New Delhi, March 11 -- If proof were needed that even after decades of globalization, the world isn't flat, Iran's chokehold over the Strait of Hormuz is providing plenty. The opposing view might be summarized in four words, 'The Revenge of Geography,' the title of geopolitical analyst Robert Kaplan's prescient book more than a decade ago.

"Terrain determines the pace and method of fighting. the flat deserts of Kuwait and Iraq in the Gulf War of 1991 magnified the effect of air power, even as holding vast and heavily populated stretches of Iraq in the Second Gulf War showed the limits of air power and thus made American (ground) forces victims of geography," Kaplan wrote, "Aircraft can bombard, but they cannot transport goods in bulk, no...