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Honestly, it might not be as significant of a problem anymore, because nukes changed the game.

Russia and China, or India and China, will never outright invade each other ever again, because of mutually assured destruction. Only countries without nukes have to worry about their sovereignty being violated, e.g. Ukraine. This also means that the geopolitical Schelling point, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focal_point_(game_theory), is that every nation state must either 1) have nukes or 2) vassal themselves to a nuclear power, e.g. non nuclear powers in NATO. Again we see an instructive example in Ukraine. They surrendered their nukes after the Soviet Union collapsed for the promise of sovereignty. But promises don't mean anything on the question of sovereignty. Only real world power matters. Might makes right.

But large borders with populous and powerful neighbors still matter, because you still have to commit resources to control those borders to prevent unchecked migration from disrupting your internal economies. The US experiences that problem with Mexico. I imagine a future where India starts experiencing wet bulb temperature events where hundreds of thousands or millions die overnight, which triggers mass migration north. Or perhaps a future where Siberia becomes more temperate and hospitable draws Chinese people try to move north as well.




>Only real world power matters. Might makes right.

The latter isn't just a rephrasing of the former but an expression of assent to it, and most people probably don't mean that.


It's often hard to tell if a person making an ugly statement is saying it with approval that this is the way things ought to be, or if they are saying it as an observation of harsh reality and they aren't attaching a moral judgement to that observation. Many people then assume the former and label the speaker as malicious when they are simply sharing their observation.

In my view, "might makes right" is simply an observation of harsh reality. Ignoring that reality is folly.




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