Master IR with Shashank Tyagi

IR Through Map
Compilation
Kenya
Kenya’s Parliament had witnessed deadly
protests.

It lies on the equator and is bordered by

Ethiopia to the north, Somalia to the east,
Tanzania to the south, Uganda to the west,
and Sudan to the northwest.

The Indian Ocean running along the

southeast border.

It shares border with "Lake Victoria" in the south east; The lake is indeed surrounded by Uganda,
Tanzania & Kenya

Its Capital is Nairobi, and is located in Eastern Africa.

Gulf of Aden
Houthi rebels have recently targeted some
ships in the Gulf of Aden. The Gulf of
Aden is a deepwater gulf of the Indian Ocean
between Yemen to the north, the Arabian Sea
to the east, Djibouti to the west, and the
Guardafui Channel, the Socotra Archipelago,
Puntland in Somalia and Somaliland to the
south.

In the northwest, it connects with the Red

Sea through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, and it
connects with the Arabian Sea to the east.

To the west, it narrows into the Gulf of Tadjoura in Djibouti.

The Aden Ridge lies along the middle of the gulf, and tectonic activity at the ridge is causing the gulf to
widen by about 15 mm (0.59 in) per year.
Master IR with Shashank Tyagi

Lebanon
Lebanon is in news due to Israel-Hamas War

Lebanon is a small Middle-East nation situated on

the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea in Western
Asia.

It shares land borders with two countries: Syria to

the north and east, and Israel to the south.

Cyprus lies a short distance from the coastline.

Lebanon has a population of more than five million

and an area of 10,452 square kilometres (4,036 sq mi).

Beirut is the country's capital and largest city.

Lebanon is known to harbour "Hezbollah", a proxy group supported by Iran.

Black Sea
Russia’s Defence Ministry has ordered officials to
prepare a response to U.S. drone flights over the
Black Sea.

It is also known as the Euxine Sea.

It is one of the major water bodies and a famous

inland sea of the world.

This marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean is located

between Eastern Europe and Western Asia.

It is surrounded by the Pontic, Caucasus, and Crimean Mountains in the south, east and north
respectively.

Austria
Prime Minister of India paid an official visit to
Austria.

Austria borders eight countries: Germany, the

Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy,
Switzerland and Lichtenstein.

Its geographical position has long made it a

crossroads for trade routes between the major
European economic and cultural areas. Its Capital
is Vienna and it is located in Central Europe.
Master IR with Shashank Tyagi

Golan Heights
Israel conducted air strikes on Lebanon-based
Hezbollah.

Golan Height is a strategic basaltic plateau in

the southwest corner of Syria. It's considered
occupied territory under international law and UN
Security Council resolutions.

It is bordered by the Yarmouk River in the

south, the Sea of Galilee and Hula Valley in the
west, the Anti-Lebanon mountains with Mount
Hermon in the north, and Wadi Raqqad in the
east.

It hosts vital water sources that feed the

Hasbani River and the Jordan River.

Two thirds of the area was occupied by Israel following the 1967 Six-Day War and then effectively
annexed in 1981 – an action unrecognized by the international community, which continues to consider it
Israeli-occupied Syrian territory.

In 2024 Israel occupied the remaining one third of the area.

Gobi Desert
China is set to build the world’s first nuclear
power plant using molten thorium salt in the
Gobi Desert.

It is a large, cold desert and grassland region

located in northern China and southern
Mongolia.

It is the sixth largest desert in the world.

The name of the desert comes from the

Mongolian word gobi, used to refer to all of the
waterless regions in the Mongolian Plateau

In Chinese, gobi is used to refer to rocky, semi-deserts such as the Gobi itself rather than sandy deserts.

It has a cold desert climate with hot summers and very cold winters.

Rainfall is scarce.

It’s known for its dunes, mountains and rare animals such as snow leopards and Bactrian camels.
Master IR with Shashank Tyagi

Panama Canal
The Panama Canal, a crucial shipping route
connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, faces an
existential threat from climate change.

The Panama Canal is a man-made waterway

located in Panama, Central America.

It connects the Atlantic Ocean (via the Caribbean

Sea) to the Pacific Ocean, significantly reducing the
travel distance for ships, which would otherwise
have to navigate around the southern tip of South
America via Drake Passage or the Strait of
Magellan.

St. Martin's Island

Former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina reportedly claimed that the US sought to
acquire the island in exchange for political support.

It is located in the north-eastern part of the Bay

of Bengal.

Saint Martin’s is located at the southern tip of

the Cox’s Bazar-Teknaf peninsula, and forms the
southernmost part of Bangladesh.

There is a small adjoining island that is separated

at high tide, called Chera Dwip.

Namibia
Namibia is experiencing its worst drought in a
century, exacerbated by El Niño.

It is situated on the southwestern coast of Africa

and borders Angola and Zambia in the north, South
Africa in the south and Botswana in the east.

The Namibian landscape consists generally of

five geographical areas, each with characteristic
abiotic conditions and vegetation with some
variation within and overlap between them: the
Central Plateau, the Namib Desert, the Escarpment,
the Bushveld, and the Kalahari Desert.
Master IR with Shashank Tyagi

Sudan
The war in Sudan is still creating havoc.

Sudan is located in Northeast Africa and shares

borders with several countries:

Central African Republic to the southwest

Chad to the west

Egypt to the north

Eritrea to the northeast

Ethiopia to the southeast

Libya to the northwest

South Sudan to the south

It also has a coastline along the Red Sea

Mexico

Mexico reformed its judicial appointment process and became the first country to allow voters to elect
judges at all levels.

Mexico is located in southern part of North America, bordered by the United States to the north,
Guatemala and Belize to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west, and the Gulf of Mexico and the
Caribbean Sea to the east.

Gulf of Mexico
About 42% of crude oil production and 53% of
natural gas output in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico were shut
last week in the wake of Hurricane Francine.

It is a large ocean basin and a marginal sea of the

Atlantic Ocean, bordered by the United States, Mexico,
and Cuba.

The Mississippi River and the Rio Grande are the

primary rivers draining into the Gulf.
Master IR with Shashank Tyagi

Amazon River
The Amazon River basin is experiencing an
unprecedented drought, with water levels
plummeting to historic lows across the region.

River has its source in the Peruvian Andes.

It is the largest river by volume of water and

second longest river after the Nile river of Africa in
the world.

It represents 20% of the global riverine

discharge into oceans.

It drains into Atlantic Ocean on the northeastern coast of Brazil.

Trinidad & Tobago

NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL)
has entered into a strategic partnership with
Trinidad and Tobago to develop a real-time
payments platform similar to India’s ‘Unified
Payments Interface’ (UPI).

Trinidad and Tobago is the southernmost island

country in the Caribbean.

It shares maritime boundaries with Barbados to

the east, Grenada to the northwest and Venezuela to
the south and west.

Despite its proximity to South America, Trinidad

and Tobago is generally considered to be part of the West Indies.

Lake Michigan
Researchers recently surveyed the bottom of Lake
Michigan after spotting strange circles on the lakebed
in 2022, and new observations show the circles are
craters.

It is the third largest of the five Great Lakes of

North America and the only one lying wholly within
the United States.

It is connected directly to Lake Huron, into which it

drains, through the broad Straits of Mackinac.
Master IR with Shashank Tyagi

The lake boasts a variety of natural habitats, including tallgrass prairies, wide savannas, and the world’s
largest freshwater sand dunes.

Jordan
Jordan becomes the first country in the world to
eliminate leprosy, receiving official verification
from the WHO.

It is an Arab country of Southwest Asia, in the

rocky desert of the northern Arabian Peninsula.

It is named on the Jordan River, which passes on

its western border.

It is bounded to the north by Syria, to the east by

Iraq, to the southeast and south by Saudi Arabia,
and to the west by Israel and the West Bank.

Blue Line
The United Nations reported that Israeli forces
have fired upon its peacekeepers stationed near the
Blue line.

It is a 120-km United Nations-recognized

demarcation, established in 2000 to mark the
withdrawal of Israeli military forces from southern
Lebanon.

It separates Lebanon from Israel and the Golan

Heights, though it is not recognized as an official
international border.

The line is made of blue barrels and runs from

the Mediterranean to the Golan Heights.

Sahara Desert
In south-eastern Morocco, it has experienced a
rare deluge of rainfall, transforming it into a blue
lagoon.

It stretches from the Red Sea in the east and the

Mediterranean in the north to the Atlantic Ocean in
the west, where the landscape gradually changes
from desert to coastal plains.

To the south it is bounded by the Sahel, a belt of

semi-arid tropical savanna.
Master IR with Shashank Tyagi

It stretches across countries, including Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Western
Sahara, Sudan, Chad, and Tunisia.

Malawi
The Tumaini Festival in Malawi brings together
refugees and locals through music, art, and crafts,
promoting unity and hope.

Malawi, a landlocked country in Southeastern

Africa, is bordered by Tanzania, Mozambique, and
Zambia.

It is known for its stunning highlands and Lake

Nyasa (Lake Malawi), one of the world's deepest
lakes, which covers more than one-fifth of the
country's area.

Papua New Guinea

At 16th Conference of Parties (COP16) to the
Convention on Biological Diversity, local
environmental groups from Papua New Guinea called
for international actions to stop illegal logging that is
damaging one of the most biodiverse areas on the
planet.

It is an island country that lies in the south-western

Pacific.

It includes the eastern half of New Guinea (the

world’s second largest island) and many small
offshore islands.

Mount Fuji
Japan’s Mount Fuji remained snow-less recently.

It is also known as Fuji-san, is the highest

mountain in Japan, standing at 3,776 meters.

It is situated close to the Pacific coast in Honshu.

It is a strato-volcano that has been dormant since

its last eruption in 1707 but is still generally classified
as active by geologists.
Master IR with Shashank Tyagi

Armenia
It has become the 104th member of the
International Solar Alliance.

It is a landlocked country in the mountainous

Caucasus region between Asia and Europe.

It has boundary with Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey

& Iran

Yerevan is the capital.

It was the first state to adopt Christianity as its

official religion.

It underwent the Armenian genocide during

World War I.

After periods of independence and Soviet rule, it became independent in 1991.

Solomon Islands
Scientists have uncovered the largest coral colony
on Earth in the Solomon Islands, offering insights
into marine ecosystem’s resilience and the threats
posed by climate change.

It is located in southwest Pacific Ocean.

It is composed of hard coral Pavona clavus, with

colors ranging from brown, yellow, red, pink, and
blue.

Often referred to as “shoulder blade coral.”

Baltic Sea
The cutting of undersea cables in the Baltic Sea
has escalated geopolitical tensions, particularly in the
context of the ongoing Ukraine war.

Baltic sea is part of the North Atlantic Ocean,

situated in Northern Europe, separating the
Scandinavian Peninsula from continental Europe.

Surrounding countries are Denmark, Germany,

Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Russia, Finland,
and Sweden.
Master IR with Shashank Tyagi

Caspian Sea
Kazakhstan’s state-owned energy company said
that it had decontaminated Soviet-era oil waste on
the shores of the Caspian Sea.

It lies between Europe and Asia, bordered by five

countries: Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran,
and Azerbaijan.

It is the largest enclosed inland water body, often

called a sea due to its size and salinity.

Volga, Ural, and Kura rivers flow into the

Caspian Sea.

Salar de Uyuni
It is the world’s largest salt flat in Bolivia, plays a
pivotal role in the global energy transition due to its
immense lithium reserves.

This natural wonder, located in the heart of the

‘lithium triangle’ (Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia),
highlights the strategic importance of salt flats in
modern energy resources.

It is Situated in southwest Bolivia, near the crest

of the Andes.

Kerch strait
Two Russian oil tankers have been badly
damaged in the Black Sea, causing an oil spill.

The incident took place in the Kerch Strait, which

separates Russia from Crimea (the Ukrainian
peninsula illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014).

It is a key route for exports of Russian grain,

crude oil, fuel oil and liquefied natural gas.

The Kerch Strait is a narrow waterway in Eastern

Europe that connects the Black Sea with the Sea of
Azov.
Master IR with Shashank Tyagi

Vanuatu
A massive earthquake of magnitude 7.3 struck
Vanuatu, an island nation in the South Pacific,
causing significant damage and potential casualties.

It is located in the South Pacific Ocean.

Located at east of Australia, west of Fiji, and

southeast of the Solomon Islands.

The nation comprises 13 principal volcanic

islands and many smaller islands, with active
volcanoes like Yasur, Manaro, and Garet.

Originally inhabited by Melanesians, it became a

joint Anglo-French colony known as the New
Hebrides, achieving independence in 1980.