ABSTRACT
Pattern-based political economies are prominent in the portal cities, regions, and nations that are concentrated along the world’s maritime circumference. The English geographer Halford Mackinder divided the world into three zones: the ‘pivot’ (Russia, Iran, Central Asia), the ‘inner crescent’ (China, India, and Europe), and the ‘outer insular crescent’ (UK, Japan, Southern Africa, Australasia, North America). 1 Mackinder’s theory was geo-political. However, his categories, suitably adapted, also apply (perhaps even more strongly) to the geography of economics, wealth, and prosperity. Contemporary high-performing societies are overwhelmingly located either on the ‘outer crescent’ maritime circumference of the Eurasian landmass in North America, East Asia, North-Western Europe, and Australasia or on the portion of the coastal rim of the ‘inner crescent’ and the major river and lake systems that connect to it.
