Andrew Smith's Reviews > The Power of Geography: Ten Maps That Reveal the Future of Our World

Tim Marshall was formerly Diplomatic Editor and foreign correspondent for Sky News, his 2015 book Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics explains the geographic lottery: who wins, who loses, and why. This more recent book explores ten regions that are potentially going to be central to how global politics will play out going forward. The regions are: Australia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UK, Greece, Turkey, the Sahel (bordering the Sahara Desert), Ethiopia, and Spain. Interesting, the final area is Space. Russia and China aren’t explicitly covered, but their tentacles are everywhere, here.

The author walks us through the history of each region – interesting enough in itself – and examines what opportunities are available and what threats are posed to each. There’s the full range of ancient disputes, religious divisions, friction over boundaries, and other elements at play. Russia and China are presented as active predators, the colonisers of the modern age. Marshall discusses the advantages of cooperation for these regions, the draw of establishing new partnerships. But he also identifies the potential risks, for instance: drives for independence in a number of regions, the desire by potential partners to grab scarce natural resources, or to acquire strategic footholds.

It’s a fascinating book that’s an education in and of itself, but particularly when read as a follow up to his earlier publication. Highly recommended.