The Geographical Situation of the United States in Relation to World Policies

cultural agencies, and especially our geographical societies, may hope to play a useful part. In addressing you to-night I can only touch upon a few of the many geographical aspects of that vast canvas known as international politics. Acting as I did in the period 1942-45 as special adviser to two Secretaries of State, I ought to make clear at the beginning of my paper that the views expressed therein are wholly personal and that I have sought neither review nor endorsement by an officer of the government of the United States. On the higher levels of strategy and statesmanship, two critical themes emerge that bear directly upon our well-being and survival. For what high ends we use power is one centre of effort, and how we make use of geography is the other. These enduring conditions of moral strategy, as one may call it, are well illustrated in some of the publications of the Royal Geographical Society in London and its sister institution, the American Geographical Society of New York, and in their unique services to their respective governments during two world wars. Like the United Kingdom and certain members of the British Commonwealth of Nations, America has undertaken to share responsibility within the wide circle of the United Nations. The grand principle that permeates the Charter of the United Nations is that agreements respecting the solution of international problems shall be reached and executed on the basis of collective opinion determined by majority vote. For reasons only too well known, the application of that principle has been tragically delayed by the breaching of an interpretation, agreed to by the Great Powers at San Francisco, that the restricted and special device of the veto would be used but rarely. In consequence, the fear of war again overshadows the world. It is natural, therefore, that men should return to the idea of a balance of power, once so roundly denounced, and look closely at the world in terms of economic and military advantages. 9