies such as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Made in China 2025 (MIC 2025). It is also attempting a Chinese breakout from encirclement by heavy worldwide investing concentrating on Africa.
”Russia’s Geography Problem”, Wendover Productions, 7,0 million views
Russia is basically a landlocked with limited access to the world’s oceans. At mainly four areas Russia can be stopped from entering the most important sealanes. Three points are in Europe and the fourth in the Far East.
Turkey is controlling the narrow passage through the Bosporus from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. Russian ships from St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad must pass through the Danish controlled Belt to reach the North Sea and the Atlantic. A third geostrategic problem for Russia is the passage through the gap between Greenland, Iceland, and the United Kingdom (GIUK) from Murmansk on the Kola Peninsula into the Atlantic. Finally there is the question of the main Russian harbor in the Far East and the passage into the Pacific Ocean which is limited to the Korea Strait and narrow straits between Sakhalin and Hokkaido plus Honshu and Hokkaido. In addition there is here the dispute between Japan and Russia over the Kurile Islands stretching from Hokkaido to the Kamchatka Peninsula.
A country’s access to the oceans has a great influence on its economic and political strength.
”Australia’s China Problem”, Wendover Productions, 2,3 million views
Australia has in 2019 announced an over 2 billion U.S. dollars infrastructure package as part of the government’s project of growing responsibility for the security of the southern Pacific Ocean.
Australians are becoming increasingly worried about the significant Chinese increase of its diplomatic, economic and potentially military presence in the South Pacific.
China is seeking to enhance its reach in the South Pacific. The United States and Australia agree that the Asian great power must not be allowed to “break out” into the Western Pacific Ocean.
Since 2011 China has offered over one billion U.S. dollars in donations and loans to Pacific Island countries. China’s amount is second only to the more than six billion U.S. dollars from Australia.
Australia has at last recognized it needs to compete in a region that has been free from hostile external influence for over seven decades.
