The Power of Geography by Tim Marshall

THE POWER OF GEOGRAPHY by Tim Marshall (most recently The Age of Walls) is another entry in his series on the politics of place. In this latest text, Marshall discusses “Ten Maps That Reveal the Future of Our World.” In THE POWER OF GEOGRAPHY he looks to the future and focuses on regions as disparate as Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, and Spain. As with Australia, Marshall provides a bit of history (e.g., penal colony; world’s sixth largest country), notes some ongoing challenges (e.g., climate change means increased risk of heat waves, droughts, and forest fires; plus rising sea levels), and diplomatic issues (e.g., proximity to China; difficulty defending such a long coastline and potential for further cyberattacks). His section on Space is likely to be of high interest to our students. There, he stresses the need for cooperation and in other chapters also discusses political ramifications for areas like Iran, Greece, Turkey and the Sahel which stretches across a dozen countries in northern Africa. THE POWER OF GEOGRAPHY received a starred review from Booklist. Written and published in 2021, it failed to address the war in Ukraine, something which I vividly remember being predicted at a lecture I attended at Stanford University roughly a decade ago. Marshall, though, has analyzed that ongoing tension in a previous books (Prisoners of Geography has a chapter on Russia) and in more recent articles like this one in New Statesman.