When studying an area of the world, a map is a valuable resource. With a map of a region, you can get a visual picture of how geography affects where people live, military security, politics, economics, culture, and so on.An example in East Asia is China, a country with a long tradition of geographical awareness. China is known for defining and securing boundaries. (Take the Great Wall as an example.) Strategic Forecasting (stratfor.com) has published a couple recent articles on the relevance of Chinese geography for for the Chinese government. I especially recommend Chinese Geopolitics and the Significance of Tibet (4/15/08) because of its rather comprehensive summary analysis of geography. Another articles is China and Russia's Geographic Divide (7/22/08).
A satellite image of Asia is available here.
