THE STRATEGIC EARTH, VOLUME III: The Heartland and the Silk Roads: (200 BCE – 1300 CE)

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Global East-West For Studies and Publishing
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 4, 2026
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 364 pages

The Strategic Earth, Volume III: The Heartland and the Silk Roads is a major contribution to a twelve-volume geopolitical history tracing the relationship between geography, power and civilisation from antiquity to the digital age.

Covering the period from 200 BCE to 1300 CE, this volume focuses on the Eurasian heartland: the immense zone of steppe, desert, mountain corridors, river valleys and oasis cities stretching between China, Central Asia and the western reaches of the continent.

Its central concern is strategic interaction. How could mobile pastoral societies challenge powerful agricultural states? Why were horses, pasture, water sources and mountain passes essential political resources? Why did the Hexi Corridor become vital to Chinese security? And how could trade routes become instruments of diplomacy, military pressure and imperial expansion?

The book addresses these questions through fifteen chapters covering the ecological foundations of nomadic power, the Xiongnu imperial model, Han expansion, the commercial architecture of the Silk Roads, Turkic state formation, Tang China, Central Asian conflicts, religious and technological transmission, the Song and Jurchen Jin, the pre-Mongol steppe and the rise of Temüjin.

The concluding chapters examine the Mongol conquests and the Pax Mongolica, showing how conquest reorganised the movement of people, goods, information and political authority across Eurasia.

The volume belongs to several interconnected fields: geopolitical history, military history, Chinese history, Central Asian history, mediaeval history, Silk Road studies and Mongol history. It can appeal to both specialist and general readers interested in the historical foundations of Eurasian power.

As Volume III, it also forms part of a coherent twelve-volume collection, allowing readers to approach the work either as an individual study of the Eurasian heartland or as part of a larger chronological history of global strategy.