Author: David Eisler

Summer Essay Campaign #15: “Geography, Demographics, and Strategy – A Blessing or a Curse?”

To Answer Question #7: “How do geography and demographics impact a nation’s grand and military strategic choices?”

By David Eisler

Perhaps it seems self-evident that geography and demographics should affect a nation’s grand and military strategies. Mountain ranges, open plains, coastlines, and other topographical masterpieces created by several hundred million years of forces operating on the earth have blessed some nations with natural boundaries and cursed others with fewer resources. Border lines drawn on maps of these features have grouped populations that are sometimes hostile towards each other despite sharing a common nationality. But a deeper look at the influence of these variables reveals a more fundamental question– are geography and demographics permissive relative to a state’s strategic choices, or are they restrictive?