Australia - whose population is restricted to the coasts and is under threat of more devastating drought and possible wildfires as climate changes along with carefully watching the actions of China to the north. Saudi Arabia - religion vs. economics vs. a large extended royal family who is trying to replace oil with technology even as it's also watching extremist organizations. The book also explores Iran. Walking the reader through the mountains of Iran and its huge landscape it puts Iranian history into perspective due to its mountainous geography.

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. Geopolitics wonks will find Marshall’s prognostications to be reasonable, believable, and capably rendered. The history of the world is the triumph of the heartless over the mindless." - Sir Humphrey Appleby, Yes, Prime Minister Writing for The Hindu, Prasanna Aditya judged the book to be a good introduction to its topics that opens the way for the reader to further research. [4]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. 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." An insider’s account of the rampant misconduct within the Trump administration, including the tumult surrounding the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021. Where Prisoners was almost solely the influence of physical geography, The Power of Geography is almost exclusively human geography (see also: history) and I am personally more of a fan of the former. The book opens with a chapter on Australia. As an Australian I found it quite interesting reading a perspective on my country and people... “Now Australia looks around at its neighbourhood and wonders what role it should play, and whom it should play it with”... “Australia’s size and location are both it’s strength and its weakness...”

Compared to Marshall's previous book, "Prisoners of Geography," "The Power of Geography" is a bit less focused. While the former book zoomed in on the geopolitical implications of physical features like mountains, rivers, and coastlines, the latter takes a broader view of geography, considering everything from climate patterns to migration patterns. While this does make for a more comprehensive look at the subject, it can also feel a bit scattered at times. It also tends to oversimplify some of the complex issues it covers. p. 158 "The discovery of potentially huge reserves of natural gas in the eastern Mediterranean has complicated what was already a potential source of conflict between Greece and Turkey. Gas fields have been found off Egypt, Israel, Cyprus and Greece. Turkey, anxious that its own waters have not yielded energy, is scouting around in Cypriot and Greek territory, and has signed an agreement with Libya to drill there. Lebanon has a maritime dispute with Israel over part of one gas field, BP, Total, Eni, and Exxon Mobil have all become involved, and Russia is watching the whole scene nervously as its dominant position supplying natural gas to Europe comes under threat." Marshall is not very good at writing about history and it is painful to trudge through those middle sections. He clearly attempts to be "impartial" but because he gives attention to certain areas and skips over others, he falls on his arse. The last section actually has the takeaway that 'cooperation is the key to the future' and it is true on the moon, in space and definitely on the Earth.The optimist in me would say that Marshall didn't have good advice from his editors or he committed way too early to a format that he just couldn't see is broken. Katie Burton of Geographical, the official magazine of the Royal Geographical Society, called the book "A sharp and concise evaluation of today’s geopolitics", considering it accessible yet not oversimplified. [2]

Welcome to the 2020s. The Cold War era, in which the USA and the Soviet Union dominated the entire world, is becoming a distant memory. We are entering a new age of great-power rivalry in which numerous actors, even minor players, are jostling to take centre stage. The geopolitical drama is even spilling out of our earthly realm, as countries stake their claims above our atmosphere, to the Moon and beyond.” In this revelatory new book, Marshall explores 10 regions that are set to shape global politics in a new age of great-power rivalry: Australia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UK, Greece, Turkey, the Sahel, Ethiopia, Spain and space. Find out why Europe’s next refugee crisis is closer than it thinks as trouble brews in the Sahel; why the Middle East must look beyond oil and sand to secure its future; why the eastern Mediterranean is one of the most volatile flashpoints of the 21st century; and why the Earth’s atmosphere is set to become the world’s next battleground. 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. 185 - "By 2020 Turkey had fallan out with Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE Kuwait, Israel Iran, Amenia, Greece Cyprus, and France and had irritated all of its NATO allies by buying the S-400 missile defence system from NATO's great rival Russia. The Americans were so angry about what they regarded as a breach of trust that in December 2020 they imposed sanctions on the Turkish defence industry and pointed out that the S-400 had been designed to shoot down the US F-35 stealth fighter." p. 176 - "In the 1990s Turkey had re-established itself as a major trade route after building gas and oil pipes running from Iraq and the Caspian Sea through Anatolia to supply Europe. It had also put together one of the largest and most efficient militaries in NATO, giving it confidence as it assessed the new world around it."Saudi Arabia: The kingdom of the house of Saud rules this oil rich nation that has been allied with the western powers and spread Wahhabism around the Muslim world. As oil is replaced with renewables it will be less important for the West to protect the kingdom. Saudi Arabia seeks to diversify its oil dominant economy. Saudi Arabia's main rival for regional influence in Middle East is Iran. Prisoners Of Geography was a deserved smash, a clever angle to use geography to actually tell historical stories about current affairs, why the world is the way it is partially due to the way countries grew from their physical limitations. And so there is no shame in a sequel, and it is partially the fault of doing such a good job the first time around that what is left does feel like the off-cuts and crumbs from that book. The focus has shifted slightly, to look to the future. and how geography might affect future conflicts. But considering the land masses looked at in Prisoners were so massive, there is a little bit of going over the same ground.