The Geography of the Global Middle

The word Mediterranean comes from Latin. Medius means middle. Terra means land.

The Mediterranean was literally the sea in the middle of the world.

For more than two thousand years, it connected three continents – Europe, Africa, and Asia. Goods, people, law, science, and culture moved through this basin long before there was anything called globalization. The Romans even called it Mare Nostrum, “Our Sea,” because it was the shared space that bound their world together.

This geography shaped history. It forced civilizations to negotiate, to trade, and to live alongside one another. Power alone was never enough. Rules, relationships, and shared spaces mattered more.

That is why The Global Middle is not an abstract idea. It reflects a physical and historical reality. Europe and Africa already face each other across the same waters, the same trade routes, the same future.