The more countries could secure vital resources by trade, the less reason they’d have to seize land. Optimists like Thomas Friedman believed countries that were tightly woven into an economic network would forgo starting wars, for fear of losing access to the humming network. Friedman lightheartedly expressed this in 1996 as the Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention: no two countries with McDonald’s will go to war with each other. And he wasn’t far off. Although there have been a handful of conflicts between McDonald’s-having countries, an individual’s chance of dying in a war between states has diminished remarkably since the cold war. Charlotte Heathcote of the Daily Mirror noted the recurring scenario throughout the book that China is aiming to surpass the United States as the world's superpower, and concluded "I can’t imagine reading a better book this year". [3] There is a name for Marshall’s line of thinking: geopolitics. Although the term is often used loosely to mean “international relations”, it refers more precisely to the view that geography – mountains, land bridges, water tables – governs world affairs. Ideas, laws and culture are interesting, geopoliticians argue, but to truly understand politics you must look hard at maps. And when you do, the world reveals itself to be a zero-sum contest in which every neighbour is a potential rival, and success depends on controlling territory, as in the boardgame Risk. In its cynical view of human motives, geopolitics resembles Marxism, just with topography replacing class struggle as the engine of history. In this sequel of Prisoners of Geography, Marshall explores secondary/tertiary powers not covered in the original, their history, geographical advantages/limitations and current and future role in their particular region/world. Here are my thoughts: p. 136 "Scottish independence might not be the end of the break-up. It would accelerate the slowly growing trend in Northern Ireland that unification with the Republic of Ireland ight be a good idea. The Republic was formed in 1922 after a campaign of violence achieved independence - an early example of the long-drawn-out roar of the dying British empire."

Marshall considers that immigration from the Sahel to Europe will continue, that wars may break out in Ethiopia's neighbours due to their reliance on the country's water, that oil is running out in Saudi Arabia and that Britain is seeking new alliances post- Brexit. [3] He analyses Australia's role as a U.S. ally and its relations with its Pacific neighbours, including China. [4] In his view, Iran faces the choice between social liberalisation, or revolt from its young population. [2] He predicts an arms race between the US, Russia and China to be the dominant power in outer space, similar to the Cold War nuclear arms race. [4] [3] Reception [ edit ] A fat old middle section that goes through a very basic overview of the history of that country. Usually a third of this part is dedicated to the politics of the second half of the 20th century. Also, too many instances of pro-British whitewashing of history. The colonial French were vile bastards. But Britain was just a little bit naughty and all is forgiven because we abolished slavery first. Any non-Western atrocities are given plenty of attention, however. These were hopes, though, not yet realities. The cold war, which divided the planet into trade blocs and military alliances, kept leaders’ eyes fixed on maps. Children learned to read maps, too, thanks to the 1957 French board game La Conquête du Monde – the conquest of the world – that the US firm Parker Brothers sold widely under the name Risk. It had a 19th-century ambience, with cavalries and antiquated artillery pieces, but given that superpowers were still carving up the map, it was also uncomfortably relevant.Tim Marshall ist anerkannter Experte für Außenpolitik und arbeitete als Politik-Redakteur für die BBC und Sky News. In seinen Büchern erörtert er die großen internationalen Konflikte unserer Zeit auf geopolitischer Ebene. Sein neuestes, von Lutz-W. Wolff übersetztes Buch "Die Macht der Geographie im 21. Jahrhundert" wurde mir vor allem zum Verständnis des Kriegs in der Ukraine und den damit verbundenen Hintergründen und Zusammenhängen empfohlen. Prisoners of Geography” с актуализация към 2020 г., и фокус към държави с по-слаб акцент от предната книга, или с нови такива. Стилът е все така журналистически достъпен, на места с размах, на места с хумор, макар на моменти вдъхновението му май да се поизчерпва.

p. 75 - "It cannot liberalized, as that undermines the foundations of what legitimacy it has left among the millions of people who still support it. But if it does not, each year passes the increasingly young population will chafe against a system more in tune with the sixteenth century than the twenty-first." Which is another way of saying that we don’t always accept the topographies we inherit. The world’s tallest skyscraper, the Burj Khalifa, sprouts from Dubai, which was for centuries an unpromising fishing village surrounded by desert and salt flats. Little about its relief map destined it for greatness. Its climate is sweltering and oil sales, though once substantial, now account for less than 1% of the emirate’s economy. If there’s something distinctive about Dubai, it is its legal landscape, not its physical one. The emirate isn’t governed by a single lawbook but is chopped up into free zones – Dubai Internet City, Dubai Knowledge Park and International Humanitarian City among them – designed to attract various foreign interests. The Dubai desert is essentially “a huge circuit board”, the urban theorist Mike Davis once wrote, to which global capital can easily connect. Tim Marshall has become the most reputable and authoritative writer on modern geopolitics and current affairs. To say I have greatly enjoyed every book of his thus far is an understatement: I loved them. But there is something about The Power of Geography which fell a little short for me, this time.

Book Synopsis :

Spain - tension with regions wanting independence - Basque region as well as Catalonia - although placing authority in regional governmental hands has eased some stress. Many parts of Europe want to support self-determination but in turn, are afraid that allowing it will encourage autonomy movements within. The UK was given as an example - encourages self-determination for Gibraltar and the Falklands but doesn't want it for Scotland and Northern Ireland. Turkey: Former ruler of the Ottoman Empire which controlled the Middle East and North Africa, it now rules a country primarily in minor Asia with a large percentage of its people living in the European capital Istanbul. It has a large Kurdish minority in Turkey and surrounding countries and uses its military might to stymie efforts for an independent Kurdistan in Iraq, Syria and at home. Has allied with Libya to compete with the influence of Egypt and support its claims over territorial waters controlled by Greece. Ongoing disputes with Greece over islands and territorial waters. Különben meg: szeretem a történelmet. Viszont a gyerekek utálják. Mert nekik unalmas: évszámok, rég meghalt királyok neve és uralkodási ideje, súlyos adathalmaz (mert az visszakérdezhető), ami agyonnyomja a mélyebb revelációkat – a pillanatot, amikor az ember megérti az összefüggést két időben és/vagy térben távol álló esemény között. 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. Tim Marshall egy olyan teniszezőre emlékeztet engem, aki csak egyféleképpen tudja megütni a labdát, de azt senki nem tudja visszaadni. A kötet tíz esszéje ugyanis mind ugyanarra a kaptafára készült, amely kaptafa semmiben sem különbözik „A földrajz fogságában” található írásokban felhasználttól. A szerző először is kiválaszt egy államot, esetleg régiót, felvázolja annak földrajzi sajátosságait a hegy- és vízrajztól a tengeri kijáratokig, aztán erre az alapra építve uszkve 5-6 oldalban végigmegy a terület történelmén*. Ennek végeztével aztán eljut a jelenkorba, amit tárgyszerűen és informatívan interpretál, hogy aztán az egészet berekessze a várható veszélyek illetve lehetőségek bemutatásával. Mindig ugyanaz az ív, mindig ugyanaz az olvasmányos objektivitás, a széles látókör érzékeny kombinációja a lényegre töréssel. Akár Etiópia, akár Nagy-Britannia, akár a világűr van terítéken, Marshall magabiztos, labdája mindig az alapvonalon belül csattan.

In the first book, "Prisoners of Geography", Tim Marshall delivered what he promised. It focused on the physical geography of regions or nations and connected it to that nation's political and military strategies. I enjoyed reading it, and learned a fair bit about geopolitics. Greece: A nation limited by its small amount of arable land near the coast and its mountain terrain. It has many islands in the Aegean Sea which demands a strong navy and military to protect. Ongoing disputes with its neighbour Turkey who claims islands and drilling rights in its territorial waters.non-fiction book by Tim Marshall The Power of Geography: Ten Maps that Reveal the Future of Our World Tim Marshall’s third book, The Power of Geography,is just as relevant for Economists as books about Adam Smith are. Marshall proves the importance that geography has on international trade and the development of countries around the world. Nations have fought wars and built empires to source resources such as raw materials and even slaves. Since the dawn of trade, geography has been the primary constraint in determining which trade routes grew and which economies developed. Countries with access to seas, rivers, mountain ranges, and even soil types all determine a country’s trade routes and defence concerns. Marshall takes nine countries (and Space) and explains how their geographical makeup determines their geopolitical stories.