The Power of Geography

June 1, 2021

Diplomatic editor at Sky News and author of the Sunday Times best-selling Prisoners of Geography, Marshall wields ten maps of crucial regions worldwide to explore geopolitics today--especially with regard to the strategies of world powers--and the consequences for tomorrow. The regions he considers: Australia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UK, Greece, Turkey, the Sahel, Ethiopia, Spain, and Space. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

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September 1, 2021
The author of Prisoners of Geography (2015) follows up with an elucidating survey of 10 regions whose demographics, economics, and politics will affect the future of the planet. Geography is not necessarily fate, but it is more important, insists Marshall, than individual politicians. Consider Australia, he writes in the first chapter: It sits 5,000 miles from Africa, more than 7,000 miles from South America, and more than 2,500 miles from its supposed neighbor, New Zealand. The isolation of the island continent once allowed it to maintain a small White settler population and conduct genocidal wars on Indigenes largely unseen. Today, connected by air and sea routes and communication lines, it is "a territorially huge, Western-oriented, advanced democracy" that sits next door to China, "the world's most economically and militarily powerful dictatorship." This makes Australia a bulwark. What of Iran? Will it ever become a world power, as it was in the days of Darius and Xerxes? Hemmed in by mountains, "Iran's main centers of population are widely dispersed and, until recently, poorly connected. Even now, only half of the country's roads are paved." This dispersal favors ethnic and cultural diversity, and Iran's overwhelmingly young population is beginning to resist a fundamentalist ideology "more in tune with the sixteenth century than the twenty-first." Regional rival Saudi Arabia contains vast resources of oil, a commodity that is increasingly less important than before, so much so that much of the vast sandy peninsula remains unexplored. The U.K. is another region that, Marshall projects, will become less important in world affairs as the U.S. looks to the Pacific rather than Europe. The author also considers the secondary effects of the movement for Scottish independence and, of course, China, with designs everywhere around the world, especially in a developing Sahel--and, significantly, in space, where it is vying with Russia to be the first to build lunar bases. Geopolitics wonks will find Marshall's prognostications to be reasonable, believable, and capably rendered.

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September 15, 2021
During the Cold War, it was generally agreed that world politics were pretty much dominated by two entities, the U.S. and the USSR. It has become apparent that these dynamics are shifting, and in this engaging offering, author Marshall (The Age of Walls, 2018) analyzes past and present geopolitical boundaries. He identifies emerging world powers such as Australia, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, suggests some countries need redefinition (the UK, Spain), and predicts upcoming hot spots and centers of contention (Turkey and Greece, the Sahel, Ethiopia, and outer space). Marshall outlines national and political histories, evaluates current international clout, and imagines future scenarios, all through the lens of geography. He emphasizes how landforms, mountains, swamps, and waterways exert profound influence on changing international borders and power shifts. Marshall has decades of experience as a foreign correspondent, and his writing is clear and concise and sprinkled with wry observations. His ten maps mentioned in the subtitle offer readers fresh perspectives. In the final chapter, on outer space, Marshall laments that humankind apparently hasn't learned much from past mistakes. Nonetheless, Marshall remains optimistic, hoping that nations can come together in cooperation as we face yet another frontier.

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October 4, 2021
Mountains, deserts, and distances still leave a deep mark on national character and international relations, according to this fascinating exploration of geopolitics. Journalist Marshall (Prisoners of Geography) spotlights nine places, including Africa’s Sahel region, Australia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, whose locale, terrain, and climate shape their destinies. A dominant theme is how mountains weaken national stability by nurturing minority cultures and separatist movements in places like Scotland, Spain’s Basque region, and Turkey’s Kurdish areas. Deserts play a similarly disruptive role: the arid northern reaches of nations in the Sahel are incubating tribal Islamist movements that could tear them apart, and dry, thirsty Egypt has threatened war over Ethiopia’s damming of the Nile’s headwaters. Sheer proximity remains a perennial source of friction, as Australia frets about China’s encroaching naval presence and Greece and Turkey bicker over Aegean islands and their surrounding undersea gas fields. Marshall also examines superpower rivalry in space, which threatens the world’s indispensable satellite systems. Sprinkling the text with his own entertaining picaresques—precariously riding a camel, getting assaulted by cops at an Iranian street protest—Marshall offers an immersive blend of history, economics, and political analysis that puts geography at the center of human affairs. Maps. Agent: George Lucas, InkWell.