The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine has largely played out on land and within the air. It is a bitterly contested, grueling ground war, accompanied by brutal Russian airstrikes on civilian infrastructure and a slow but increasing response from Ukraine.

But a less appreciated but essential focus of the war is on the water. There, a Competition for control of the Black Sea saw Russia amazingly defeated.

And this loss has potentially far-reaching consequences. Not only does this limit Moscow's ability to increase its power through naval forces across the globe, but it surely has also resulted in Russia being compromised growing cooperation with Chinawhere Moscow is becoming one Junior party on the high seas to Beijing.

Battle of the Black Sea

The tradition of geopolitical theory tends to oversimplify world politics. Theories dating back to the late nineteenth century categorized countries as either land powers or sea powers.

Thinkers just like the British geopolitician Sir Halford Mackinder or the US theorist Alfred Thayer Mahan characterised maritime powers as countries that possessed characteristics of democratic liberalism and free trade. In contrast, land powers were often portrayed as despotic and militaristic.

While such generalizations have served to demonize enemies previously, there remains to be a man-made tendency to divide the world into land and sea powers. The associated view that naval and military warfare were one way or the other separate has continued.

And this division gives us a misunderstanding of Russia's progress within the war with Ukraine. While Moscow has definitely seen a number of Successes on land And within the airThis shouldn’t distract from the stunning Russian defeat within the Black Sea that occurred Russia must withdraw from the Ukrainian coast and keep his ships away from the front.

As I describe in my most up-to-date book: “Waters Near and Far: The Geopolitics of Sea Power“Maritime countries have two concerns: they must seek to control the parts of the sea relatively close to their shorelines or their “near waters”; Meanwhile, those with the power and desire to achieve this are trying to project power and influence into “far waters” across the oceans, that are the near waters of other countries.

The Black Sea is a tightly enclosed and comparatively small sea that features the near waters of the countries surrounding it: Turkey to the south, Bulgaria and Romania to the west, Georgia to the east, and Ukraine and Russia to the north.

Control over the nearby waters of the Black Sea has been disputed over the centuries and played a task in the present Russo-Ukrainian war.

of Russia Capture of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 allowed him to regulate the naval port of Sevastopol. What was near waters of Ukraine became de facto waters near Russia for Russia.

Control of those nearby waters allowed Russia to disrupt Ukraine's trade, particularly grain exports to distant African waters.

But Russia's move was thwarted through the cooperation of Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey to permit the passage of cargo ships through their nearby waters after which through the Bosphorus to the Mediterranean.

Ukraine's use of the nearby waters of those other countries allowed export Ukraine's exports amounted to between 5.2 and 5.8 million tons of grain per 30 days in the primary quarter of 2024. However, this was a decrease from Ukraine's exports of about 6.5 million tons per 30 days before the war, which then fell to only 2 million tons in the summertime of 2023 due to Russian attacks and threats.

But efforts to limit Russia's control over Ukraine's nearby waters within the Black Sea, and Russia's unwillingness to face the implications of an attack on ships in NATO countries' nearby waters, left Ukraine still within the capable of access distant waters to generate economic profit and keep the Ukrainian economy afloat.

For Putin, this depressing feeling

Not only is Russia prevented from disrupting Ukrainian exports, but it’s also exposed to direct naval attack from Ukraine. Since February 2022, Ukraine has successfully sunk or damaged Russian ships and dismembered the Russian Black Sea Fleet using unmanned attack drones. decreases by 15 Its pre-war fleet of around 36 warships was destroyed and lots of others damaged.

Russia was forced to limit the usage of Sevastopol and station its ships within the eastern a part of the Black Sea. It cannot function effectively within the nearby waters it gained by occupying Crimea.

Russia's maritime setbacks against Ukraine are only the newest in its historic difficulties projecting naval power and its resulting tendency to focus totally on defending nearby waters.

In 1905, Russia was shocked by one dramatic naval loss against Japan. However, even in cases where it was not completely defeated, Russian naval power has historically been limited. During World War I, Russia worked with the British Royal Navy to limit German industrial activities within the Baltic Sea and Turkish trade and military reach within the Black Sea.

In World War II, Russia was depending on material support from the Allies and was largely blockaded in its Baltic and Black Sea ports. Many ships were brought near home or stripped of their cannons as artillery or offshore support for the territorial battle with Germany.

Although the Soviet Union built fast missile boats and a few aircraft carriers through the Cold War, their range prolonged into wide waters depending on submarines. The principal purpose of the Soviet Mediterranean Fleet was to forestall NATO from entering the Black Sea.

And now Russia has lost control of the Black Sea. It cannot operate in these once protected waters. These losses reduce its ability to project naval power from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean.

Cessation of captaincy to China

Therefore, faced with a glaring loss in its backyard and a weak position in its near waters, Russia can only bring its power to distant waters through cooperation with China, which itself is investing heavily in a distant waters naval capability.

Together Naval exercises within the South China Sea in July 2024 bear witness to this collaboration. Wang Guangzheng of the Southern Theater of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy said the driller that “the China-Russia joint patrol has promoted the deepening and practical cooperation between the two in various directions and fields.” And I stay up for he claimed The exercise “effectively enhanced the ability of both sides to jointly respond to threats to maritime security.”

This cooperation makes purely military sense for Russia, a mutually helpful sea power projection project. But it mainly advantages China.

Russia may help China defend its northern waters and secure access to distant waters across the Arctic Sea – on increasingly essential arena as global climate change reduces barriers attributable to sea ice. But Russia largely stays the junior partner.

Moscow's strategic interests will only be supported in the event that they coincide with Chinese interests. More specifically, sea power is concerning the projection of power for economic gain. China will likely use Russia to guard its continued economic reach in African, Pacific, European and South American waters. However, these interests are unlikely to be compromised for Russian objectives.

Russia definitely has economic interests within the Far East particularly within the Sahel and sub-Saharan Africa. And securing Russian interests in Africa complements China's growing naval presence within the Indian Ocean to secure its own and broader global economic interests. But cooperation will proceed to be at China's behest.

Russia is bogged down within the waters off the Black Sea as a result of its war in Ukraine, and the one way it could currently display its naval power is by accessing the waters off Africa and the Indian Ocean as China's junior partner, which agrees to the terms and conditions will dictate. Even if Russia achieves a victory in its land war against Ukraine, it’s going to not compensate for its continued inability to project its power across the oceans alone.

Editor's Note: This article was updated on October 3, 2024 to correct a geographic error that occurred within the editing phase.

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, there was a decline in enrollment at community colleges and technical colleges. But it also spurred schools to innovate to higher serve students who would otherwise fall through the cracks. Xueli Wang, a professor of upper education on the University of Wisconsin-Madison, summarizes among the steps community colleges have taken in her newly published book: “Keeping the promise: Equity-driven educational change and innovation at community colleges and universities of applied sciences.” In the next questions and answers she goes into some examples.

How has the pandemic modified community colleges and technical colleges?

The pandemic caused schools to handle some long-standing challenges. Among other things, they began forming recent partnerships with four-year colleges and universities.

In the state of Wisconsin, for instance, the Wisconsin Technical College System and the University of Wisconsin System joined forces in 2021 to create this Universal Credit Transfer Agreement. The agreement describes a core set of courses – as much as 72 credits – that might be transferred throughout the two systems. This will make it easier for college kids, especially those that are unsure what they need to check, to change from one system to the opposite or to take courses in each systems, depending on what they need. Before the pandemic, the systems were considered two separate systems with few transfer options between them.

The transfer agreement got here about partially due to the regular decline in enrollment over time, which reached a breaking point when the pandemic hit and enrollment for the Wisconsin Technical College System fell 10% about 5% for the University of Wisconsin system.

This partnership was also facilitated partially by our shared give attention to student well-being. As one educator described it, “This is the time to support students in their educational goals.” Previously, she said, administrators and educators within the two systems viewed students as customers of 1 system or the opposite. Now, she says, they’ve a greater sense of collective responsibility to serve.

What other innovations were there?

Among probably the most notable are efforts to create more holistic supports that address students' diverse challenges. These can include informational, financial and private challenges.

A superb example of that is the Student Resource Center at a community college in North Carolina. As with all the colleges on this book, I keep the identity of the college anonymous as a part of the research protocol. Founded by a team of officials from various departments (e.g., financial aid, admissions, and advising), the middle's purpose is to offer students with greater access to support services. The center is led by a vp and chief student services officer.

The center offers all the pieces students need in a single place: a library, bookstore, food bank, financial aid counseling, course advising, admissions and registration. The center also has workstations where staff can connect with students online or in person and guide them to the support they need.

This innovation allowed the school to direct more students to nearby resources, even those that most certainly wouldn’t seek help.

What is probably the most interesting story you found?

It would must be the Science Pathway Program at Midwest Technical College – a pseudonym for one in every of the colleges I mention in my book.

It was a program that promoted the concept that education just isn’t a transaction but goals to develop the entire person. Yes, they prepare students for the world of labor, but additionally they teach them find out how to apply the science they learn of their on a regular basis lives. For example, students can apply their scientific knowledge to other courses through the search and interpretation of data and recognize the influence of science on decision-making in areas comparable to politics, economics and society.

To prepare students for employment, instructors work with industry partners so that they are ready for careers comparable to laboratory technicians. You may also prepare for a profession in quality assurance in food, agriculture, chemical production, and other fields.

As far as training is worried, students take the topics Organic Chemistry I and II. Completing these courses enables students to enter advanced courses within the fundamental subjects of biology, chemistry, environment and other natural sciences. When students complete this system, they will transfer to one in every of the state's three public four-year institutions to earn their bachelor's degree. Or they will enter the job market directly.

The program has above-average completion rates in comparison with other programs. Perhaps more importantly, graduates have a 100% employment rate of their field of study.