Review: Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics

Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics by Tim Marshall
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An interesting book explaining many of historical and contemporary conflicts as well as various countries' economic development all across the globe - Russia, China, USA, Latin America, Africa, South Asia, Middle East etc. It is a simplification of reality - since it focuses on determinism of geography of various regions. But then again, it opens up your eyes as of why navigable rivers, mountain ranges and fertile lands (or absence of those) have been so important to economic and political development here and there. There were many aha! moments for me, although international relations is a topic I used to study quite a bit.

It's rather balanced, albeit still particular point of view on the global state of affairs. Applying somewhat playful term "prisoners of geography" to countries is in many instances an over-simplification which can lead to dubious conclusions (like being almost defendant of the fact that Russia needs to have expansionist foreign policy in order to protect itself - all due to its geography, of course). The geographical position of USA leads to a reassuring (or disturbing - depending on a reader's point of view) conclusion that USA is to behold its global supremacy, despite the rise of China and Asia overall.

The maps themselves are nothing more than the slices of the political world map with some highlighted topographic elements - I expected to find something more original.

Nevertheless, it's an easy and enjoyable read, helping to give some background to the global events around us.