Doesn't really matter, though, because the map is ostensibly about trade and economic cooperation zones. When comparing with Asia and Europe, there are a few important differences: 1) There are no borders between any of these regions whatsoever. The closest we get is truck scales (and agricultural inspection stations in Cali but those don't matter for trade). 2) America gets beat up like crazy for its mass transit system (James Kuntsler called it "a rail system Bulgaria could be proud of") but our freeways are second to none. Developed ostensibly for civil defense by providing for rapid military deployment and maintained under the charter of the USPS (really), the US Interstate freeway system allows me to travel from "Southern California" to "Cascadia" or "The Front Range" in a day's driving. No passports, no official interaction, nothing. That's Paris to Budapest, or Lisbon to Paris. 3) "Trade" is an exchange of goods and services. Let's arbitrarily divide it into "agricultural", "mineral," "manufactured," and "informational." These regions are agriculturally and geologically related: those two aspects of trade are things that they have in common internally. They're already trading elsewhere. Manufactured and informational goods are already traded globally. Really, these divisions make sense from a standpoint of logistics, and any carrier you care to find will agree - UPS, Fedex, Amazon, WalMart, Kroger, BNSF, they've all got their shit stacked in regions just like this. But that's because isochronally, it makes sense. A political or social "division" it is not.