Weekly Graphic

Aug. 20, 2016 Aleppo is the center of gravity in the conflict between the Assad loyalists and Syrian rebels. Aleppo is Syria’s largest city and pre-war commercial capital. It is located in the wider province of the same name, which has a long border with Turkey – the rebels’ main staging ground. Many different battles are raging in the province of Aleppo. They involve regime forces, different rebel factions, al-Qaida’s Syrian affiliate, the Islamic State and separatist Kurds.

Aug. 13, 2016 Russian President Vladimir Putin’s latest approval ratings are high – more than 80 percent of the population supports his actions. But the approval rate for regional governors has been below 50 percent since the end of 2014, according to Levada Center, an independent Russia-based polling organization. With the presidential election in 2018, Putin needs support in the Duma for the next two years. To get support in the Duma, he needs to make sure that his United Russia Party wins the September parliamentary elections.

Aug. 6, 2016 NAFTA currently serves as the framework that dictates how the U.S., the world’s largest economy, carries out trade with two of its top three trading partners. It also encompasses the three major economies of the Western Hemisphere, distinct for its stability while much of Eurasia is in crisis. The debate around NAFTA in the U.S. has focused on its impact on employment, though there is no definitive evidence showing what its impact has been. This graphic shows the level of trade between the three NAFTA members.

July 30, 2016 This map illustrates that two different economies coexist within Mexico. Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography generated this data by measuring several development indicators, including housing infrastructure, basic furnishings, overcrowding, health, education and employment levels. The higher a state’s overall standard of living, the higher its ranking.

Economic activity in each state correlates with these rankings. Mexico’s central and northern states are home to advanced industry, attract foreign direct investment and/or are strategically located near strong trade flows associated with the U.S. border. Meanwhile, the southern states’ economies are more dependent on agriculture and primitive industry, with higher numbers of informal, low-wage laborers. Government figures show that from 1980 to 2014, per capita GDP in central and northern states grew by about 50 percent. In the south, this figure increased a mere 9 percent.

July 23, 2016 This week’s map takes a look at Europe using two economic metrics: GDP growth and unemployment. One of the first things to note is that besides Estonia, the only countries in Europe that are growing at a rate of over 1 percent are either in the Balkans or right next door (Romania). Most of Western, Central and northern Europe is growing at under 1 percent and a few countries even experienced first quarter contraction: Ireland, Hungary and Poland, among others.

The second thing to note is that while the Balkans have decent growth rates, unemployment is very high, as it is throughout southern Europe, from Spain to Greece. Italy’s unemployment figure is somewhat misleading as there is a huge north-south divide. In southern Italy, unemployment is closer to the rate seen in Balkan countries than Italy’s average.

July 16, 2016 This is a map of attacks either directly carried out by the Islamic State or inspired by their message. The map does not take into account attacks in Syria and Iraq, as that is core Islamic State territory and strikes there are directly linked to IS’ goal of maintaining territorial control of its caliphate. The goal of this map is to show the global reach of IS ideology and activities.

IS has either directed or inspired attacks on every major continent except South America, and South America’s exceptional status is not for lack of trying. IS has targeted majority Muslim nations from Tunisia to Indonesia. It has targeted Western nations from the United States to Australia. There are roughly 1.6 billion Muslims in the world. Islamic State, however falsely, purports to speak for them all. Its ambitions are global.

July 9, 2016 With worrying signals this week about the German economy and the Italian banking sector, Europe has been at the forefront of our minds. So we have chosen here to present a map of the percentage change in GDP per capita in Europe to show how growth has developed over the past 20 years.

GDP per capita is, like all measurements, an imperfect statistic, but it is a useful way of comparing the performance of various economies in terms of standard of living and overall economic productivity.

July 2, 2016 The most striking images are often those that take something we think we know well and turn it on its head. This map is one of those images. The borders of Europe have changed over time, but since national self-determination became the most important organizing principle for European states in the 19^th century, there have been some relatively constant entities: France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Spain.

We tend to think of these as coherent nation-states. But even these countries contain groups that don’t identify with their national identity as French, British, German, Italian or Spanish.

June 24, 2016 This graphic contains two maps of the United Kingdom. On the left side are the results of a YouGov poll that identified different parts of the U.K. as more or less Euroskeptic. On the right side are the official results of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union.

The YouGov polls, as well as numerous other polls, failed to predict accurately what was going to happen in the referendum. The polls prior to the vote were not as wrong as the polls for the last British general election, but there were many areas in the U.K. where the strength of the “leave” vote was underestimated.

June 18, 2016 British citizens will vote on June 23 in a referendum on whether the United Kingdom should remain part of the European Union. As Britain grapples with the question of Brexit, understanding the strategic considerations behind the U.K.’s relationships with its partners is critical. The U.K.’s geopolitical challenges shaped its decision to join the bloc and will also shape London’s relations with Brussels should British voters opt to leave the union.

A map of the region from Britain’s perspective reveals its primary traditional threats: from the northeast across the sea are the Nordic states, where the Vikings originated; in the south across the channel is France, Britain’s traditional rival; and further to the east, Germany, which became a major player on the Continent after unification in the late 19th century.

June 11, 2016 This nighttime map of the Middle East, stretching from Egypt to Iran and from the Red Sea to the tip of the Arabian Peninsula, was taken by a NASA satellite in 2012. It is fairly up-to-date given that electricity use and population don’t expand very quickly.

The most striking part of this map is Egypt. It has the most intense lighting in the region in an area in the north stretching from Alexandria to the Suez Canal, and then following the Nile River south to the Aswan Dam. The dam delivers much of Egypt’s electricity but also limits population growth to its south. It has become the southern limit of populated Egypt.

This area of intense light represents the real Egypt. Its political boundaries are far to the west and south, but that area is minimally populated and far from developed. In looking at this map, Egypt is actually a narrow country following the Nile because it is intensely populated in that area. The lights also indicate the degree of infrastructure development. Whatever problems Egypt has, and it has many, it has managed to bring electricity to the populated regions.

June 4, 2016 European powers strongly shaped the geopolitics of contemporary sub-Saharan Africa. In the colonial era, they saw sub-Saharan Africa as a means to an end, initially encountering the continent as they looked for sea trading routes to India and East Asia. France, Great Britain, Portugal, Germany and Belgium had the largest presence.

From the 16th century through the 18th century, major European governments established ports to support long voyages to the East Indies. When we look at the location of former colonies, we can observe how each location served as a resting and refueling point in the long journey east.