China’s incursion reaffirms the ancient strategic axiom that “geography is the real determinant of history” – and, as a result, of foreign and security policy, too. Robert Kaplan wisely observes that “Indian geography is the story of invasions from a northwesterly direction,” and “India’s strategic challenges still inhere in this fact,” which is why Afghanistan, to Indian eyes, is linked to the sub-continent’s history, and thus our future.