{"id":156591,"date":"2026-06-05T15:40:44","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T22:40:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=156591"},"modified":"2026-06-05T15:40:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T22:40:44","slug":"from-conquest-of-lands-to-conquest-of-markets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2026\/06\/05\/from-conquest-of-lands-to-conquest-of-markets\/","title":{"rendered":"From Conquest of Lands to Conquest of Markets"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Dr Sarath Obeysekera<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>Throughout history, powerful leaders have sought to expand the influence and prosperity of their nations. The methods have changed, but the objective has often remained the same: securing resources, wealth, strategic advantage, and national power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Genghis Khan expanded his empire through military conquest across Asia and Europe. Alexander the Great marched across continents, creating one of the largest empires of the ancient world. Centuries later, Ashoka transformed his empire from one built by warfare into one guided by administration, trade, and cultural influence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the modern era, nations no longer acquire territory through conquest in the same manner. Instead, economic power, trade policy, technology, industrial capacity, and control of supply chains have become the principal instruments of influence. Contemporary leaders, including figures such as Donald Trump, have advocated policies designed to strengthen domestic industries, protect national interests, and reshape global trade relationships. These policies may be controversial, but they reflect the continuing competition among nations for economic advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The lesson for Sri Lanka is not to imitate conquerors of the past or economic nationalists of the present. Rather, it is to recognize that every successful nation pursues a long-term strategy to secure and develop its own resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sri Lanka possesses a strategic maritime location, a highly literate population, an extensive Exclusive Economic Zone, and access to some of the busiest shipping routes in the world. Yet we continue to export much of our skilled human capital while struggling to build industries capable of retaining them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The modern battlefield is not fought with armies. It is fought through productivity, innovation, technology, education, industrial development, and economic vision. Nations that successfully harness their human capital become prosperous. Nations that export their talent without creating domestic opportunities risk becoming dependent on the success of others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The challenge before Sri Lanka is therefore clear: we must move from exporting people to exporting products, services, technology, and maritime expertise. A national Blue Economy Strategy can become one of the key instruments for achieving that transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Regards<br><br>Dr Sarath Obeysekera<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr Sarath Obeysekera Throughout history, powerful leaders have sought to expand the influence and prosperity of their nations. The methods have changed, but the objective has often remained the same: securing resources, wealth, strategic advantage, and national power. Genghis Khan expanded his empire through military conquest across Asia and Europe. Alexander the Great marched across [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-156591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dr-sarath-obeysekera"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156591"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":156592,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156591\/revisions\/156592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}