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Abstract The first law of geography is one of the most important concepts in geographical analysis, revealing the significant role of spatial proximity. At present, some current international relation studies or geographic network analysis studies tend to build corresponding network models according to different themes, but the most basic level of geographic neighborhoods is intentionally or unintentionally neglected in those processes. Based on the adjacency relationship between the terrestrial countries in the world, the model of the terrestrial adjacency network (TAN) is constructed. The model includes almost all land-based countries and is divided into three main regions, respectively, Eurasia, Africa, and America. On the mathematical model of these regions, we analyze the geospatial structure and network evolution of the adjacent networks utilizing statistical methods and network analysis methods. This study helps to map and understand the geographical attributes and characteristics of countries from the perspective of holistic structure, aiming to provide a quantitative reference for subsequent research on international relations and geographic computing. Moreover, despite some limitations, TAN represents a new advance in geographical network analysis that can be further applied by overlaying more attribute data.
Zhi et al. (Sat,) studied this question.