・Reasons why geopolitics is the strongest education, 1) resolution of the world situation 2) becomes a reliable tool for long-term future prediction, 3) acquires education, 4) changes perspectives and puts you in the other person's position (p26)
・Geopolitics is a discipline that puts value judgments aside, focuses on geographical conditions, and predicts national behavior using a price observation approach. It is not something that can be tested in a laboratory like natural science, and since it explores trends in diplomatic decision-making in countries where the thoughts of various people that are difficult to predict and the actions of neighboring countries intervene, perfect predictions cannot be made, but it is meaningful in searching for a fixed direction of action in each country. Fraudulent amounts are an approach to reading medium- to long-term country movements behind international relationships, and international relations theory and international relations analysis are approaches that focus on short-term movements between countries (p29)
・Like Aristotle and Da Vinci, the world cannot be seen without integrating all academic fields. The world is not made up of academics. Disciplines are simply subdivided by humans without permission to make research easier (p41) An academic field is something that humans have arbitrarily divided so that it is easier for humans to research in the first place. The term liberal arts originally originated from “Freedom Lesson 7: Grammar, Rhetoric, Apology, Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy, and Music” in the Greco-Roman period (p44)
・When it comes to geopolitics, the basics are political science+ geography. In addition to those two, it is necessary to approach economics, philosophy, history, religious studies, cultural anthropology, etc. They cannot be avoided if we try to properly understand the world (p42)
・Deep psychology does not necessarily match the actions that people show on the surface. This also applies to ordinary people. Those who threaten their opponents have a stronger sense of fear (p51)
・Both white and black are present simultaneously on every object to be observed. There are light and shadows, and things can be seen three-dimensionally, and gravitational force and centrifugal force act to make it where it is now. You should never look at it as if it were divided only by white, black, or bamboo; this way of thinking is called “oxymoron” (p52)
・Realistically, peace is a state of balance of power, FutenThe current war in Ukraine was caused by Mr. Putin judging that the equilibrium between NATO and Russia in Ukraine had broken down (p60)
・The way of thinking about geopolitics is climate, neighboring countries, ethnicity, industry, history, and governance system, which are the six elements of geography + (p66)
・The feudal system was born only in places where the conditions of rich soil, abundant water resources, gentle decentralized governance, and absence of mounted tribes were met. The feudal system was born, surplus production and aristocrats were born, money that the little rich and their people could use to invest was born, in other words, if the feudal system was not born, people who could demonstrate an entrepreneurial spirit were not born. Those people realized that they could make even more money by improving agricultural productivity, and they became the bearers of capitalism (p74)
・The hegemonic nation in first place wants to knock down the country that challenges hegemony, the so-called second-place country. At that time, they use the 3rd place country that has the common interest of wanting to drop the 2nd place country. Currently, the hegemonic nation America has teamed up with Japan, the 3rd largest economy, to restrain China. It is also an example of this that England, the hegemonic nation in Europe in the past, attacked Germany, which had challenged its dispatch, teamed up with America, an emerging country other than Europe (p80)
・America, a huge and rich island nation, is blessed with resources and food production capacity. Furthermore, there are no choke points like the Strait of Malacca, the Strait of Hormuz, or the Taiwan Strait even if the Pacific Ocean is blocked, so attacking military provisions is close to impossible (p88)
・For the island nation Seapower, invading another country's territory and governing it is nothing but control of an enclave. Replenishment is not easy, and it is not easy to control enclaves with different cultures and governance systems. Once controlled, it is an extremely difficult technique to continue governing by dispatching human resources to an enclave while continuously replenishing them. America later learned through bittersweet experiences in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Rather than that, it is more efficient to use trade and finance and continue to have an impact even in enclaves, and it makes more sense to gradually build an international order favorable to time and perform simulated control with a system (p90)
・The Japanese government, such as the Japanese version of Silicon Valley, is also calling for the promotion of start-ups, but the social structure is different, it does not mean that Japanese people cannot beat Americans, and the structure of society is different. The ecosystem created by people who took risks and gathered from around the world cannot be easily imitated (p96)
・Even now, it is normal for those who control the ocean to control the world. Even in an age where digital technology is gaining momentum, more than 95% of the world's logistics go through sea routes, and over 99% of communication on the internet is carried out through undersea cables (p104)
・Among the three major regions in the world (Asia, Europe, and the Middle East) for America, the ranking of the Middle East has declined, and the weight of these two regions is increasing, Europe due to the situation in Ukraine, and Asia due to the situation (p109)
・The probability is quite low, but if an emergency were to occur in Taiwan, the impact would be different from the Ukraine war. That's because it's a battle involving the world's 1st, 2nd, and 3rd largest economies. In that sense, it would be better to assume that the crisis is still increasing (p116)
・Similar to the West, a feudal system was born, and a documentary shogunate system over 260 years continued, and commerce, industry, education, and finance were cultivated in various places due to unique competition policies by each domain. This eventually became the foundation for Japan's development (p121) Japan was a pretty large country in the world since the late Edo period, when it already boasted the world's 7th largest population and the 8th highest GDP in the world (p122) Japan's GDP, which fell to 9th place in the world after the war, made a breakthrough to 2nd place in the world in 1984 (p126)
・The amount of oil consumed in Japan per day is said to be about 4 million barrels, and the unit price of the 300,000 ton class is calculated to visit Japan once every 12 hours. To put it the other way around, if imports are interrupted once every 12 hours, Japanese society and economy will fall into turmoil (p127)
・The Japanese archipelago, which stretches from north to south, is the Great Wall of China, a venue that brilliantly blocks China's advance into the ocean when viewed from mainland China. Seen from America, another superpower that separates the ocean, Japan is just the right breakwater to suppress China's advance into the Pacific Ocean. The place where the Great Wall of China at that retirement age was interrupted and the gaping place is the Senkaku Islands (p130) China wants to hold back the sea area on the east side of Taiwan = the Senkaku Islands in order to prepare for the Taiwan emergency, so China wants the Senkaku Islands (p133)
・If the four northern islands are returned to Japan, there is a possibility that America will build a front-line base to control Russia there. It poses the greatest threat to Russia. Therefore, the Northern Territories will never be returned (p137)
・Society and national character are greatly influenced by the environment Chile and electricians have brought about over many years, and it is not easy to define good or bad, best, or worst. There is a long historical background brought about by the natural environment that Japanese society does not like strong leadership, no good leaders appear, and is weak in crisis management. Countries that give birth to global leaders also have an even more unhappy history (p156)
・Land power is thoroughly particular about the territory it has conquered once, and for China, what happens if ethnic minorities become independent only when they repel it? Perhaps if that territory becomes an independent country, it will share borders with neighboring countries as hostile countries of their own country, which had continued severe oppression. Furthermore, it has a big impact on other ethnic minorities, and if one with a strong backlash becomes independent, it will be linked. If Tibet becomes independent, Uyghur, and there may be places that follow. In fact, when the Soviet Union collapsed, the Soviet Union became independent into many former national territories and shrunk (p167)
・Due to the existence and invasion of mounted tribes, the Chinese dynasty was unable to mature society. Even in order to counter and rule against mounted peoples, only powerful national management by the preemptive monarch was always possible (p171) All three major human inventions called gunpowder, compass, and printing were born in China, and astronomy for calendar preparation was also developed in the world, but feudalism and the private property system created by it were not born, and no people responsible for earning money by using invented technology commercially appeared in China (p172)
・China has an advantage in 5G and produces about 80% of the world's lithium batteries, but it is said that Europe and the United States have an advantage in biotechnology, cloud computing, and AI. It can be seen that China is strong in fields where performance targets are clear, but weak in fields where it is not. In fields where the future of competition can be seen by quantity input (battery development, drone manufacturing, high-speed railways, electric vehicles, etc.), Chinese-style national-led innovation emergence functions, but it does not function in fields (AI/biotechnology) where the course of the game cannot be easily seen no matter how much quantity is introduced (P192)
・The distance of the Arctic Ocean route is about 14,000 km shorter than the southbound route, and not only can transportation time be shortened, but fuel costs and greenhouse gas emissions can also be reduced. Furthermore, since it is a natural cold chain, it is suitable for transporting chemicals and food, and there are no pirates on the frigid Arctic Ocean route. Seen not only from Japan, but also from Korea, China, and Asian countries, there is a high possibility that Japan's Hokkaido, and Kushiro in particular, will become a base of employment for the Arctic Ocean route, and in a few decades, Kushiro may replace Singapore as a hub port in Asia (p233)
・Not eating pigs in Islam is wisdom for surviving with limited food. Cows and camels are ruminants and do not eat what humans eat. However, pigs are omnivores, and food competes with humans. Songs have value as meat, but it cannot be said that there are more benefits than that, and pigs are not suited to moving around the desert on short legs. In this way, Islam has the purpose of conveying the wisdom of surviving in arid regions (p254)
・Web 3 is said to have a greater global impact than the Internet. Web2 was about posting information on the internet. Web 3 is about putting value on the internet using blockchain. The impact is said to be 1 or 2 digits different, and the most advanced city using it to build a nation is Dubai in the Middle East (P255)
・In past human economic journals, more than 90% of institutions, China and India, have accounted for the majority of the world's GDP. Southeast Asia was at the halfway point between these two major economies. Also, what has been a choke point for logistics between major powers for many years is the Malacca Strait (P290), 11 undersea cables run through the Strait of Malacca and 22 submarine cables run through the Singapore Strait (p291)
・People are greatly influenced by their thoughts depending on where they are. Microscopically, this is called Feng Shui, and at the macro level, geopolitics is close to that. Location determines climate, shapes history, defines neighboring countries, and even defines industry and food production. And they have an impact on political systems and even trends in diplomatic means. Therefore, geopolitics is very effective even as a role play to get to know an opponent (p341)
