Whoa! Book Club - Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall

#Whoa_books

Dear friends,?

This year I had the urge to get together with smart people to study books about underlying structures in societies. Books that makes you go "Whoa! -I never knew about that!"?

This quarter's book is "Prisoners of Geography" by Tim Marshall, who, according to the dust cover, is a leading authority on foreign affairs. He has done a lot of media-work as an editor and journalist, and has been reporting from many armed conflicts. To quote the dust cover:?

If you've ever wondered why Putin is so obsessed with Crimea, why the USA was destined to become a global superpower or why China's power base continues to expand ever outwards, the answers are all here.

This book is medium sized, 319 pages in paperback. This is a business non-fiction, the kind you find in stacks at airports.?

The Whoa! book club had very mixed reviews of this book. Some thought it was an easy read, I found it a boring slog. He starts off with a coherent chapter on Russia, which is very timely with regards to the conflict in Ukraine, and then tries to do the same to China, the USA, Western Europe, Africa, The Middle East, India and Pakistan, Korea and Japan, Latin America and finally the Arctic. ?It makes it clear that Marshall thinks that most developments in the world is due to access to resources and the ability to transport them, e.g. shipping routes. The book makes the point of "taking the high-ground" being an action of aggression to control ones neighbour with military tools.

Key Whoa! points:?

We apologise, Prisoners of Geography is not a Whoa! Book. It is eye opening and you may look at the globe a different way, but it does not make you go "Whoa! -I never knew about that!"?Marshall writes:

All leaders are constrained by geography. Their choices are limited by mountains, rivers, seas and concrete.

Tell that to Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates. Leaders are not just prime ministers and presidents. Some are in much less degree limited by geography.

It is a book about history and the now, but there is no future predictions except a very short conclusion chapter. If the premise of the book was achieved, that you can tell why countries are what they are like based on their imprisonment by the geography. You should also be able to predict their future, which, with recent history in mind we do not. We should know the consequences of natural disasters on the political stability of the countries. For example, how does the power balance change between Pakistan and India, relative to the Afghan neighbours in the west change, now that most of Pakistan has been hit by the worst flood in centuries?

This makes the book a hollow non-book. There are no people in this book. There are no women in this book. There are no animals and ecosystems in this book. There is no climate change in this book. There are no ways out, ways to break down the geographical boundaries. There are very few stories in the book, it is often impersonal lists made like prose. Work forces, and particularly educated workforces are not viewed as resources. Angry Ukrainian grandmothers with sunflower seeds in their pockets are not regarded as resources. In fact, the incredible powers of committed peoples like those of the Ukraine seems to contradict his thesis completely.

There is also a complete disregard in the exploitation of colonies and the "headless" organisational structures left behind, except that there has been made strong arguments of the disservice of artificial boundaries, literally and figuratively made by rulers. The mentions of "the British left the country" are plentiful, but he is not really addressing the exploitation and artificial management rigged for exploitation of the regions. A structure made to extract value to the UK will not stop exploiting the country just because the exhaust has been blocked off.

The Whoa! Book Club did not really conclude if this was a particularly good book to recommend, and it is not a Whoa! book.?If you like to look at the world with only one point of view, then maybe it is for you.

Next up: Doughnut?Economics by Kate Raworth.?

Read along to contribute to the Whoa! Books Community!