Prisoners of Geography, Geopolitics - Book Club Friday's #40

eldergill (52)in #bookclub • 6 years ago

About the Author

Tim Marshall was Diplomatic Editor and foreign correspondent for Sky News. After thirty years’ experience in news reporting and presenting, he left full-time news journalism to concentrate on writing and analysis.

He has written for many of the national newspapers including the Times, the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph, and the Sunday Times.

Tim has been shot with bird pellet in Cairo, hit over the head with a plank of wood in London, bruised by the police in Tehran, arrested by Serbian intelligence, detained in Damascus, declared persona non grata in Croatia, bombed by the RAF in Belgrade and tear-gassed all over the world. However, he says none of this compares with the experience of going to see his beloved Leeds United away at Millwall FC in London.

A little bit about the book!

Prisoners of Geography is split into 10 Main Chapters which explain through history and mainly Geography, the Geopolitics and future outlook of the following set of Countries:

Russia
China
USA
Western Europe
Africa
The Middle East
India and Pakistan
Korea and Japan
Latin America
The Arctic

I have to say I really, really, really enjoyed reading this book! Tim Marshall has written it in an easy to read, fascinating manner that is oozing with great content that makes you "uuuhm" and "ahhh" as you read.

I knew little about the effects of Geography on a countries dominance and continue to dominate on a global scale. It is fascinating how countries interact with one another to get one up on a rival,

eg.
The USA keeping good relations with Japan despite WW2 vs. China who are cooperating with pretty much anyone that the USA is not.

Furthermore, it is interesting how some countries will never be able to reach the success of the USA due to this location and state borders created by Europe/US many centuries ago.

It also fascinated me from a macroeconomic perspective, how certain countries use the terrain and sea to gain advantages in trade over the other. And it truly leaves me in awe at how countries have come to establish that a piece of land is actually there's and nobody else's. It makes the world seem like there's a bunch of countries sitting at a huge table at a dinner party, and there is a constant game being played, full of power plays and backstabbing.

I won't ruin the book for you, but rather I want to sincerely recommend you read it for yourself!

It is great if you are interested in Macroeconomics, International Business, International Relations, Geography, Geopolitics, Psychology or even if you just have a childlike curiosity and a real desire to learn!