Tim Marshall’s bestselling book on geopolitics was completely updated in 2025, bringing it as up to date as possible, although events in early 2026 have moved the story on significantly in some parts of the world. The main thesis of the book is that geography plays a huge role in the way countries develop, interact, and compete with each other. Geography essentially forces leaders’ hands into actions. Even with advancing technology mitigating the effects of geography somewhat, Marshall argues people ignore geography at their peril.
In his introduction he acknowledges that there are major countries missing from the book, that they could fill a whole book on their own. This is not a comprehensive examination of the whole world, but a dive into specific regions and the ways geography has impacted their development. It was interesting to think about the way the geography of Europe makes exchange of ideas and goods much easier than in South America, for example. Other continents have attempted to bring together countries in a union similar to that of the EU but mountain ranges, rivers with frequent waterfalls, and deep rainforest make it a much more difficult project. Africa too has suffered from the way the geography splits up the land and resources, and we see how major powers take advantage of this. It also makes you appreciate what an impossible task it is to lead a country such as the United States of America or Russia, where the landscapes are so varied and the way people live their lives differs hugely from one area to the other.
There is a large section on Russia and it makes you think about the natural resources available to the country. Marshall highlights the absence of a warm water port and the resulting obsession with having control of Crimea. It doesn’t excuse Putin’s behaviour but it does make you understand a bit more of the logic of his ambitions. As someone who doesn’t have any great knowledge of geopolitics, it was fascinating to gain a greater understanding of why the world looks the way it does now. Of course, it was also quite emotional reading sections relating to areas which are currently in conflict. For leaders it may be a case of thinking about resources and securing their future, but it must never be forgotten that these are individual lives being torn apart in the process. Reading it, you can’t help but think if the world’s leaders could work together to share resources the world would be a much more peaceful place. The borders of countries, are after all, fairly arbitrary lines drawn on a map.
We see again and again how true this is in areas impacted by colonialism in the past few centuries. Leaders from far away countries would look at a map and carve up countries without any thought to either the geography of the nations nor the communities who live there. Most famously this has caused decades of unrest between India and Pakistan, but we see that this is not an isolated incident. Marshall considers how one might resolve these difficulties and explores the complexity of redrawing borders. It’s not as simple as putting it back to how it was before - everywhere has had so many iterations of borders that choosing what point in history to return to is almost impossible, and inevitably causes yet more strife.
This is a very readable overview of the geopolitics of nations across the globe (although Oceania is largely ignored) which will make you think more deeply about the factors that position your home country where it is. It also makes you consider what the future will look like as technology develops further, humans seek to colonise space, and discussions over who has claims to the Antarctic continue. One thing that feels certain is that conflicts will always be present somewhere in the world, and that we have a tiny fragment of world events reported to us through major news outlets.
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