Much has been said about China's Road to Everest: Here is a typical report ... and my analysis, from a military perspective:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/storypage/storypage.aspx?id=b359e263-bec5-4f54-8dda-1bee707cccf8&&Headline=Everest+road+won%e2%80%99t+hurt+us%2c+say+officials
In mountainous regions, countries sharing borders deliberately go slow on development of infrastructure. This is because a better infrastructure speeds up movement of forces if the neighbouring country is known to harbour belligerent intentions. Now, if the movement of forces is slow, there will be ample time to detect unusual activity along the borders and take pre-emptive measures.
The second reason for deliberately maintaining poor infrastructure on mountainous borders is to slow down the aggressor, in case he has managed to infiltrate into own territory. A small body of men tactically sited to advantage can hold back a large army formation in the mountains. If a better infrastructure exists, the enemy can use the same infrastructure to make rapid ingress into own territory.
These are some of the military aspects of the issue. There are others like political, economic and social that you can think of; the over riding consideration will be the region's resources, attitude/religion of the local population and the neighbouring country. What holds true for India and China/Pakistan cannot hold true for the USA and Canada, for eg.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/storypage/storypage.aspx?id=b359e263-bec5-4f54-8dda-1bee707cccf8&&Headline=Everest+road+won%e2%80%99t+hurt+us%2c+say+officials
In mountainous regions, countries sharing borders deliberately go slow on development of infrastructure. This is because a better infrastructure speeds up movement of forces if the neighbouring country is known to harbour belligerent intentions. Now, if the movement of forces is slow, there will be ample time to detect unusual activity along the borders and take pre-emptive measures.
The second reason for deliberately maintaining poor infrastructure on mountainous borders is to slow down the aggressor, in case he has managed to infiltrate into own territory. A small body of men tactically sited to advantage can hold back a large army formation in the mountains. If a better infrastructure exists, the enemy can use the same infrastructure to make rapid ingress into own territory.
These are some of the military aspects of the issue. There are others like political, economic and social that you can think of; the over riding consideration will be the region's resources, attitude/religion of the local population and the neighbouring country. What holds true for India and China/Pakistan cannot hold true for the USA and Canada, for eg.
