Tag Archives: geography

The Region Ahead of Its Data: Megaregions of Sub-Saharan Africa — Span, Cohesion, and a Working Typology

Posted on August 6, 2026 by nathanalbright

I. A Different Kind of Question Every previous paper in this series has asked what a region’s megaregions are. For Sub-Saharan Africa the honest question is what they are becoming, and that changes the character of the analysis in ways … Continue reading →

Posted in International Relations | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Habitable Fraction: Megaregions of the Middle East and North Africa — Span, Cohesion, and a Working Typology

Posted on August 6, 2026 by nathanalbright

I. What This Region Tests Five papers have accumulated a framework by testing it against different structural conditions: coalescence in North America, primacy in South America, water and small size in the Caribbean, distance in Oceania, and legal permeability in … Continue reading →

Posted in International Relations | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Permeable Continent: Megaregions of Europe — Span, Cohesion, and a Working Typology

Posted on August 6, 2026 by nathanalbright

I. The Other Origin The megaregion has two intellectual parents, and only one of them was American. Gottmann described the Northeastern seaboard in 1961 and gave the phenomenon its first name. But the European tradition ran in parallel and, in … Continue reading →

Posted in International Relations | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Long Distances: Megaregions of Oceania — Span, Cohesion, and a Working Typology

Posted on August 5, 2026 by nathanalbright

I. The Question Oceania Answers Each region in this series has tested the megaregion concept against a different structural condition. North America supplied the case the concept was built for. South America tested it against primacy. The Caribbean tested it … Continue reading →

Posted in International Relations | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The Sea Between: Megaregions of the Caribbean — Span, Cohesion, and a Working Typology

Posted on August 5, 2026 by nathanalbright

I. The Short Answer, and Why It Is Not the End of the Matter On the strict test, the Caribbean has no megaregions. The test requires either a coalescence of adjacent metropolitan labor markets or a transactional corridor joining several … Continue reading →

Posted in International Relations | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The Primate Continent: Megaregions of South America — Span, Cohesion, and a Working Typology

Posted on August 5, 2026 by nathanalbright

I. Why the Category Travels Badly The megaregion concept was built in and for North America and Northwest Europe. It presumes a particular starting condition: several cities of roughly comparable weight, historically independent, growing until their commuting fields overlap. Gottmann’s … Continue reading →

Posted in International Relations, Musings | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The Continental Lattice: Megaregions of North America — Span, Cohesion, and a Working Typology: A White Paper

Posted on August 3, 2026 by nathanalbright

I. The Problem of the Unit North American settlement is routinely described at two scales and governed at a third. Analysts speak of metropolitan areas — the commuting-defined statistical units that agencies in all three countries produce — and of … Continue reading →

Posted in International Relations, Musings | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Synthesis: Four Centuries of a Contested Coast

Posted on July 19, 2026 by nathanalbright

Abstract This concluding paper draws together the arguments of the preceding nine and advances an interpretation of the whole. It proposes that the military history of Tampa Bay passed through three phases—the bay as beachhead, as staging area, and finally … Continue reading →

Posted in American Civil War, American History, History, Military History | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Business Plan: An Independent Regional Point-to-Point Carrier for the Eastern U.S.

Posted on July 13, 2026 by nathanalbright

1. The concept in one paragraph An independent, single-brand regional jet operator that connects secondary and small cities directly to each other — and to a small number of self-owned “mini-hubs” — across the Midwest, Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Southeast, extending … Continue reading →

Posted in Musings | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Rejected Stone: Southwest Airlines and the Strategic Logic of the Secondary Airport: A White Paper on Airport Selection as Competitive Architecture

Posted on June 26, 2026 by nathanalbright

Executive Summary For most of its history, Southwest Airlines has built one of the largest passenger franchises in the world by doing something its larger rivals declined to do: flying into the second-best airport in town. Where American, Delta, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Musings | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment