Geopolitics and History: Monsoon

By Tricina L. Edwards

MONSOON

The monsoon weather consists of heavy winds and heavy rainfall. It can devastate land and make people homeless and it can also provide for those in need as a resource of water. The major monsoon systems are the Asia- Australia monsoons and West Africa monsoons.

Monsoon clouds

The Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean is attached to over 30 countries. This waterway is important and vital for half the population of the Earth. This area can be the future of trade, globalization, and power for the country or countries that can control it. Kaplan says, “ the Indian Ocean may be the essential place to contemplate the future of U.S. power.”

Some trade routes

Somali Piracy

Kaplan discusses how Somali has long been ignored. He describes, “Somali is three separate entities, and thus exhibits different levels of governance: independent Somaliland in the northwest, the autonomous region of Puntland in the northeast, and the chaotic southern area where an extremely weak Somali government continues to combat the rising power of Al-Shabab Islamist extremists.” Puntland is the area where the pirates are mostly from. Some pirates feel that their safety is more at risk on the land than the ocean.

Kaplan says, “ Pirate groups, sometimes known as sea gypsies, tended to escalate in number and audacity with the burgeoning of trade, so piracy itself has often been a sign of prosperity.”

Pirates holding the crew of the Chinese fishing vessel Tian Yu No. 8, guarding the crew on the bow.

Bangladesh

With people losing their homes to flooding and being displaced often, people in Bangladesh are moving closer to wildlife. Tiger attacks have increased. Bangladesh was a place of famine according to Kaplan, but they have learned to provide for themselves. Kaplan says that eighty percent of the population subsists on two dollars per day.

Workers are getting closer and closer to wildlife

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