The Future of Geography: How Power and Politics in Space Will Change Our World – THE NO.1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

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Greece: A nation limited by its small amount of arable land near the coast and its mountain terrain. It has many islands in the Aegean Sea which demands a strong navy and military to protect. Ongoing disputes with its neighbour Turkey who claims islands and drilling rights in its territorial waters.

Understanding the things that have divided us, present and past, is essential to comprehending a lot of what goes on in the world today. Covering Palestine and Israel, China, the Middle East, the USA, the Indian Subcontinent, the UK, and Europe, Tim resents an unflinching and gripping analysis of the fault lines which are going to shape our world for years to come. I cannot even count the number of times I've passed like a complete illiterate by saying stuff like Iranians are Arabic. And this is no small thing. One day a girl asked me if all Colombians were Mexicans. I was so confused by what she even meant with the question. Of course, I'm sure I've been on the ignorant side of the question more times that I've realized. United Kingdom: The nations of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland make up the United Kingdom, an island country in Western Europe who used its naval power to build the world's biggest empire which collapsed after World War 2. About half the size of France, its main European concern was to keep a balance of power and avoid one European country from becoming too powerful and threatening its empire. A country caught between being close to USA based on language and history and Europe based on proximity. Facing a growing independence movement from Scotland following Brexit which could impact its military and naval bases. Tim’s a reported Leeds United supporter, and a Leeds United logo was visible at his home, on a Politics Live that aired February 22, 2022. Tim Marshall was born May 1, 1959 in England. He was educated at Prince Henry’s Grammar School, a state-funded comprehensive school in the market town of Otley, close to Leeds, West Yorkshire.He released an illustrated children’s version called “Prisoners of Geography: Our World Explained in 12 Simple Maps”, which was nominated for Waterstones Book of the Year. His blog, ‘Foreign Matters’, was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize in 2010. For his Iraq War coverage, he was a finalist for the Royal Television Society’s News Event category. He earned finalist certificates for a report on the Mujahideen, in 2007, and in 2004 for “The Desert Kingdom”, his documentary, which featured exclusive access to Crown Prince Abdullah and all of his palaces.

Tim Marshall signing the Cambridge Union book (Image credits: Reva Croft) Reporting on foreign affairs When asked if he ever found it hard to stay neutral when covering events that were so emotionally charged, he said “you may be surprised, but the answer is no.” He observed that “if you are aware of your biases […] it’s easier to put it to one side and catch yourself”. Although “in modern journalism, there is this idea that you should take sides”. Marshall views this as a “passing phase. It’s not a good thing, because all you will then do is be a propagandist for your own ideas.” After three years as IRN’s Paris correspondent and extensive work for BBC radio and TV, Tim joined Sky News. Reporting from Europe, the USA and Asia, Tim became Middle East Correspondent based in Jerusalem. All leaders of nations are constrained by geography. Their decisions are limited by concrete, mountains, rivers, and seas. To better understand news organizations, world events, and other authorities often focus on ideas, political movements, and people, however without geography, we never get the full picture.

The complexity of the current situation is well described in Tim Marshall’s latest book. This builds on his previous works on the influence of geography on the conduct of international affairs. Now he looks to the heavens and warns us how the intense geopolitical rivalries of the moment are shaping a new space race. He worries that the cooperative endeavour symbolised by the International Space Station is now giving way to more intense competition for resources and strategic points, for which the 1967 Outer Space Treaty provides inadequate guidance. Buy Tim's book 'The Future of Geography: How Power and Politics in Space Will Change Our World' here: https://geni.us/4qKCW Tim Marshall was Diplomatic Editor and Foreign Correspondent for Sky News. After thirty years’ experience in news reporting and presenting, he left full time news journalism to concentrate on writing and analysis.

Marshall, in ten, up-to-date maps of every region, explains in engaging and clear prose the complicated geopolitical strategies of these crucial areas of the globe. Why will Europe never be united? What does it mean that Russia must have a navy, yet has frozen ports six months every year? How could this affect Putin’s treatment of Ukraine? How’s China’s future constrained by its own geography? Why will America never get invaded? Shining a light on the unavoidable physical realities which shape each of our endeavors and aspirations, this book is the critical guide to one of the major (and the most often overlooked) determining factors in all of world history. Tim Marshall has become the most reputable and authoritative writer on modern geopolitics and current affairs. To say I have greatly enjoyed every book of his thus far is an understatement: I loved them. But there is something about The Power of Geography which fell a little short for me, this time. Prisoners Of Geography was a deserved smash, a clever angle to use geography to actually tell historical stories about current affairs, why the world is the way it is partially due to the way countries grew from their physical limitations. And so there is no shame in a sequel, and it is partially the fault of doing such a good job the first time around that what is left does feel like the off-cuts and crumbs from that book. The focus has shifted slightly, to look to the future. and how geography might affect future conflicts. But considering the land masses looked at in Prisoners were so massive, there is a little bit of going over the same ground. Divided: Why We’re Living in an Age of Walls” is a non-fiction book that was released in 2018. Walls are going up. Identity politics and nationalism are on the rise yet again. Thousands of barriers and fences have been erected in the previous ten years, and they’re redefining our political landscape.

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What experiences as a journalist helped shape Prisoners of Geography, both the previous and the new? That may sound obvious, perhaps trite, but a government or a leader forgets it at their peril. They must understand exactly where they are and how much fuel they have in the tank – Napoleon was not the first or last to forget that lesson and he was taught a harsh one in the Russian winter of 1812. An example in the book is Saudi Arabia. The tribal character of the country was forged in the heat of its deserts, and its place in the world is founded on its key resource underneath the sand. But when the oil was found the population was about 2 million. Now it is 34 million. If the world weans itself off oil, what sustains 34 million people in a country with limited agricultural land? The decisions the House of Saud is now making to diversify its economy are based on geography. Since the end of the Second World War, putting geography front and centre in international relations has been regarded with suspicion due to its alleged ‘determinism’, and has been eclipsed by hard economics and technology. The high priests of foreign policy, more in academia than in government, came to see it as poor thinking akin to fatalism. That, however, is in itself poor thinking and flies in the face of common sense. Russia’s President Putin did not take a keen interest in the 2020 election in Belarus due to its potential consumer market for Russian goods or as an emerging high-tech nation.