Note:
(a) The essay appears today in print as the third of three sections of the article titled above, in the “Sunday Review” section. The first two sections--with headings of North America’s Nine Nations and Let Nature Draw a Post-Colonial Map, respectively, redraw maps of North America and southern (not South) Africa.
(b) The online version is twice as long as one in print. Besides the online version correctly points out the name of the group (Eurasian Union) when referring to “the Eurasian one encompassing Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.”
(c) I see no chance of China getting Siberia. Didn’t President Jiang Zemin sign treaties with Russia to settle all border disputes and China’s parliament approve it?