A really interesting brief discussion of each of several politically interesting parts of the world and how physical geography has either propelled or restrained the people and governments there. I don't know enough to say whether the arguments would stand up to serious scrutiny, but it's certainly an interesting point of view which doesn't often get discussed in news stories of conflicts between countries.

Having said that, sometimes I got the feeling that the arguments can become a bit circular. The same geographical situation in one case might be an explanation of a country's success while in another it is something the population have failed to capitalise on. In this case, I start to wonder how much the geography has explanatory power. All very interesting though and an extra dimension when considering world politics.