It's my belief that more people would benefit from learning more about nations that are often in the news, namely more about their geopolitical histories and how the U.S. has interacted with them.

One such nation that comes to mind is Iran. I doubt that most people know that Iran had a democracy that was overthrown by the CIA in 1953 in the corporate interests of British Petroleum. Nor would I believe that it's well-known that after the despotic Shah was overthrown in 1979, we partnered with Saddam Hussein for the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. When Iraq lost, Hussein tried to annex Kuwait, thus leading to the Gulf Wars in the 1990s. The modern government of Iran is deeply flawed in its own ways, but the anti-American sentiments in Iran do not exist in a vacuum, nor can they be pinned on the US-Israel alliance.

Indeed, much like the principles of evolution, nothing in geopolitics occurs without context. My principle is that most people should learn about the last 100 years of a nation's history for an ideal context to current events. It will shine a new light on how you interpret happenings from across the world. I especially recommend the histories of China and other major nations of East Asia.

Max Engel

East Lyme