Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall

For the geography-challenged, such as myself, this book is a great eye-opener with lots of interesting bits of information about why some countries (most of the continents are skimmed upon) are doing better than others. I find it a bit too short as I would have loved more background information or more details about the decisions of the time and place. It ends on a rather unexpected high note about space and Sagan, but none-the-less, I found it a great read and would recommended to anyone.

• Some ideas about Russia and Eastern Europe, in the 1st part of the book: everybody likes (ok with varying degrees) Russian gas and “Washington is far, Moscow is near”.
• China - it seems they never (mostly) went to war against India because of some big mountains they have in-between. Talking about geography…
• Everyone likes open waters, especially China who wants to become a two ocean superpower and have a Great silk route as well. Its main issue is how to keep the buffer zones content and not go in an economic collapse. Great stuff so far.
• Next on the list, US of A, the greatest country not because of what you think, but because of… geography. That, and ok, they bought some lands when it was cheaper - like Alaska.
• At the heart of Europe, the biggest and most successful countries - France and Germany, forever afraid of each other decided to become friends and build a great European Union. Too little details about north vs south…
• The African continent… well, they’re just unlucky - their rivers are bad for navigation, they suffer from all kinds of diseases due to the heat, they have a huge desert smack in the middle, and the former Western powers have divided them (in the past) by their own rules, which of course don’t make any sense. At least China is investing there…
• Japan was dearly missing raw materials and food, so they decided it would be a great idea to take most of SE Asia and make it theirs - as you all hopefully know, that didn’t end great - Korea was split up and lots of countries got out (some more some less)
• India and Pakistan (and indirectly the China and Russia) are all fighting for sea and trade routes - and we all need to “thank” the British for the mess
• The Arctic is divided amongst the 2 biggest powers, with Russia having not only more equipment invested but being more actively present. They might do this due to their (currently) limited port of Murmansk.