if students learn geostrategy in school in conjunction with geography, they would have a more holistic understanding of international politics and theaters of war. it would also be a lot of fun. and dangerous. to say all international relations are a consequence of geography would diminish the responsibility of the people. geography as geostrategy allows us to understand the physical challenges of living in a particular environment. when we look at maps, we should be mindful that the world they represent is not flat. we often forget how the maintenance of cities depends on our understanding of the surrounding geography. someone has to do all this work and maintenance. as of today changing the terrain isn’t easy. it takes a lot of energy and time, using machines which aren’t very efficient. if they were, cities could be anywhere; infrastructure could be built in straight lines regardless of terrain. cities seem to blind its inhabitants. sewers and water systems are underground. garbage disappears. food and clean water appear out of nowhere.

the 圍棋 board is like the earth. we can say the stones are the people. abstracted further, the stones on each point show an intent of interest–a way for players to say absolutely that a point belongs to them. players’ increasing competency is reflected in the progression from brute force capture wars to a game of implied threats. the game becomes more about the empty points, the points not yet played. the later stages of the game are more easily foreseen. the beginning is the most important. once we play a stone, only an opponent can remove it.