ANTIETAM: America's Bloodiest Day

September 17, 2017 -  just shy of one week after 9/11 - marks the 157th anniversary of the bloodiest day in American history. It was on this day in 1862 that General Robert E. Lee's first invasion of the north was turned back, Confederate recognition by Britain and France was thwarted, and the Emancipation Proclamation was ensured. The cost of this was around 23,000 American casualties, almost 4,000 of which were killed in combat. In comparison, 9/11 witnessed the deaths of 2,996 while some 80,000 Russian and French casualties resulted from the single day Battle of Borodino in 1812.

The Battle of Antietam followed a string of Confederate victories led by the newly appointed General Lee beginning in late June of 1862. In a period of one week, Lee won a series of stunning battles that drove the Union Army back from the gates of Richmond. In late August, Lee followed up his opening victories with the Battle of Second Bull Run, located south of Washington DC. In another decisive win, Lee almost outflanked and destroyed the Union Army as it withdrew over Bull Run.

With these victories in hand, Lee decided it was time to take the fight north.

As he would do in the Gettysburg campaign, Lee marched his army nearer to the mountains in northwest Virginia, using them as a screen to cover his forces moving north. Believing the Union commander, General McClellan, to be a slow and cautious leader, Lee took the risk of dividing his forces on the march. While Lee's estimation of McClellan was accurate, Lee did not know that an order containing his marching plans was accidentally discovered by Union forces. With Lee's marching orders in hand, there was little stopping McClellan from attacking the Confederate army piecemeal, and thus bring an end to the war.

McClellan, however, failed to take advantage of Lee's mistake. As he began his attack, McClellan's advance actually drove Lee's disparate forces towards one another. Their final position, however, found the Confederate army sandwiched between the large Potomac River behind them and the Antietam Creek in front of them.

Unable to rapidly retreat across the Potomac, such a situation could prove disastrous to the army should they lose the battle ahead. What's more, Lee with 40,000 men was far outnumbered by McClellan's 80,000. One large push forward with all his troops should have led to the destruction of Lee's forces.

The Battle of Antietam ended in a tactical draw. However, the repulsion of  General Lee's invasion into the North forcing his return to Virginia, was a strategic win for the Union. It was the most significant victory of the war in terms of American foreign policy objectives.  Some argue that Antietam, not Gettysburg, was the turning point in the war. Why did McClellan fail to destroy Lee at Antietam? We invite our readers to watch this short 4-minute video explaining the battle. We can summarize Antietam by describing McClellan's strategy as a rolling attack on Confederate lines from north to south (see map at left). Fighting commenced in the morning at a cornfield at the north end of the battle, then passed further south to an area called the West Woods. From here the action moved to a sunken dirt road now known as the Bloody Lane. Further south it seemed as though the tide turned as Union forces crossed the large stone bridge, pouring troops around Lee's southern (right) flank. Last minute Confederate reinforcements, however, pushed back Union forces and thus brought the battle to an end.

Antietam proved that Lee wasn't invincible - and with Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, the war was increasingly tied to the moral fight against racial slavery. Despite their need for Southern cotton, neither Britain nor France - both of which condemned slavery - would be giving their support to the slave-holding South.

Although the war would drag on for another three deadly years, the blood spilled in war against racial slavery would providentially reflect slavery's grim death toll. For the six million African slaves that died in the Atlantic crossings, one-tenth of that number - 600,000 - is the estimated number of American dead during the Civil War. From Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address:

"...if God wills that [the Civil War] continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said 'the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'"

Mapping Holy Week

By A. Joseph Lynch

The above map (click to enlarge) depicts the city of Jerusalem as it was at the time of Jesus. Although most of us are familiar with the events of Holy Week (from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday), most have not been introduced to the spatial and geographic dimensions of Holy Week. This is in some ways true even for those who have made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. For example, the walls of the "Old City" today are not the walls that stood 2,000 years ago. The walls from the time of Jesus were destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70 and those that stand today were built by the Kurdish Sunni Muslim, Saladin, during the time of the Crusades. Because of this, the location of the Upper Room (site of the Last Supper and Pentecost) is now located outside the Old City walls despite the fact that it was within the walls at the time of Jesus. (To put the Jerusalem  story in the national context, see our Mapping Israel: from Joshua to Jesus.)

On Palm Sunday, Jesus made his way to Jerusalem along the road from Bethany and Jericho, over the Mount of Olives (see the east, or right, side of the map). According to Matthew 21, Jesus rode both an ass and a colt as he made his way over the terrain and into the city via the Golden Gate (see Matthew 21:1-11). Taylor Marshall suspects that Christ rode the ass, more capable of crossing rugged terrain, over the Mount of Olives and the colt as he rode into the city. He sees in the former an image of Israel under the yoke of the Law of Moses and young colt as a sign of the Gentiles to which Christ will send the Church. It is highly likely that Jesus would have passed by the Garden of Gethsemane on his way down the mountain. Luke records that as Jerusalem came into full view, he foresaw its eventual destruction by the Romans and wept over its failure to accept the coming of the Messiah (see Luke 19:41-44). Below is an image the author took of Jerusalem from the church now standing to mark the place of Jesus' weeping.

From the site of which Christ wept over Jerusalem. The gold-topped Dome of the Rock today sits on the place the Temple once stood. Immediately below this picture is the Kidron Valley dividing Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. Nearby towards the base of the valley is Gethsemane.

As Jesus crossed the base of the Kidron Valley and approached the Golden Gate at the foot of the Temple Mount, he was met by many proclaiming "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!" (Matthew 21:9). From here Jesus entered into the Temple where the Synoptic Gospels tell us he overturned the money tables and cleansed the Temple of the those making it a "den of robbers." Some allegorically note that as we prepare to receive the Eucharistic Christ into our bodies - the temples of the Holy Spirit - we proclaim the same words as those at the city gates and await the arrival of the King to cleanse our souls of venial sin through the reception of Holy Communion.

From Palm Sunday we advance to Holy Thursday. The Last Supper took place in the Upper Room, which is named for the guest room that stood above the site of King David's tomb. The site today is revered by both Jews and Christians as the former, segregated by gender, flock to visit the tomb of David while the latter climb the stairs up to the place where the Last Supper and Pentecost took place. The significance of this place to both religions is also why Christians have not turned the site into a church. Nevertheless, this area became the Church's first chancery of sorts as it is where the Apostles originally governed and, just across the street, the place where Mary is said to have entered her Dormition and Assumption. That site is marked today by the Church of the Dormition, visible in the Jerusalem cityscape image above and blown up in the image to the right. Note in the picture that the medieval walls of Jerusalem place the area outside the Old City, but in the time of Christ the walls would have extended much further south.

As Jesus, Peter, James, and John departed from the Upper Room for Gethsemane, they may very well have passed the house of Caiaphas. This house included areas to hold prisoners and it would be here that Jesus would have been taken after his betrayal by Judas. Remains of stairs (see left) from the first century have been found and preserved descending on the north side of Caiaphas' house on a path towards the Kidron Valley and Gethsemane below. A few feet from these stairs is the courtyard where Peter denied Jesus three times. Pilgrims today can visit both sites, and go inside the house of Caiaphas and enter into what scholars believe was the pit-like prison into which Jesus was interred the night of Holy Thursday after his pseudo-trail before the Sanhedrin.

While there is little debate over where Good Friday ended, there is some debate today over exactly where some of the earlier events of Good Friday took place. Crusaders believed that Jesus was taken to the Antonia Fortress located at the northwestern corner of the Temple. The fortress, however, was built to stand over the Temple to keep guard against an potential religiously-induced anti-Herodian or anti-Roman riots among the Jews on Temple grounds. By locating this place as where Jesus went  before Pilate, the crusaders left their mark on the location for pilgrims following the Stations of the Cross within the city. It seems that early Christians - and modern scholars - look to a different location for the trial. On the west side Jerusalem (see map at top) is found both the Praetorium (where Pilate lived) and Herod's Palace. As the Gospels note multiple trials taking place during the day between Herod and Pilate, it seems to make more sense that Jesus was not taken back and forth from one side of town to the other but rather shuttled back and forth from two parts of the same general location. If this is the historical case, it would mean that the path set down by the Crusaders for the Stations of the Cross were inaccurate while the western path used by early Christians was the correct one.

The site of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher today marks the place where the Crucifixion and burial of Christ took place. At the time of Christ it would have been located just outside the city walls on the northwest part of Jerusalem. Calvary - or Golgotha, the place of the Skull (of Goliath)  - was the location for public executions. In some traditions this site was the burial place of Adam as well.  The execution sites were near the city gates so travelers and inhabitants would see the punishment for capital crimes. As the site of frequent deaths, it is unsurprising that burial grounds where located nearby. In fact, so close were they to Calvary that the tomb of Jesus is preserved within the same Church that houses Calvary. Within the walls of that Church, the pivotal moments of salvation history took place in which the eternal Son of God won man redemption through His suffering, death, and resurrection. Forty days later - Ascension Thursday - Christ would end his time on earth where this article's story began: the Mount of Olives overlooking the city of Jerusalem. Here Jesus commissioned the Apostles to baptize the nations. From there they went back to the Upper Room with Mary, praying for the next ten days until the Holy Spirit descended upon them on Pentecost Sunday bringing about the corporate body of Christ, the Church.

Map on Monday: November 11 Rememberance: World War I Redraws European Boundaries

This article was originally posted in November 2014, around 100 years after World War I began. November 11 of this year marks the 100th anniversary of the war's armistice. As the maps below reveal, the great prewar religious land empires of Catholic Austria-Hungary, the Orthodox Russian Empire, and the Sunni Muslim Ottoman Empire did not survive the war's conclusion. Read on to learn more about the downfall of these major religious land empires along with the other changes to Europe's map following the war.

The map above depicts the European map during the years of World War I. Below is a map which looks strikingly different. It is the redrawn map of Europe following the defeat of the Central Powers in 1918.

The most significant changes between the two maps may be found in the Balkans and around the Baltic Sea. The Austro-Hungarian Empire, defeated in war, was broken up and the many nations which were conglomerated within her were given the ability to rule themselves as governing states. In the decades ahead, however, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia would themselves require more separation as the nations within them had yet to achieve statehood. In the northeast, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia appeared out of what was once a part of the Russian Empire - which itself had now fallen to militant atheists under Lenin's communist USSR. Though it had a long history of statehood, Poland re-appeared as yet another new nation on the post Great War map.

Other areas had changed to a lesser degree. Germany was now cut off from East Prussia due to a land corridor of the newly formed Poland which gave it access to the sea. Italy had shifted slightly, gaining further territory to the northeast in Tyrolia. France, victorious in war, regained the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine which it had lost to the Germans following a stunning defeat in the Franco-Prussian War (indeed Germany had hoped its 1914 campaign in France would have been as successful as the one in 1870).

An often overlooked area of the map is the division of the Ottoman Empire. The Turkish nation will be the first secular regime emerging from the Ottoman caliphate. Much of today's Mideast map was reconfigured from the Ottoman Empire's dismemberment. The map below demonstrates:

Addenda:
  World War One and the Armistice  100 years later by Adam Hochschild

The Twentieth Century-The Triumph of Religion and Nations amidst the Fall of Empires. AOA

Map on Monday: MAPPING BUDDHISM

MAPPING THE THREE BRANCHES OF BUDDHISM

by A. Joseph Lynch

Buddhism traces its origins to India's Siddhartha Gautama in the fifth century BC. Upon becoming "the Buddha" (the "Awakened One") he proclaimed the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path to nirvana (a state of mind in which one is awakened to the unreality of the self - and with the death of self comes the death of desire, which Buddha believed was the cause of all suffering). His first followers formed the Buddhist community (or "sanha") and took up a life of ascetic monasticism. Hinduism appropriated Buddha into its pantheon of Vishnu's many incarnations (or "avatars"), and in doing so Buddhism largely died out in the land of its birth.

Within a hundred years of Buddha's death, Buddhism divided into two sects: Theravada Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism. As the way of the elders, the Theravada branch remained much closer to the original outlook of traditional Buddhism. It taught that the individual's pursuit of nirvana was paramount and that nirvana could be achieved only through one renouncing the world and embracing a life of ascetic monasticism. The more popular Mahayana (or "large vehicle") branch, however, divinized the Buddha and infused Buddhism with many religious practices that were accessible to the masses. What's more Mahayana Buddhism did not require monastic vows to attain nirvana. This branch also focused on compassion and celebrated the bodhisattva - those who put off their own nirvana in order to help others along the path before entering themselves.

A third major form of Buddhism is Tibetan Buddhism. This branch developed in Tibet during the seventh-fourteenth centuries AD, mixing Buddhism with local animistic and shamanistic practices. Religious and political leadership became united in the person of the Dalai Lama (or "big teacher"). The Dalai Lama is seen as the reincarnation of an important bodhisattva who helped many others attain the state of nirvana. Tibetan Buddhism is also known as Vajrayana (or "lightning") Buddhism as those who live it out can achieve nirvana at lightning speed - even as quickly as one lifespan without reincarnation.

As Buddhism spread outside of India, it traveled north, east, and south with each direction lending its name to each of the three major branches.

Theravada Buddhism, the oldest branch, is also known as Southern Buddhism. It is has 150 million adherents and comprises roughly 30% of all Buddhists. It is most commonly found in the southeast Asian nations of Cambodia (95% of the population), Thailand (90% of the population), Myanmar or Burma (89% of the population), Sri Lanka (70% of the population), and Laos (67% of the population). Buddhist nationalism in these nations has led Burmese Buddhists to attack and expel Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, Thai Buddhists to fight an Islamic insurgency on its southern border with Malaysia, and Sri Lankan Buddhists to battle both of its Christian and Muslim minorities.

Although one would think Tibetan - or Northern - Buddhism is relegated to Tibet, its branch spread northwards to what is today Mongolia (55% of the total population) and even into Russia. It also comprises roughly 75% of Bhutan's population. With around 20 million adherents, however, Tibetan Buddhists make up less than 5% of all Buddhists. Despite its limited numbers Tibetan Buddhism receives much more attention than other branches due to the political movements surrounding the Dalai Lama and the popularity it has received through political activists, news media, Hollywood, and our modern culture's love for esoteric eastern religions. Although Tibet's unique religious-political history makes it quite unique from the rest of China, its status as both "the water tower of Asia" and also an impregnable wall against India (home of the Dalai Lama in exile) makes Tibet vital to Chinese geostrategy. Here China dabbles in religion as the Chinese government has declared its right to name the next Dalai Lama.

Mahayana Buddhism, also known as Eastern Buddhism, is by far the largest branch of Buddhism with 360 million adherents or 68% of all Buddhists. Although it is the largest of the three branches, Mahayana Buddhism does not comprise the majority faith of any nation. It's numbers are substantial, but spread out. It is found in eastern China, making up around 18% of the population, and is also popular in Vietnam (16% of the population), Taiwan (21% of the population), South Korea (23% of the population), and Japan (36% of the population). Due to its limited impact on national identity, Mahayana Buddhism has not produced the same kind of nationalist political movements as those of Theravada or Tibetan Buddhism.

Map on Monday: The triumph of nationalism and the new nation men

God has ordained that men live in nations bound together by a shared language, defined boundaries, common law and unifying leaders. Every nation has some sacred understanding of itself that constitutes its soul.  In the last 20 years the rise of particularly strong male personalities embodying the resurgent  nations has been striking. Strong men and strong nations are not recipes for war but the carriers of communal life into the larger international arena where humanity renews our shared brotherhood under God. That brotherhood extends to all men but it is first expressed in the brotherhood of citizens in the particular territorial nations.

We dedicate this pictorial depiction to a great man of a very small nation - the man we consider the best geopolitical thinker of his era - Lee Kwan Yew of Singapore.

The life of nations is expressed and transmitted by the formation of male characters who embody  the communal traits and soul of the nation in their personalities.     

Map on Monday: BURMA

The Physical Ecology, Communal Loyalties, and Geopolitics of Burma

by Dr. David Pence and A. Joseph Lynch

Physical Ecology: Natural Resources and Physical Geography

The core of Burma is dominated by the Irrawaddy river valley. The river runs north-south and roughly bisects the nation. At 1,348 miles in length and with a drainage basin 156,100 square miles (out of the nation's total of 262,000 square miles), it is also one of the most important rivers of Asia and home to various states and peoples over the centuries. The British Empire saw the value of this river and made its control an important imperial pursuit. Today the river generates electricity by way of hydroelectric dams. It acts as an important means of transportation, both in terms of people and goods (e.g. petroleum, cotton, timber, and local commodities). It also provides the water necessary for Burma's important rice production. 

Protecting the Irrawaddy core has always been problematic for peoples inhabiting the river valley. To the north and west, highlands and mountains form borders with India, Bangladesh, and China. The Hengduan Mountains form a natural border with China in the north while the Arakan Mountains create a border with Bangladesh and India. This physical geography led Burma to have greater communications with its southeastern neighbors (modern day Thailand and Laos).

Eastern Burma is dominated by the Shan Hills, a sparsely populated region home to Burma's many mineral resources. These include jade, sapphires, rubies, lead, silver, and zinc. This area is also more amenable to travel and communication, making it - along with Burma's long border with Thailand - an easy point of entry for migrating peoples. Burma is also home to oil and natural gas, with roughly half of it's drilling onshore and half offshore. It has been exporting crude oil since 1853, and remains today a vital oil and natural gas exporter in Asia.


Communal Loyalties: Ethnicity, Language, and Religion

Myanmar is a South Asian country of 53 million. The largest ethnic group is the Bamar (70%). In 1989 the military government changed many English names (like Burma) to ethnic equivalents (Myanmar). 88% of the people are Theravada Buddhist. 6% of the country are Christian and 4% Muslim.      

“Linguists have identified 110 distinct ethnolinguistic groups, and the government recognizes 135 ethnic groups (referred to as races). The Burmese account for about 68 percent of the population. Other major ethnic groups include the Shan (about four million) , Karen (about three million), Arakanese or Rakhine (about two million), Chinese (over one million), Chin (over one million), Wa (about one million), Mon (about one million), Indians and Bengalis (about one million)."

The ethnic Burmans—the people who ruled Pagan and dominate Myanmar today— didn't arrive until A.D. 9th century. Over a period of few centuries, they emigrated south from Tibet, passed through what is now the Yunnan Province of China and established settlements along the Irrawaddy River.

 The ancestors of modern Laotians, Thais, Burmese and Cambodians originated from southern China. The Burmans appear to have migrated south from Tibet to Yunnan in China, along with several other linguistic and cultural groups, more than 3,000 years ago. Anthropologists see them  as southern Mongoloids.

Burmese is the official and most widely spoken language in Myanmar. Spoken by about 70 percent of the population, it is Tibeto-Burmese language, a subfamily of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages language, which also includes Kachin, Chin and several tribal languages spoken in the Myanmar-China border region. The mother tongue of the Bamar, it is linguistically related to Tibetan and to the Chinese languages.  Burmese is a tonal language—like Thai, Chinese and Vietnamese—with five tones (meaning that words or syllables with similar sound have a different meaning depending on the high, low, rising, falling or level tone or pitch of the sound).

After 1914, the Buddhist element became much more nationalistic, and highly resistant to Christianity. Most Christians are from minority ethnic groups. There was hostility toward the Christian Karens as well as Indian immigrants.  The Protestant population reached 192,000 in 1926, with the Baptists in the forefront. When the Japanese seized Burma in 1942, the British and American missionaries fled, but they returned in 1945. Independence from Britain came in 1947, and for years there was simmering tension and sometimes military action by the government against the Karens. This strengthened the Christian religiosity of the Karens minority, and deepened the hostility of the majority Buddhist population toward Christianity. In 1966 all foreign missionaries were expelled by the Burmese government,  The growth in conversions of minorities to Christianity was related to the rise of Buddhist nationalism, closely tied to ethnic Barma identity. The Chin minority group grew from 35% Christian in 1966 to 90% in 2010; the Kachin minority group likewise grew from 40% in 1966 to 90~95% in 2010.  Most Muslims live in the northwest provinces. The largest ethnic group of Muslims are the Rohingya who are not recognized as a native ethnicity eligible for citizenship (see below).

Geopolitics: Political Geography and Foreign Policy

British colonization after the Anglo-Burmese wars (1824-85) brought many Hindus and Muslims from present day India and Bangladesh into Burma. (Best map explanations here). The Burmese nationalist movement in the 1920's portrayed the immigrants from the subcontinent as part of  British colonization. The newcomers dominated industries and the colonial government. They were never perceived as seeking a common Burmese citizenship with the locals. The Burmese nationalist movement  rooted their nationalism in indigenous precolonial ethnic identities and the Buddhist religion. In 1942, Japanese forces invaded Burma and during the British retreat communal violence erupted. Attacks were made against those groups that had benefited from British colonial rule. Burman nationalists attacked Karen and Indian communities, while in Arakan Rakhine, Rohingya villagers attacked one another causing a displacement of Buddhist villagers to the south and Muslims to the north. Many Burmese nationalists welcomed the Japanese as liberators of the nation from British Imperialism. Most prominent of these was Aung San (1915-1947), the Father of the Nation and organizer of the Burmese Independence Army(1941). The region remained under Japanese control until a British offensive drove out the Japanese in 1945. Prior to the Japanese invasion, the British, seeking to bolster support for their forces, had promised the Muslims of northern Arakan a Muslim National Area.

After Burma became independent in January 1948, tensions between the government and the Rohingya grew. Immediately following independence, a group of Arakanese Muslims went on the political offensive, pushing for the integration of Maungdaw and Buthidaung into what was then known as East Pakistan. That proposal was rejected by the Constituent Assembly in Rangoon. The government treated the Rohingya as illegal immigrants.

The immigration authorities imposed limitations of movement upon Muslims from the regions of Maungdaw, Buthidaung, and Rathedaung to Akyab [Sittwe]. Some 13,000 Rohinga still living in refugee camps in India and Pakistan whence they had fled during the war, were unable to return. Those who did manage to return were considered illegal Pakistani immigrants.

Beginning in 1950, segments of the Rohingya community resorted to armed action, led by armed groups called Mujahids. The Pakistani government in 1950 sent a warning to its Burmese counterparts about the treatment of Muslims in Arakan. However, Burma's Prime Minister, U Nu,  negotiated an understanding according to which Pakistan would no longer provide weapons to the Mujahids. In 1954, authorities in Pakistan finally arrested Cassim, the leader of the Mujahids. In November 1954, the Burmese army stepped up counterinsurgency operations in Arakan and quieted the rebellion.  Shortly after General Ne Win and his Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) seized power in 1962, the government began to dissolve Rohingya social and political organizations. In 1977, Burmese immigration and military authorities conducted what they called Operation Nagamin (Dragon King), a national effort to register citizens and screen out foreigners prior to a national census. By May 1978, more than 200,000 Rohingya had fled to Bangladesh ( In 1971, the Bengalis of East Pakistan fought a war of liberation establishing Bangladeshi as a sovereign nation. 162 million strong, 98% Muslim, it is the world's 8th largest nation and 4th most populous Muslim country.)  The Burmese authorities claimed the Rohingya affinity for Bangladeshi was more proof that they were not really of Burma. Refugees reported that the Burmese army had forcibly evicted them and alleged widespread army brutality, rape and murder. (SECTIONS OF PRECEDING 3 PARAGRAPHS PATCHED FROM RELIABLE PUBLIC SOURCES)

A 1982 law defining Burmese citizenship deliberately excluded the Rohingya people (defining them as a Muslim Bangladesh ethnic group that settled in Burma under the cover of colonization) as a native ethnic group constituting the Burmese nation. They excluded as natives anyone who could not show ancestry before 1823. The 1 million members of the Northwest state of Rahkine (bordering Bangladesh) are thus considered stateless and were advised to return to their previous homeland. This narrative of all Rohingya only coming with the British is highly disputed by Muslims who claim much longer ancestory in Arakan where they were also persecuted in the 17th century.  In the last two years close to 10,000 Rahkine Muslims have been killed and 400,000 to 900,000 have fled-- mostly to  Muslim Bangladesh. It is ethnic cleansing by exile fed by brutal whole village exterminations to threaten those who might wish to stay. It is mindful of the wholesale ethnic/religous slaughter and mass migrations of the Indian partition in 1947 (15 million displaced; 1.5 million dead). 

The replacement of Burma's military government (ruled 1962-2011) by the NLD party led by female democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi has actually increased the propensity of nationalist advocates to take to the streets and expel their Muslim neighbors. Like the Arab Spring, so called democracy movements often unleash deeper communal identities and hatreds which eventually shape the course of events. The American press has been fairly incoherent in explaining this story. The photo shots of Hillary Clinton toasting Aung Kyi attest to the poverty of the democracy plus female empowerment=progress narrative. In the 200 year struggle for Burmese nationhood, Aung San (1915-1947), the father of Aung Kyi and the Father of the Nation looms large. He was an organizer of the Burmese Independence Army(1941)  and sided with the Japanese initially in WWII as a fighting alternative to British colonialism. He was the founder of the Burmese Communist Party as well.  His assassination in 1947 left his daughter a symbolic figure of national identity. How that national identity will be formalized and who will lead the country is a work in progress. Here is one account that takes religion and history seriously in explaining the carnage and resettlement. 

Religion, nations, and men - we must learn to speak the real grammar of history to understand these events. Buddhists expel "old Muslim invaders" in Myanmar.

Map on Monday: THE NATIONS AND THEIR EXPORTS

The color-coded map above divides the nations of the world by chief exports. While we will summarize below, a full article on this map can be read by following this link: See Which Commodities Make the World Go Round. See also our map on Sixteen Rare Earth Metals and Minerals.

The colors of the map are summarized as:

• Oil and Petroleum Exports (Blue): This color dominates the map. While we are all familiar with the Mideast oil exports, nations in central and west Africa along with some of the South American oil-exporters, may surprise us. The author of the original article wonders how much trading power OPEC would have if it included all blue-colored nations. 

• Minerals and Metals (Red and Orange): These nations offer the world rare or precious minerals and metals (Red) or large quantities of non-precious minerals and metals (Orange). Examples of the former include gold, platinum, and diamonds while the latter would include copper, uranium, phosphate, and iron ore.

• Foodstuffs (Light Blue): Major food exporters are found in the Horn of Africa (coffee, tea, livestock and grain), South and Latin America (soy beans, sugar, beef, coffee, and bananas), coastal nations that produce fish exports. 

• Machinery/Transportation and Electronics (Grey and Green): Canada, Brazil, Japan, and much of Europe comprise the industrialized nations who manufacture a large portion of the world's machines and automobiles. The green-colored nations, like China and the U.S., produce the advanced electronics of our tech-driven twenty-first century.

• Textiles/Apparel and Wood (Yellow and Purple): Whether it's producing cotton (Togo, Benin, and Mali), or using that cotton to make clothing and shoes, the yellow-colored nations help clothe the world. Meanwhile, the rich forests of southeast Asia produce much of the world's wood products.

Map on Monday: THE WORLD'S FIVE MILITARY EMPIRES

The Swiss Institute for Peace and Energy Research (SIPER) recently created a series of maps depicting the foreign military installations of five nations with large defense budgets. The five nations are:

1. The United States: Spending $611 billion in defense with 587 military bases in 42 other nations in addition to the 4.154 bases in the US and 114 bases in US overseas territories. See also our US Combatant Commands map post and see how the US views the world militarily. 
2. France: The French have military bases in 11 foreign nations, most of which are located in former west African French colonies. France, however, also has a presence in French Guyana (South America), Germany, and, oddly, in the United Arab Emirates. See also our Francophone map post.
3. The United Kingdom: Like the French, British military bases may be found in eleven foreign nations. Unlike the more concentrated French presence in west Africa, however, British bases are found in a more scattered form across the globe. See also our British Empire map post.  
4. Russia: Military bases belonging to Russia are present in 9 other nations, most of which are located along Russia's periphery. These include: Armenia (2 bases), Belarus (4 bases), Kazakhstan (4 basess), Kyrgyzstan (1 base) , and Tajikistan (7 bases). There is also a Russian presence in breakaway regions of Transnistria (Moldova), South Ossetia and Abkhazia (Georgia). Only Syria and Vietnam are host to Russian bases further afield. See also our Russian Geopolitics map post.
5. China: China's only military base outside of China is found in Djibouti at the mouth of the Bab-el-Mandeb, a geostrategic location at the southern end of the Red Sea. See also our Geostrategic choke points map. 

Given the minimal fixed military presence of both Russia and China, the neoconservative and growing liberal concerns regarding these nations seem over-estimated. Vietnam aside, the maps reveal Russia's primary concern with its immediate borders and with the protection of Christians in the Mideast. China also focuses on its periphery, seeing the particularly growing American presence in southern and eastern Asia as an encircling threat.   

To view all five maps, along with a bonus map depicting an overlap of Russian and American bases, please read this excellent map post from Strange Maps.

Russia's naval window on the Gulf of Finland

                                                       

In 1703 Peter the Great founded his new capital -- St. Petersburg -- at the eastern end of the Gulf of Finland. Sailing out from that harbor, you eventually bump into Stockholm. At that time in history the Swedes were a manly people, and they completely dominated the Baltic region. One of the reasons that Peter built his window on the West was to counter that threat.

Charles XII, with his relatively small Swedish army, invaded Russia in 1708. The most bitter winter in 500 years devastated the attackers; and, several months later in Ukraine, at the Battle of Poltava, the imperial era of the Swedes came to a calamitous end. [See this excellent overview].

                                     

When Peter the Great built St. Petersburg, the Swedes controlled the large island 20 miles out in the harbor. But the Russians seized it, and started laying out and fortifying Kronstadt, which has served as the headquarters of the Russian admiralty ever since.

The most stunning building on the island is the Kronstadt Naval Cathedral:

It is comparable in size to Istanbul's Hagia Sophia. The cathedral was fully restored and reconsecrated in 2013.

The holy John of Kronstadt (d. 1908) served as priest for many years at St. Andrew's Cathedral (which was later torn down by the Soviet authorities).


Today, St. Petersburg (Russia's second largest city) has about 5 million residents; Kronstadt has 43,000.




UPDATE: Lake Onega is east of St. Peterburg. On one of its islands, there is a famous church with 22 domes!

                                           

Map on Monday: PRUSSIA

How a Teutonic State in the Baltic Became Protestant and Changed German History

By A. Joseph Lynch

Although Prussia is often associated with the larger German state, the region of Prussia lies far to the east of modern day Germany, originally stretching from border of Pomerania to Lithuania along the Baltic coast.

There is a great deal of confusion surrounding the geography of Prussia, partly due to the use of “Prussia” for the emerging unified German state and partly due to the fact that the lands once belonging to the old Duchy of Prussia are now under Russian, Polish, and Lithuanian control. Despite its association with Germany, Prussia was located much further to the east along the Baltic coast, just south of modern day Lithuania. Its peoples – one of many Baltic tribes in the region (see right) – were conquered and Christianized in the Northern Crusades by the Teutonic Knights, a Catholic religious order of monastic warriors seeking to conquer and convert the Baltic. Teutonic Prussia became the center the Teutonic State as it continued to spread northwards into what is today Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.

The power of the Teutonic Knights reached its apogee at the beginning of the fifteenth century. Its fortunes changed, however, when Lithuania and Poland united against it in the Thirteen Years War (1454-1466). With the defeat of the Teutonic Knights, western Prussia (now called "Royal Prussia") was ceded to Poland and eastern Prussia was left as Teutonic rump state swearing fealty as a fief (or duchy) of Poland. In 1525, during the rising tide of Protestantism, Teutonic Prussia renounced the Catholicism held by its neighbors to the east and south and cast its lot with Lutheranism. The Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, Albert, in a deal partly orchestrated by Martin Luther, was recognized by the King of Poland as the Duke of Prussia. Poland for its part preferred a Lutheran Prussia over a Catholic Teutonic Prussia under the Holy Roman Empire and the Papacy. Though it remained a fief of Poland, its status as Lutheran made the Duchy of Prussia the first Protestant state.

Albert (left), last Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, was aided by Martin Luther (right) to renounce Catholicism, convert to Lutheranism, and create the Duchy of Prussia as the first Protestant state with the unlikely support of Catholic Poland.

The duchy entered into a succession crisis in 1618 when its duke, Albert Frederick, died without an heir. Succession fell to his son-in-law, John Sigismund of the Hohenzollern family, who at the time was also the ruler of Lutheran Brandenburg with its capital of Berlin, situated in the Holy Roman Empire. Despite the distance between his two realms and the fact that the Duchy of Prussia was still a Polish fief, Sigismund would rule over both Brandenburg and Prussia in a personal union called “Brandenburg-Prussia.” Sigismund, a champion of Calvinism’s spread, soon found himself ruling large numbers of Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists.

In 1656, Sweden conquered the Duchy of Prussia during its war with Poland-Lithuania. When the tides of war turned against the Swedes, Charles X Gustav of Sweden offered Prussia’s return to Brandenburg on the condition that Brandenburg entered the war as a Swedish ally. Poland, hearing of the offer, countered with an offer of its own: if Brandenburg remained neutral, the Duchy of Prussia would be returned to Brandenburg fully free of Polish fealty. With the defeat of Sweden, Brandenburg-Prussia became more powerful than ever before – but the Poles were willing to accept that over having a new enemy on a second front. The victorious rulers in Brandenburg’s Berlin, however, had even more in mind. They desired the title of king. For this they would need the support of the Holy Roman Emperor – the one person who wouldn’t stand for an upstart king within his borders. Wars, however, require allies – and soon the emperor would be in need of an ally from the Hohenzollerns of Brandenburg-Prussia.

In 1701, Brandenburg-Prussia agreed to support the Hapsburg family in the War of the Spanish Succession in return for the emperor’s recognition of a kingly title for the Hohenzollern rulers. Because there could be no king vying for power within the Holy Roman Empire, the Hohenzollerns could claim kingship over their lands outside the realm of the empire: the territory of Prussia. Thus the title “King in Prussia” was granted, but was soon replaced with the title “King of Prussia” – and in order to show the extent of their kingship, the name Brandenburg-Prussia was discarded for the Kingdom of Prussia. Thus began the association of relatively small Baltic region with the later entirety of the rising German state. By the end of the eighteenth century, Prussian rulers like Frederick the Great would conquer Silesia from the Austrians and old West Prussia (or Royal Prussia) from Poland. With these territories acquired (see this excellent video map of Prussia's expansion), Prussia dramatically increased in size, physically uniting the disparate territories of the former Brandenburg-Prussian state, and becoming an emerging power on the continent – a status it fully achieved in 1806 with the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire.

The Kingdom of Prussia, governed in Berlin by the highborn Junker class of the old Brandenburg-Prussian core region, became the center of German unification during the second half of the nineteenth century. By 1871, the Kingdom of Prussia had defeated and taken lands from Poland, Denmark, Austria, and France. It would be governed by the Hohenzollerns until the disastrous defeat of 1918, which led to territorial losses to the French (Alsace-Loraine), Danes (North Schleswig), Poland (Posen, Upper Silesia, West Prussia), Czechoslovakia, and Lithuania. The eastern core of the original Prussian state in the Baltic region remained, but it was once more physically cut off from the larger German state by the loss of West Prussia to Poland.

Nazi Germany’s failed attempt to regain lost German territory – and Europe along with it – led to the loss of Pomerania and Silesia to Poland, and to the end of the original Prussian state in the east. The southern half of old Prussia was incorporated into Poland and the northern half made a part of Russia, which it remains to this day. Konigsberg became Kaliningrad, and the native Prussian population was forcibly evicted and replaced by native Russians. Today the Kaliningrad region is a geostrategically important oblast of the Russian Federation, giving Russia military reach into Europe and providing it with its only Baltic port that does not freeze in the winter. Long gone are the days of the Teutonic Knights, the Junker aristocracy, and German glory. Prussia lives on in our histories, but little is left of it upon ground from which it came.

Map on Monday: THE GULF STATES

An Introduction to the Religious, Ethnic, and Geopolitical Makeup of the Persian Gulf Region

By A. Joseph Lynch 

The map above depicts the eight nations surrounding the Persian Gulf: Oman, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, and Iran. Over 1/2 the world's oil reserves and 1/3 of the natural gas reserves are in this Islamic region marked by deep ethnic loyalties and religious divisions. Seven of the eight Gulf states have an Arab majority, but the largest state (Iran) is Persian. There are five Arab-majority Sunni states while Iraq, Bahrain, and Iran are mostly Shiite. Any military conflict in the region threatens world energy supplies. Consider the Strait of Hormuz at the eastern end of the Persian Gulf. Approximately 23% of the world's oil traded by sea passes through the Strait, which at its narrowest point is only 21 nautical miles across (see map below). Ships from the Persian Gulf travel through the Strait of Hormuz into the Gulf of Oman, before taking to the open seas.

The Strait of Hormuz: Twenty-four miles across at its narrowest where Iran and an Oman-controlled peninsular tip face each other across the strait.

Click to enlarge

Examining the region clockwise beginning with Oman (population 3.6 million), we find that Oman's main geographical orientation faces the Arabian Sea to the east and the Gulf of Oman to the north, with the capital of Muscat strategically located roughly in between each. Oman also owns the strategic "Gibraltar of the Gulf" -- a peninsular enclave (Musandam Peninsula) facing Iran across the Strait of Hormuz and separated from mainland Oman by  the UAE.  Oman's absolute monarchy has been led by Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said since 1970, making him the longest reigning ruler in the region. Oman has a long-standing moderate foreign policy with a cordial relationship with Iran. The majority religion is Ibadi Islam which predates the Sunni/Shia split. It is highly puritanical in theology but more moderate in relations with other Muslims than the Wahhabis. Unlike its Yemeni neighbors, Oman is a relatively peaceful nation, protected by a 25,000-man army, 36 combat aircraft, and a navy with ten surface warships.

The United Arab Emirates (population 9.3 million) is, as its name suggests, a union of seven separate Arab emirates (an emirate is a principality ruled by an emir) with the Emirate of Abu Dhabi serving as its capital. Each emirate is itself ruled by an absolute monarch and one of these monarchs is selected to act as president of the nation. The U.A.E. boasts the fourth largest oil supply in the world, giving it an important place in world affairs despite its small landmass. It has a strong, Sunni Islam-oriented foreign policy and was, until September 11, 2001, one of the only three nations (Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are the others) to recognize Taliban rule in Afghanistan. The UAE were major financial backers of  General Abdel el-Sisi and the Egyptian military coup against President Mohammed Morsi and the elected Muslim Brotherhood. In the Sunni republican-populist vs monarchy movements, the U.A.E. is monarchical. The U.A.E. has a 65,000-man army and is rapidly expanding its military.

Click to enlarge

Qatar (population 2.2 million, 300,000 citizens) and Bahrain (population 1.3 million) are the two smallest and often-overlooked Gulf states. While Qatar sits on a peninsula jutting into the Gulf, Bahrain is an island nation within the Gulf itself located northwest of Qatar. Bahrain is, however, physically connected to mainland Saudi Arabia via the King Faud Causeway. Qatar's capital of Doha sits on its east coast; while Bahrain's capital of Manama is found on the north coast. How tiny Qatar became independent from the Saudis is about --natural gas and making separate alliances  including with the US. 30% of the world market in liquid natural gas is exported by Qatar. Their Arab neighbors receive a tiny part of the market which is  centered on Asian countries and the UK. Qatar shares their natural gas field with Iran and thus they are not as viscerally anti Shiite as the Saudis.  A small amount of LNG is shipped to UAE by pipeline but the majority is by shipping tankers.      

Qatar strongly backs Sunni religious groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and it has given arms to Syrian rebels (both moderate and extreme brands). Qatar has the worst record in the region for fighting terrorism, and most Qataris follow a Wahhabi interpretation of Islam. Despite this, the United States has strong ties with the Qataris, maintaining CENTCOM's forward regional headquarters at Qatar's Al Udeid Air Base. Qatar's government funds the most influential venture in Arab television: Al Jazeera Network. Qatar is a force inside the Wahhabi movement that is often at odds with the Saudi monarchs. Their support of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and more populous forms of Salafism ultimately threatens the hereditary rulers of the House of Saud. This is the real source of conflict between the new young Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and the young leaders of Qatar. Since President Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia in May 2017, relations have soured between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Maldives, Sunni-controlled Bahrain, and Sunni-controlled Yemen. As of June 2017, all six states cut diplomatic ties with Qatar due to its continued support of certain Salafist organizations seen as threats to the Salafist monarchies in Saudi Arabia and UAE and military rule in Egypt.

Bahrain is one of the three Gulf States to have a Shiite majority. A Sunni king, however, rules the nation and put down a 2011 "Arab Spring" Shiite uprising with the help of 1,000 troops from Saudi Arabia and another 500 from the United Arab Emirates. Some 80 civilians died in the uprising and 65% of those arrested reported being tortured. Like Qatar, Bahrain has strong U.S. ties, hosting the U.S. 5th Fleet at Manama.

Gulf Cooperation Council states

Saudi Arabia (population 28.8 million) and Kuwait (population 3.4 million), together with Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Oman are the Gulf's Sunni Islam majority states, with Bahrain controlled by a Sunni government. Unsurprisingly, it is these six Gulf states that formed the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in 1981. Centered in Riyadh, these states today form a Saudi-led, anti-Iranian, anti-Shiite bloc in the region. Over the last two years,  there has been discussion of forming a "Gulf Union" of the six states, somewhat similar to the European Union. They have also created a NATO-like military organization called the Peninsula Shield Force (PSF). It was this military organization that put down the Shiite uprising in Bahrain -- and it appears to be playing another anti-Shiite role in Yemen today. While Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) controls much of Yemen, the Gulf Cooperation Council has labeled the Shiite takeover of the nation a "terrorist" act and has begun a military campaign, not against the Sunni-led Al Qaeda but against the Shiites who wish to fight Al Qaeda. This is considered an attempt by King Salman’s favorite son-30 yr old Mohammed bin Salman to curry favor with Wahhabi clerics in his upcoming succession fight. The Saudi fight against the Shiites has actually strengthened Yemen's AQAP the Salafist Sunni terror group most likely to be aiming at US and European targets.

Iraq (population 33.4 million) and Iran (population 77.5 million) together comprise (with Bahrain) the Shiite nations of the Gulf region. With more than double Saudi Arabia's population, Iran is clearly the largest Gulf state (for more information about Iran, see this previous Map on Monday post). Iraq (36% Shiite, 25% Sunni, and 39% of various religions with Christianity being the largest) has increasingly looked eastward to Shiite-Persian Iran in recent years. Since the fall of Saddam Hussein, the elected Shiite government has been attacked as illegitimate by radical Sunni forces from outside and inside the country. The Sunni north merging with the majority Sunnis of Syria are under the sway of ISIS while  the Kurdish (Sunni) northeast becomes increasingly independent of Baghdad. What remains under Iraqi control is the Shiite-dominated south. The dream of an undivided caliphate under radical Sunni rule has driven the Shiite states of Iraq and Iran (which has the longest coastline with the Persian Gulf) into an alliance with Assad's Syrian coastal state on the Mediterranean. Assad, like the Houthis of Yemen, practices a distant variant of Shiite Islam. They are united, not so much as fellow Shiites, as fellow enemies of the Sunni purification movement. For this reason, Iran and Iraq seek the destruction of ISIS, while Sunni Gulf States (along with Sunni Turkey) watch the fighting from a distance in hopes of seeing Shiite armies weakened in battle.

American military institutions are based in the midst of this growing conflict. Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel, because of his understandable fear of Iran, is attempting to exploit the religious, historical, and geographic ignorance of American policymakers to draw us into war with Iran whom he see as an existential threat. But taking a step backward and seeing the Gulf as a whole and the Sunni salafist nature of the worldwide terrorist threat in Asia, Russia, and America, the strategic question for the United States remains. That is, in the Sunni/Shiite religious war: Whose side are we on?

(This article first appeared on Anthropology of Accord - April 13, 2015)

Map on Monday: America's Unified Combatant Commands

The map above (click to enlarge) explains how the United States military has arranged structures of command and authority for engaging in military conflict throughout the world. Historically forged out of the crucible of the Second World War, each Command is led by a four-star General or Admiral who is given command over the forces operating within his "Area of Responsibility" (AOR). The United States Central Command (USCENTCOM), for example, is currently headed by General Lloyd Austin, who effectively commands military units within the Mideast with the exception of Israel (which falls under the boundaries of the United States European Command).

The six regional or geographical Commands, along with some of their primary responsibilities, include:

1. United States Africa Command (all Africa with the exception of Egypt)
2. United States Central Command (Mideast minus Israel, Afghanistan, Pakistan, central Asia)
3. United States European Command (Europe, Russia, Turkey, Israel, Caucasus region)
4. United States Northern Command (the United States, Canada, Mexico)
5. United States Pacific Command (India but not Pakistan,  China, Japan, Australia, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Koreas) 
6. United States Southern Command (Cuba, South America, Latin America)

In addition to the six geographically-structured Commands, there are three additional Commands described in functional terms: United States Special Operations Command (responsible for US Special Forces and Special Operations units); United States Strategic Command (responsible for operations in space, missile defense, nuclear weapons, and military intelligence); and United States Transportation Command (responsible for global defense transportation and military logistics).

In future Map on Monday posts, we will return to each of the six geographic Unified Combatant Commands for further examination and analysis.

President Bush meets with the Joint Chiefs and United Combatant Commanders

President-elect Donald Trump selected two former combatant commanders (and Marine Corps generals) to act as his secretaries of defense and homeland security. General James "Mad Dog" Mattis, nominated for defense, was the commander of the Central Command from 2010-2013. Mattis is also known as the "warrior monk" for his dedication to military service and study, and having no family. Great Mattis quotes and stories abound. General John Kelly, nominated for homeland security, commanded the Southern Command from 2012-2016. His former position undoubtedly gave him great insight into America's south and central American allies, the region's drug smuggling problems, and the need to maintain strong American border security. A general like Mattis, Kelly has also experienced the sacrifice of family for military service: his son, First Lieutenant Robert Kelly, was killed in Afghanistan in 2010.

In addition to Generals Mattis and Kelly, President Trump appointed General H.R. McMaster as his National Security Advisor. McMaster, though not a former combatant commander, was one of America's most capable generals in the Iraq war while also spending time in Afghanistan. His refusal to use the phrase "radical Islamic terrorism" because he sees the terrorists as "un-Islamic" is helpful in clarifying friend and foe in the current religious war. We hope President Trump adopts a similar view in his approach to Islam and terrorism.

Retired Marine Generals and former Combatant Commanders, John Kelly (left) and James Mattis (center), have been nominated to serve President-elect Donald Trump as the new Secretaries of Homeland Security and Defense respectively. General McMaster (right) is President Trump's National Security Advisor.

Map on Monday: KURDISTAN

The Physical Ecology, Communal Loyalties, and Geopolitics of Kurdistan

By. A. Joseph Lynch

There is an important distinction to be made between a nation and a state. Where “state” refers to the authoritative governing body over a specific people, land area with specific borders, and natural resources, a nation is the a deep union of people often characterized by a shared culture, religion, language, and ethnicity. In most cases, a nation has a state, or governing apparatus. But sometimes many nations are bound within one state, as is often the case with empires. The lands that once were governed by the empire of Austria-Hungary, for example, are today many distinct nation states. Other nations, however, have been kept from forming their own states due to stronger neighboring nation states who use their political and military strength to make sure a nation never gains an independent state. Such is the case with the Kurds.

I. The Physical Ecology of Kurdistan

Worldwide the Kurds number over 30 million living largely in Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey (see map above). Kurdish hopes for a potential independent nation state are centered in what is known as Iraqi Kurdistan. This northern region of Iraq, already treated as an semi-autonomous region, is home to just over five million Kurds. The physical geography of Kurdistan is in many ways as different from the rest of Iraq as its Kurdish inhabitants. Kurdistan is situated along the Zagros Mountains (which also form much of the Iran-Iraq border), which, combined with the slightly higher latitude, makes it a much wetter and greener region than the areas to its south. Kurdistan’s mountain terrain is also home to many mineral resources: coal, copper, gold, iron, limestone, marble, and zinc. Kurdistan also has the world's largest deposit of rock sulfur. Like the rest of the region, however, Kurdistan has access to large deposits of energy reserves. In addition to the four billion barrels of proven oil reserves, it is estimated that Kurdistan has another 45 billion barrels of unproven oil reserves.

II. The Communal Loyalties of Kurdistan

The Kurds are a distinct ethnic group in the Middle East. They have a long heritage and history in the region, claiming as their own the great military commander: Saladin. Saladin defeated the medieval Crusader states and eventually ruled over lands stretching from upper Mesopotamia (modern day Kurdistan), through Syria, to Egypt, and along the Red Sea coast to Yemen. Like Saladin, the Kurds follow the largest branch of Islam called Sunni Islam. Despite belonging to the largest branch of Islam, the Kurds are a minority ethnic group distinct from the larger and stronger Arabs to the south. This has placed the Kurds outside of the pan Arabic movements that bind many of the Sunni Arab states. The Kurds also speak a form of Iranian, making them linguistically closer to their neighbors to the east. But here deeper religious divisions come to the fore: where the Kurds are Sunni, the Iranians are Shia. Looking to the north, the Kurds are both ethnically and linguistically different from the Turks, who see their minority Kurdish population as a threat. There are multiple military and governing structures that bind Kurds across the region. The Iraqi Kurds are governed semi-autonomously from Irbil under the KRG (Kurdish Regional Government), protected by the Peshmerga (a Kurdish military force numbering nearly a quarter million soldiers). They are led by the KDP’s (Kurdistan Democratic Party) Massoud Barzani. In Syria a Kurdish political party known as the PYD (Democratic Unity Party) is aligned with military forces called the People’s Protection Units (or YPG) to fight against ISIS. Complicating this is a banned Kurdish political party from Turkey known as the Kurdish Workers’ Party (or PKK) which has been at war with the Turkish government for four decades. They are left wing and one of the few fighting forces with a substantial female component(15-30%). The PKK, aligned with the PYD in Syria, and based in areas near Iraqi Kurdistan, have created a complicated geopolitical situation between Turks and Kurds.

III. The Geopolitics of Kurdistan

The physical ecology and communal loyalties as outlined above play a crucial role in Kurdistan’s geopolitics. International attention first came to the Kurds during Saddam Hussein’s chemical attacks on Kurdish lands.  The important role the Kurdish Peshmerga played in toppling the Saddam regime and years later in expelling ISIS are strong arguments for Kurdish independence. The Kurds have increased in strength, fought off a relentless attack from ISIS, captured much of the Syria-Turkish border, and are now working to conquer the ISIS capital at Raqqa, Syria (ed: accomplished 2017). The Trump Administration is now prepared to arm the Kurds directly rather than through Baghdad. Kurdish gains have impressed many on the international stage, however, they have struck fear into their neighbors who do not wish to see an independent Kurdistan. A Kurdish state exerts international pressure on countries like Iran, Turkey, and Syria to allow Kurdish borders to expand from northern Iraq into their territories where large numbers of Kurds live. Despite this threat, Iranian-Kurdish relations are good. Both share a common linguistic heritage, minority status in the Muslim world, and a common enemy in ISIS. As noted in the communal loyalties section above, Kurdish-Turkish relations are at a low. Turkish involvement in Syria, for example, has focused almost exclusively on fighting the Kurds and making sure the Kurds do not capture the Syrian-Turkish border region. In April 2017, Turkish warplanes also struck Kurdish targets in Syria and Iraq. It remains to be seen what the future holds for the Kurds, but the eyes of the world will be on them in the months ahead should they successfully conquer the ISIS capital.