Just Finished Reading: The Power of Geography – Ten Maps That Reveal the Future of Our World by Tim Marshall (FP: 2021) [364pp] 

This was, essentially, a continuation of the authors previous work on Geopolitics – Prisoners of Geography. Here he is more forward looking although each section still contains a goodly slice of history for the required context. Starting off with Australia (which I remembered him musing over in the previous book) he looks at that continental country in context with its place in the Japan, South Korea, China axis, especially focused on the ongoing problems in the South China Sea. This does look like a potential conflict zone in the years ahead if cooler heads fail to prevail. I doubt if it would take too much pushing to start an actual shooting war – never mind how stupid and pointless that conflict would be. 

Moving onto the ever ‘interesting’ Middle East zone, we looked at both Iran and Saudi Arabia. I’ve read a little (emphasis on little) about Iran, but this author really helped me understand its geography – especially in a strategic sense – much better than I had previously. I can now understand exactly why Iraq had such a hard time invading during their bloody conflict. The section on Saudi looks very much at its economic future as the US in particular slowly removes its reliance on Mid-East oil and its involvement in Mid-East politics. Although this is a good idea in and of itself (for a whole host of reasons) it doesn’t follow that the tensions in that area will diminish greatly never mind vanish overnight. There are certainly enough other ethnic and religious divisions in the region – to say nothing of Israel’s actions – to keep it in the news for decades to come. 

I’ve been aware of the ‘issues’ between Turkey and Greece for a while now, both from my reading about the region and from watching various conflicts (notably Cyprus) play out on my TV. So, it was a real eye-opener to understand exactly why these two countries – NATO allies indeed – are potentially at each other's throats so much. Not only do they have a LONG history of conflict to draw on, but there’s a whole new cause in play right now: the resources of the eastern Mediterranean. How this will play out... is definitely an open question. 

I’d be the first to admit that my knowledge of Africa is practically non-existent. Apart from some knowledge of Ancient Egypt, the North African campaigns of WW2 and a passing knowledge of the Boer War in South Africa I know almost nothing of that great continent. So, it was good to see two sections in this book dedicated to diminishing that oversight. Looking at conditions throughout the Sahel and Ethiopia I now have a much greater appreciation of the area's problems (often caused by those pesky straight borders again) and what they (and, typically, the Chinese) are doing about it. MUCH more on Africa to come! 

Overall, I enjoyed this a great deal and learnt MUCH. This is a valuable addition to his previous work, and I can definitely recommend it to anyone (like me) who is trying to understand why the world is the way it is. More to come.