Prisoners of Geography, by Tim Marshall, written in 2015
Genre: Geopolitics
Publisher: Elliot & Thompson
Accessible to all Less than 300 pages
Tim Marshall makes his way around the globe focusing on 10 regions in particular.
He tries to give you insight into what shapes politics in a particular region and therefore the world. It really does open your mind to the limitations of politics and helps you appreciate why certain situations are not likely to change in the current World Order.
Hopefully, it sheds light on why a government acts in the way that it does and that in certain cases, that government has very few options to do otherwise.
His Refrain
Politics and politicians are limited by Geography:
- Mountains
- Rivers
- Sea
- Occasional concrete structures
10 great Maps give you a vision of the overall geography and help you better appreciate the limitations of politics in each region.
This is Tim Marshall’s take on the World as he saw it in 2015.
It broaches territorial ambitions and likely outcomes to certain land or resource disputes; energy independence; the race to exploit new regions and how resources may or may not be shared in the future.
Before condoning or criticising a government’s actions, this book is a MUST. It will hopefully, at least, give you a grounding in some basic geopolitical awareness and provide food for thought.
It should fan the flames of desire to go further into finding out more about certain events and regions.
There are definitely one or two of those “Aah! I now see things in a different light” moments.
This book, for me, was a riveting read, a real eye-opener in certain cases. I suddenly realised that even with a healthy interest in Geopolitics, there were a number of holes in my knowledge that desperately needed to be plugged.
My TO-DO list to deepen my understanding of certain events suddenly grew significantly longer.
I hope you enjoy the read as much as I did.
If you’d like to read more on geopolitics, check out this blogpost…