Thursday April 11: if you don't hold it, you don't own it! part three

OK, so now you know which nation you "represent". And by now you know the stuff your nation has and what it lacks. Now it's time to figure out where go you from here: how do you get the stuff your nation needs?

To make this assignment more practical, I would like you to pick out just seven of the resources your nation lacks. Then, once you have them listed, make two additional lists:

A) What items are manufactured from this resource that you need? For example, bauxite is useful in making aluminum. Silver is used for circuits used in everything from laptops to cellphones to Blueray players to microwave ovens. Petroleum is used for making not just gasoline, but also road tar and plastic. Sugar can be used to flavor foods; it can also be distilled into ethanol and burned inside internal combustion engines

So, list at least 5 or 6 uses for each resource in your first list

B) Who are the nations most likely to consider trading this resource to you? This might be influenced by geographical proximity -- its easier to trade with nations that are close by -- but not always. For example, Israel is very close by to Saudi Arabia, but I don't forsee them becoming major trading partners anytime soon, since they hate each other. Ditto for India and Pakistan: they share a long border, but there is no love lost between these two nations.

You might want to check to see which nations "your" nation has traded with in the past... you can Google this by searching like so:

who are [name of your nation goes here] major trading partners?

You might also want to include nations which you HAVEN'T  traded with much in the past, but have resources which you could use. Just try to make sure there isn't a major stumbling block, such as a war that happened between your two nations. You can Google something like

war between [your nation] and [this other nation].... this will no doubt pick up any major armed conflicts between the two