2025-09-27
47 分钟The Economist Alaska isn't just one land mass.
Trailing off it is a curve of islands called the Aleutians, a dotted line that points at Russia.
In fact, not all of the islands are American territory.
A few stayed under Russian control when America bought Alaska from the Empire in 1867.
You can see why.
The westernmost ones are really, really close to Russia.
The international dateline actually snakes around the American ones to keep them all in the same time zone.
One short plane ride and you would be in Russia tomorrow.
All of which means the islands are in a strategic position.
The westernmost inhabited city, if you can call it that, is Adak, home to maybe 30 souls.
But that number could be about to change.
Big time.
I'm Jason Palmer and this is the Weekend Intelligence.
It took until the Second World War for America to notice just how strategic ADAC was,
and back then it housed thousands of soldiers and their families.
Now it's all rusty fences and barren military sites and abandoned building after abandoned building.
The geopolitical order is being juggled though, and the plain geography of ADAC remains the same.
Our diplomatic editor Anton LaGuardia paid a visit to ask if the island,
if its inhabitants, are ready for it to be drawn into conflict again.
It's the dark of night.