Prisoners Of Geography

Prisoners of Geography (2015) by Tim Marshall is a modern book on geopolitics that looks at why various regions around the world are the way they are and offers motives for why many states act as they do. Marshall is a journalist and writer and was at Sky News for a quarter of century and was the Foreign Affairs editor there for many years. Geopolitics underpins power politics and offers a great deal of insight into why states act as they do. Afred Thayer Mahan, Emil Reich and Halford Mackinder should be better known than they are. The US statesmen who understood and cared about geopolitics, Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezisnki, are better known for their crucial role in winning the Cold War. This book distils the insights of geopolitics. The book has chapters on Russia, China, the US, Western Europe, Africa, The Middle East, Indian and Pakistan, Korean and Japan, Latin America and The Arctic. The chapters on Russia, China and the Middle East are all outstanding, providing a great deal of insight into why these powers act as they do. In particular Marshall's presentation of why Russia is acting the way it is in Ukraine is something that is very much worth reading. The one big thing the book curiously mentions little is nuclear weapons which have fundamentally reshaped power politics. It was one thing for Napoleon or Hitler to invade Russia, it is a completely different thing to contemplate attacking a Russia with nuclear weapons. Similarly China has a level of security that previous rising powers did not have due to its nuclear capability. If the book does sound interesting Marshall gave a talk at the LSE recently that is available online to listen to that goes over the themes of the book. The book is very much worth reading for anyone interested in current events. It really does help understand various political events around the world.

Vivid explanations of how geography shapes society and men, great examples. The writing is very fluid, almost conversational, a great read.

I had the honour and the privilege to hear Tim Marshall, the author, at the inaugural HFW "Commodities Dinner" in September 2022. This is a fascinating book and I look forward to reading the sequel, "The Power of Geography". A must read in this febrile and interconnected world of realpolitik! If you liked this you will like also enjoy "The World For Sale" by Javier Blas & Jack Farchy & "Commodity Crops & the Merchants who trade them" as well as "Out of The Shadows" by Jonathan Kingsman

So informative and great perspectives for anyone who is interested in how world history has shaped over years! Highly recommend

A thoroughly written and informative book unpacking our world. Highly recommended. It covers all the continents, even those regions like the Arctic which may get overlooked.

This book was well written with a clear explanation of the effect of geography on the political and economic positioning of countries of the world. I found this an interesting expose of the reasons for countries' dominance or lack of it. My only criticism Is that the maps didn't always show the towns or rivers that were being written about and reading it on a cell phone made it more difficult. I found it enlightening and would recommend it though it is not a light read

If you like history and if you are really interested in the history of Washington DC then this is the book for you. I have enjoyed every page of this book. The subjects are broken into short explanations which have their own title. I only have one complaint. In the KINDLE version the maps are so small that you can't read them - so I bought the printed book too specifically so I could see the maps.

A bit elementary 😔

id say that if you are ignorant on geopolitics and politics as a whole, this book may be a good starting point,

Impressionante ler este livro em plena guerra da Ucrânia. Verifica-se a veracidade do escrito pelo autor. Possivelmente teremos outras passagens semelhantes nos próximos anos

An excellent and highly informative book for beginners in geopolitics, offering clear explanations, engaging insights, and practical understanding of global political dynamics, making it a perfect starting point for anyone interested in the subject.

Very nice introduction to geopolitics but also useful for those who already have some knowledge about it. Very accessible and accurate (not biased in a political sense), I definitely recommend it even if it’s not the most recent and up to date book on the market. I LOVED the fact that there are maps included for each chapter (duh, it’s what the book is about), it’s always nice to have a clear picture of the areas being discussed, especially since the author delves into describing the geography of many, distant areas.

This is the best non-fiction book I have read this year so far. If you are interested in geopolitics and geography, this is clearly your choice. The 10 chapters (maps) are the following: Russia, China, USA, Western Europe, Africa, The Middle East, India and Pakistan, Korea and Japan, Latin America and The Artic. Here are some examples of the notes I took in the first three chapters: USA: -Geographically speaking, the USA is “blessed” for many reasons: the two oceans protect it from invasions, it has navigable rivers, fertile soil, significant natural resources (shale gas is trending now), etc. The great statesman Otto von Bismarck once said: “God takes special care of drunks, children and the United States of America”. -In 1803 the French sold Louisiana to the USA for only 15 million USD. The historian Henry Adams said: “Never did the United States get so much for so little”. In 1819 the Spaniards ceded Florida. In 1848 they advanced until the Rio Grande after winning the war with Mexico, in 1867 they bought Alaska, etc. The American Empire was getting ready to be a global superpower. -In 1940, the British swapped their ability to be a global power in exchange for help in remaining in the war. After the war, the Americans took their military bases abroad and became, officially, the indisputable Empire in the Western Hemisphere. Russia: -Russia is an energy giant and use its natural resources as a tool to gain political power. And to blackmail its neighbours. -The lack of a warm-water port with direct access to the oceans has always been Russia’s Achilles heel. This explains, in part, their obsession with annexing Crimea. -Russia’s biggest fear: NATO (1949) still exists and it is larger and closer to Russia’s borders than ever before, whereas the “USSR NATO”, The Warsaw Pact (1955), disappeared when the USSR collapsed. China: -China annexed the Tibet region in 1951 and it is unlikely to let it free. For other reasons, because the Tibet is the source of China’s great rivers (Mekong, Yangtze and Yellow) and holds a strategic position in the Himalayas next to its great Asian rival in the coming future: India. -The Chinese look at society very differently from the West. Western thought is infused with the rights of the individual; Chinese thought prizes the collective above the individual. -The Strait of Malacca (between Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia) is key for China’s trade and an obvious weakness in case of confrontations. China is investing huge amounts of money in its navy in order to control it. In conclusion: All powerful nations spend peacetime preparing for the day war breaks out. And, by the way, the rest of the book is even better.