Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics
- Dec 19, 2017
- 2 min read
★★★★☆
A brief but fascinating look at politics through the lens of geography, Tim Marshall’s Prisoners of Geography does its best to make the case that while we may not be slaves to geography, our geographies can, and do, limit options, dictate choices, and determine fates in profound and often insurmountable ways. Covering ten of the 21st century’s most crucial zones, Marshall demonstrates time and again how geography creates natural winners and losers, and separates the haves from the have-nots. For much of the global population, a more accurate title would have been Victims of Geography. Adding insult to injury, many of those same victims, especially in Africa, the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent, were dealt the additional devastating (and humiliating) blow of imperialism, which carved up land and people in ways—sometimes consciously, other times less so—that ignored physical, ethnic, religious, cultural, and even historical boundaries.
Therein lies the rub. On the one hand, countries, regions, and continents, and the people that occupy them, are consigned to the fate their geographies have preordained. On the other hand, citizens, and, more consequently, their leaders, can choose to act nobly or contemptibly, and Marshall’s premise, while not overtly excusing bad actors, can be seen as providing cover for all manner of geopolitical transgressions. That is, for example, when the Russians invade Crimea, they simply can’t help themselves. After all, without Sevastopol, they don’t have a warm water port, and without a warm water port they simply can’t have the kind of naval power they want, and want to project, on the global stage.
All of which brings us to the real takeaway from Prisoners of Geography, which I don’t think was Tim Marshall’s intention at all: humans are shit. The fact of the matter is, despite our incredible intellect, our ability to reason and think logically, and our belief in, and appeals to, a higher power, we aren’t much better than the rest of the animal kingdom for which we seemingly have so much contempt. No, we’re just lowly animals with the unfortunate ability to rationalize and propagandize the horrible things we do, be they in the name of our god, our country, or our geography.
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