From strategic-analyst
Use when an event implicates terrain, distance, chokepoints, resources, climate, or maritime or pipeline geography. Triggers include shipping-lane disruptions, pipeline politics, border or territorial questions, infrastructure projects, satellite-derived claims, or "why does X matter strategically".
How this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both
Slash command
/strategic-analyst:analysing-geographic-lensThe summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill
The geographic lens reads events as constrained by the unchangeable: terrain, distance, climate, the locations of resources and people. Geography is not destiny, but it sets the cost structure within which everything else happens. The analyst's job is to *make the spatial structure visible* when other framings have abstracted from it.
The geographic lens reads events as constrained by the unchangeable: terrain, distance, climate, the locations of resources and people. Geography is not destiny, but it sets the cost structure within which everything else happens. The analyst's job is to make the spatial structure visible when other framings have abstracted from it.
Core principle: Distance, terrain, and chokepoints impose costs no policy can wish away — but they can be technologically circumvented at known cost. Read every event as embedded in a specific physical structure.
Use these as orienting devices, not deterministic theories — they encode real spatial logics but were built for specific eras.
The world's commerce passes through a small number of narrow points; disruption at any of them has outsized effects.
For any chokepoint, ask: what's the alternative routing, at what cost, with what time-to-implement? Cape routing adds ~10 days and 25–30% to a Suez-Asia voyage; pipeline alternatives are years to build.
| Question | Look at |
|---|---|
| Trade-route exposure? | Container/oil/gas flow data, alternative routing cost and time |
| Resource leverage? | HHI on supply concentration, processing concentration, substitutability |
| Pipeline politics? | Owner/operator, transit countries, takeoff points, contractual obligations |
| Naval significance? | Distance to bases, SLOC dependency, basing rights along route |
| Cable / data risk? | Landing-station locations, cable routes, peering at IXPs |
| Border-dispute structure? | Topography, ethnic distribution, resource location, infrastructure |
| Climate-driven risk? | Long-run climate projection, agricultural exposure, water stress, coastal exposure |
| Mistake | Fix |
|---|---|
| Geographic determinism | Geography sets cost structure; institutions and tech still drive outcomes |
| Treating chokepoints as cliff edges | Most disruptions have alternatives at known cost; quantify the cost |
| Ignoring chokepoint substitution | Pipelines, rail, alternate routes redistribute over time |
| Applying Mahan/Mackinder without translating | Original works were of their era; technology has changed the cost surface |
| Confusing reserves with production | Reserves measure geology; production and processing concentration measure leverage |
| Treating climate-conflict as direct | The link is mediated by institutions; don't skip the mediator |
| Using outdated maps of infrastructure | New rail corridors, LNG terminals, cables redraw the picture rapidly |
| One-mode thinking | Trade flows shift between modes (sea/rail/air/pipeline) — don't track only one |
Headline: "Houthi attacks force shipping to reroute around Cape; Asia-Europe rates spike" — through the lens:
MarineTraffic, Suez Canal Authority statistics); insurance war-risk premia; LNG/oil tanker behaviour distinct from container behaviour (different risk tolerance and contracts).Natural Earth, OpenStreetMap, Sentinel/Copernicus (free satellite), Maxar/Planet/Airbus (commercial), AIS (MarineTraffic, Spire, exactEarth), ADS-B (Flightradar24, OpenSky), Equasis (vessels), Suez/Panama canal authorities, EIA/IEA for energy infrastructure, ITU and TeleGeography for cables, EM-DAT for disasters, Copernicus C3S for climate. See data-sources.md in the parent skill.
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