Sir Halford Mackinder believed that major showdowns in international affairs of the 20th century would revolve over control of the Eurasian continent and its maritime approaches. His thesis is worth revisiting in light of the US-China rivalry today.
Germany’s drive for dominance unleashed the great black tornado of the First World War. Only a global coalition, including the US, could hold Eurasia in balance.
The Second World War showed that the difficulties of blunting Eurasian challenges early could be severe—but that the price of rolling them back later could be far worse
An authoritarian, expansionist Soviet Union represented the heartland threat Mackinder had long foreseen. But ironically, his insights birthed a strategy for containing that threat—and building the liberal international order we know today.
In many ways, Xi Jinping’s China is a state like no other. But its ambitions for global supremacy are but a new twist on a familiar problem – and are eliciting a familiar response from the rest of the world.
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