Being landlocked is most often a disadvantage, as it blocks access to resources and trade.
You really need to know how to play your hand when you're landlocked, because no-one wants that.
Here are some tips, if you're landlocked.
Tip 1) Make a fuss to your neighbours and negotiate access though rivers or straits controlled by another country
Europe has a buffet of landlocked states who have access to the ocean in this way.
The Elbe, the Rhine and the Danube allow the Czechs, the Swiss and the Serbs access to the wider world with few worries.
Belgium even has its own access to the Atlantic ocean, but prefers to use Dutch waters to access their best ports.
And they have little to worry about because for the last two hundred years, Europeans have stopped fighting and slowly come to the realisation that sharing is caring.
Tip 2) Get yourself a panhandle.
Slovenia, Bosnia and, until 2006, Serbia and Montenegro.
The end of Yugoslavia left us with a buffet of these to choose from, since Croatia hogs the whole Adriatic coast
Or you could get a colonial power to do it for you.
Tip 3) Just fight to get it.
From a tiny Slavic duchy on the fringes of the Mongol empire to the continental power,
Russia is a huge advocate of fighting.
From Moscow they found the Arctic Sea. Now they was not longer landlocked.
But Arkhangelsk, Russia's Arctic port, is somewhat 'out of the way', and is frozen over for half of the year,
so people only established trade links by accident. It was clear that they could do better.
So, they started fighting, and advanced until they hit water, and when they did they just turned around again until they hit a different water.
Arctic, Volga, Caspian, Baltic, Black.
After Peter the Great imported the blueprints for a modern navy from Western Europe,
Russia defeated various Khazars and Khanates, then Sweden the Ottoman Empire,
both on river and ocean,
to secure those better ports in warmer and more convenient locations.
The most precious of which is the Black Sea.
or Tip 0) You could just settle.
There's one country that's so landlocked, it's virtually in a world of its own.
One of only two doubly-landlocked countries in this world,
Uzbekistan is more than your average 'stan'.
There is no route to the seven seas for Uzbekistan.
Four hundred years ago, Peter theGreat reckoned there was a river into Central Asia so he could conquer the region. But he was wrong.
In this region, all rivers lead to the desert.
Uzbekistan is never going to be a world leader.
Neither is it a very rich country, but it's very secure in its mediocrity.
To be a global power you need a global navy.
This is the best way to stay mobile and maintain the ability to rock up at anyone's doorstep
at the mildest of inconveniences.
Few countries have this opportunity, never mind the ability.
Instead, Uzbekistan has almost everything it need right on its doorstep.
But problems lie in that location.
When the Russian empire annexed swathes of Eurasia, they sliced up Empires.
For the next century the powers in the Russian capital redrew the borders to suit themselves.
For Lenin and Stalin,
this meant playing around with ethnicities, tying them into all sorts of shapes.
Nations crystallised around these divisions, and when the 1990s came around, independence was all in-vogue.
The resulting breakup left Uzbekistan in a peculiar situation.
Today, the country roughly comprises the area between two major rivers,
West of a series of Mountain ranges upon which neighbours encircle the valuable Fergana Valley.
It's the most densely populated area of Central Asia, it's also the main transit route for road, rail and energy.
Uzbekistan was given the lion's share, along with some envious and unstable neighbours across the borders.
Many countries throughout history have used borderlands as a way of buffering themselves against hostile neighbours.
Lords who took charge of these lands and successfully defended them got special titles, like Marquis and Margrave,
named after the borderlands, called marches.
The same happened in Russia, where the titles were the less romantic 'Governor General'
and the borderlands were Krais.
Still to this day, there is one Krai that Russia is keeping a keen interest in:
Ukraine.
Ukraine is similar to Poland, in that they're both naturally attractive to invading forces.
but unlike Poland, there isn't a German Empire on the other end of Ukraine,
there is only glorious mountains and glorious sea.
The only redeeming feature of Ukraine's location is that one peninsula with warm water ports,
ocean access, wealthy energy deposits and unfortunately for Ukraine,
a few million Russians...
which were a perfect crowbar for the person with access to the 'Justify War' button.
The ingredients were all there. Russia just put them all together.
In 2014, Russia was at its smallest size in centuries.
There was a reason why Russia expanded so far all those years ago.
Its core isn't well protected, so it needs as much distance as possible between the capital and enemy territory,
and to anchor those borders against geographic features like mountains and ocean.
At the fall of the Soviet Union, Moscow was 1500km from NATO, but by 2004, was within breathing distance.
Probably good move for NATO, but Russia is provoked into action,
if it wants to secure its surroundings.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia was left with 25% less land, half the population and longer borders,
making defence difficult and expensive.
And Russian tactics with fighting neighbours had to change as well.
One of the Last things the USSR tried to do was invade and control Afghanistan, on the fringes in Central Asia.
The US couldn't risk direct war with the Soviets, so their ideal solution was proxy war.
A proxy *guerilla* war - meaning they could fight dirty.
The Soviets retreated from Afghanistan and imploded in private.
In the Caucasus, Russia keeps close tabs.
Chechnya in particular has always been a thorn in the bear's paw,
so Russia is well-trained in eternal wars on the fringes of its empire, on both sides of the border.
Aiding and fighting Separatist struggles are its speciality.
All of this is how Russia keeps control of its borderlands.
The meddling of Soviet leaders in the borders of Uzbekistan mightn't be as blatant as the straight lines of Africa and the Middle East,
but it still leads to problems.
The aim, after all, was to prevent effective opposition to Moscow's supremacy.
But Russia's knots in the Fergana valley have given Uzbekistan access to those very same tools that Russia uses against neighbours.
The parts of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan that reach the valley are cut off by mountains from their core and capital,
and they're full of Uzbeks.
Kyrgyzstan has been through two revolutions in a decade, stoked partly by ethnic tensions.
This is where Tashkent finds influence.
I wonder where Uzbekistan learned that technique...
Against its neighbours, Uzbekistan maintains some of the longest border walls in the world.
That minimises the number of border crossings to maintain control,
since just like Russia it has smaller territory and longer borders.
And fragile neighbours does tend to lead to spillover.
With Afghanistan it has one single border crossing,
the ironically named Afghanistan/Uzbekistan friendship bridge,
the least friendly looking bridge in the world,
which was formerly the route into Afghanistan for Soviet forces, built for that purpose.
The neighbours' retaliation against Uzbekistan could be to challenge its reliance
on the two rivers which originate in their mountains.
But sadly for them, Uzbekistan has much more leverage.
An eligible military population bigger than the entire populations of its neighbours,
and control of transport, food and energy of both countries.
These neighbours simply don't cut it as a threat.
But what about further afield? The region *is* surrounded by nuclear powers...
China, India, Pakistan, India, Russia and Iran all surround Central Asia, but Uzbekistan borders none of them.
Tashkent has one thousand kilometres of buffer.
So like a stalker with intimacy issues, Uzbekistan wants to keep its neighbours close, but not too close.
It needs to keep the right blend of distance and influence to to keep control of its few, vital interests in the neighbouring countries.
but...
if Russia comes downtown, 'defending an oppressed minority', Uzbekistan will have problems.
It's the only neighbour with whom Uzbekistan maintains an even vaguely cordial relationship.
Kazakh citizens have a higher GDP per capita and higher living standards, but that comes at a cost,
of having to Kow Tow to the Kremlin.
If Russia is to meddle in the affairs of Central Asia, Kazakhstan is the launch pad, in more ways than one.
With a quarter of the population being ethically Russian and moving the capital 600 miles north towards its larger neighbour,
it's clear that carving as much room for themselves in the small space under Russia's thumb is their goal,
and to not become the second Ukraine.
As long as Kazakhstan remains friendly, there's no need to annex.
Until then, Kazakhstan plays along, as of Russia's closest allies in a series of vague post-Soviet organisations.
Russia looks at climate change in a slightly more favourable way than most other places in the world.
It'll open up new trade routes, and make a lot more land in the north arable and inhabitable.
No longer would Russia be discovered by accident.
But for Uzbekistan, mismanagement has already led to the evaporation of the Aral Sea,
meaning those rivers drain into the land before reaching a body of water.
The Karakum desert advances and the rivers retreat every year.
Compound that with the melting of the glaciers that are the source of these rivers,
and you have a serious ticking clock.
When there's not enough water to go around...
Any lens you use to view it, it's not good.
And when there's a security problem coming from the south,
whether it's terrorism or the drug trade or even something smaller threatening them,
Russia will go south. Who knows what'll happen in that instance?
Uzbekistan has to try hard to hold that lid down.
Until then, together, their strong and often batshit leaderships
will attempt to survive in tumultuous neighbourhoods,
playing the same KGB games they learned together,
to hold onto power and do what they have to to stay there.
This video was inspired by The Accidental Superpower,
a book by Peter Zeihan.
Not only is it a good read, but it's also full of delicious maps,
if you're into that kind of thing.
For more information, search 'Zeihan on Geopolitics',
Or follow the links onscreen and in the description.
Thanks for watching.