Has Jared Diamond ever engaged with the heaps of criticism on his "Guns, Germs, and Steel"?

Right okay so in what other ways do geography determine the outcome of history and make everything else irrelevant?

Right, so you've made three mistakes with this question.

The second is that you're arguing against a point neither I nor anyone else has made.

The first is that you seem to think I'm someone who knows what he's talking about, despite my repeated claims to the contrary.

The third is that you are, once again, trying to criticize the details of a ridiculous oversimplification, like trying to read the seventh digit of 3. This is a slightly wet stone here, not a pool.

Might it be possible that different people and different institutions might have different conceptions of 'national' interest? And even if not, might it be possible that different people and different institutions might adopt different means towards serving the same ends?

It's certain that different people and institutions may have different concepts of what the "national" interest is, but the leadership of the country must either draw these two conclusions, or prove itself incompetent -- at the country's expense.

The need for ports is a basic economic need for Russia, as she has vast resources that the rest of the world would gladly purchase at a premium if she can just get some kind of access for shipping.

The need to protect the Western front through puppet states as a buffer zone is due to a basic fact of geography: There are no natural borders between Moscow and Berlin to otherwise slow down an invading force, which Hitler and Napoleon demonstrated all too well.

So, if Russia sees a chance to push its control -- not just influence, but control -- to the West, it will always do so, because that brings it closer to ports and means it can move its front line of defense that much further away from Moscow. It doesn't matter if the leader in question is a Czar, Empress, General Secretary or President; if there is a way to push West, they must do so.

/r/AskHistorians Thread Parent