“Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland; who rules the Heartland commands the World-Island; who rules the World-Island commands the world.”

— Halford Mackinder

Dear Reader,

The global economy’s predilection for the U.S. dollar is waning. Even the erstwhile champion of cable news, CNN, has figured out there’s a gaping yaw in U.S. policy today.

“The West needs more oil now,” Zachary Wolf writes for CNN, stating the obvious. And the not-so-obvious. “The world needs to get off oil and gas ASAP. These competing, urgent realities are crashing into each other.” CNN:

• Climate. The world is approaching a more catastrophic phase of climate change and needs to move quickly to reduce carbon emissions.

• Sanctions. Punishing Russia will raise prices in the West, particularly gas prices.

• Economy. High gas prices could help drive the US into a recession and turn the outcome of the midterm elections in November.

President Biden’s solution promises to be about as effective as his promise to deliver more LNG to help the EU wean themselves off Russian natural gas. Yesterday, the president announced he’d be releasing oil from the strategic petroleum reserves (SPR) for the next six months.

“Look, the bottom line is this,” Biden said at the White House. “Between ramping up production in the short term and driving down demand in the long term, we can free ourselves from our dependence on imported oil from across the world.”

What a quandary. The U.S. needs oil. Europe needs Russian gas. Politically, they can’t say it without destroying the climate change narrative they’ve been ginning up since An Inconvenient Truth ran amok in 2006.

Not that it matters; most projections for energy independence scoot to 2030 and beyond. It doesn’t take a lot of math to conclude the president will likely have shed his mortal coil when that year dawns upon us. And with higher gas prices and a recession swirling about the news cycle, the midterms may clarify policy questions all by themselves.

Today, we’re focused on a different kind of inconvenient truth.

“I don’t want to overegg the pudding,” Sean Ring wrote in the Rude Awakening on the day I interviewed him for The Wiggin Sessions. He was referring to Valdimir Putin demanding Russian oil and gas be paid for in rubles. He was also referring to a deal the Chinese made with the Saudis to pay for their oil in yuan.

“Today will be remembered as the day power shifted irrevocably eastward,” Mr. Ring says, “towards Mackinder’s Heartland and away from its periphery. How did it all come to this? Oh, that’s easy. Hubris and a lack of strategic thinking. Lesser sons riding on the momentum of better men.”

Sean laid out specific reasons why he believes the time is nigh for the end of U.S. dollar hegemony. We crib:

• There’s nothing the U.S., EU and U.K. have that Russia needs.

• There are many things Russia has that the U.S., EU and U.K. need.

• The U.S., EU and U.K. have proven themselves utterly untrustworthy as asset custodians.

• Thanks to stupid Western policy, the China’s Belt and Road Initiative is now a must for the “World Island.”

“Halford Mackinder, a British geographer,” Sean points out, “summarized his Heartland Theory thus” — bringing to our attention a strategic theory we have never considered…

Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland;
Who rules the Heartland commands the World-Island;
Who rules the World-Island commands the world.

Mackinder viewed the world like this:

Image source: Wikipedia.

“Why is Eastern Europe, and hence, Ukraine, so important?” Sean asks. “Because it’s the only flat land route to invade Russia. And that’s what this is ultimately all about. The Heartland itself is mostly Russia.”

It’s also what makes China’s Belt and Road initiative so important.

“Feast your eyes on the map below,” Sean suggests.

Image source: Wikipedia.

 

China’s Belt and Road Initiative essentially obviates the need for an open water navy. “You know,” says Ring, “what American taxpayers have been spending so much money on…”

We dig deep into Sean’s analysis of Russia’s pivot east because of the war, the West’s sanctions and the incoherent policy being advocated by the administration right now.

Sean Ring shows how the Mackinder Map and China’s Belt and Road Initiative will transform the global economy, right here.

We also take a look at China’s position while the West and Russia rebuke one another. To view the entire session, click on the image above. You’ll find a link to the transcript posted there, too.

Follow your bliss,

Addison Wiggin
Founder, The Wiggin Sessions

P.S. “I suspect,” says a reader calling himself Carsos 77, “that many grammar mistakes (not only yours) are due to the article being typed from dictation to a robot typist.” Responding to yesterday’s editorial mea culpa, he goes on to say:

Phase/faze, your example, sound the same. What’s a computer to do? Pick the most common of the two. When I type my own messages, I’m in the moment and aware of my intended context. That’s my two sense on the topic.

You wound us, sir — and not just because you used “sense” instead of “cents.”

But I’ll have you know that while our video transcripts are indeed outsourced, every word you read in these daily missives has been lovingly, if frantically, typed by hand. I strive to make them informal and conversational — as if we were discussing these topics in person. Maybe that’s why you think a robot is involved? (Picture a sad face emoji like my kids would send, but beyond my skill set in this email.)

Of course, human brains are just as capable of mistakes as silicone ones. Speaking of which, we heard from Lisa S. again, who points out, “While you correctly identified me as Lisa S. in the first paragraph that mentions my raucous notion, you later called me Lucy when you quoted my parting words!”

“Ugh,” says our editor. “Lisa and Lucy aren’t even homophones.” On behalf of the entire team, Lola, please accept our apologies.