How to think about geopolitics.

Navigating the map and the territory through Structured Analytic Techniques.

Section from Map of the world in The excursion of the one who yearns to penetrate the horizons, Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Idrisi, c1325, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris.

In this week’s Not in Dispatches, we discuss six rules – there are dozens – that hopefully help us think more clearly about geopolitics.

Geopolitics is confusing. It is complex. It…