291 pages
English language
Published Feb. 27, 2015
All leaders are constrained by geography. Their choices are limited by mountains, rivers, seas and concrete. Yes, to understand world events you need to understand people, ideas and movements - but if you don't know geography, you'll never have the full picture. To understand Putin's actions, for example, it is essential to consider that, to be a world power, Russia must have a navy. And if its ports freeze for six months each year then it must have access to a warm water port - hence, the annexation of Crimea was the only option for Putin. To understand the Middle East, it is crucial to know that geography is the reason why countries have logically been shaped as they are - and this is why invented countries (e.g. Syria, Iraq, Libya) will not survive as nation states. Spread over ten chapters (covering Russia; China; the USA; Latin America; the Middle …
All leaders are constrained by geography. Their choices are limited by mountains, rivers, seas and concrete. Yes, to understand world events you need to understand people, ideas and movements - but if you don't know geography, you'll never have the full picture. To understand Putin's actions, for example, it is essential to consider that, to be a world power, Russia must have a navy. And if its ports freeze for six months each year then it must have access to a warm water port - hence, the annexation of Crimea was the only option for Putin. To understand the Middle East, it is crucial to know that geography is the reason why countries have logically been shaped as they are - and this is why invented countries (e.g. Syria, Iraq, Libya) will not survive as nation states. Spread over ten chapters (covering Russia; China; the USA; Latin America; the Middle East; Africa; India and Pakistan; Europe; Japan and Korea; and Greenland and the Arctic), using maps, essays and occasionally the personal experiences of the widely traveled author, Prisoners of Geography looks at the past, present and future to offer an essential guide to one of the major determining factors in world history.
Quite a nice premise, but after two chapters it becomes quite shallow. Whilst up to date to mid-2019 in events, it fails to discuss any geopolitical developments outside 19th-century empire-politics. The effects of climate change, economical developments, digitization etc which have been of utmost importance in the 201x’s are barely addressed.
The basic thesis is obvious, and the author fails to build a coherent narrative based on geography. He has some very non-geographical political opinions that come off as fearful hysteria rather than adding to the topic of the book.
I do like the observation about the inevitability of the development of civilization when there's wide, flat land with easily navigable rivers vs. the obstacles Africa has had historically due to its many waterfalls along its waterways. However, no coherent formula or mechanism was described for how technology and culture often overcome geographic factors. This book presents a thesis, doesn't support it well, and is only descriptive, rather than providing a prescriptive model for understanding new situations.
He adds a bit about space at the end that's pointless. An interesting discussion could have been about the geographies involved between points of interest: Earth, Mars, the asteroid belt, moons, la Grange points, …
The basic thesis is obvious, and the author fails to build a coherent narrative based on geography. He has some very non-geographical political opinions that come off as fearful hysteria rather than adding to the topic of the book.
I do like the observation about the inevitability of the development of civilization when there's wide, flat land with easily navigable rivers vs. the obstacles Africa has had historically due to its many waterfalls along its waterways. However, no coherent formula or mechanism was described for how technology and culture often overcome geographic factors. This book presents a thesis, doesn't support it well, and is only descriptive, rather than providing a prescriptive model for understanding new situations.
He adds a bit about space at the end that's pointless. An interesting discussion could have been about the geographies involved between points of interest: Earth, Mars, the asteroid belt, moons, la Grange points, etc.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and felt like it gave me better insight into the geographical pressures which affect the decisions made by different countries.
