Tim Marshall is one of the world’s most successful authors on foreign affairs. He’s the writer who put the ‘geo’ into geopolitics with his multi-million selling books Prisoners of Geography and The Power of Geography.
Marshall’s principal argument is that without geography we cannot understand the world. Geography explains why Donald Trump wants to control Greenland. Greenland is of strategic military importance given it sits in the Arctic Ocean along the shortest route for Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles or submarines to reach the United States. It is also a land mass rich in rare earth metals like lithium and tungsten which will be key in building artificial intelligence and military hardware in the coming years.
Geography also explains why China would find it highly difficult to invade Taiwan. The Taiwan Strait is about 130 km wide at its narrowest point, which is roughly three times the distance from Dover to Calais. Any invading force would face inhospitable coastlines, unpredictable monsoons and muddy, tidal beaches. Beijing might decide in time that these are risks worth taking. But these basic and immutable facts of natural terrain still matter hugely in international affairs.
Join Marshall as he comes to Intelligence Squared stage to celebrate the release of a new 10 year anniversary edition of Prisoners of Geography updated with new chapters on Russia’s war in Ukraine, conflicts in the Middle East and The United States and China’s battle for global supremacy.
Join us and ask Tim your questions in the Q&A about how geography will underpin the conflicts of the future.
Biography
Tim Marshall Bestselling author of Prisoners of Geography, The Power of Geography and The Future of Geography.
Tim Marshall Leading authority on foreign affairs with more than 30 years of reporting experience. He was diplomatic editor at Sky News, and before that was working for the BBC and LBC/IRN radio. He has reported from 40 countries and covered conflicts in Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Israel. He is the author of the No. 1 Sunday Times bestsellers Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps that Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics (which has sold over 2 million copies worldwide) and The Power of Geography: Ten Maps that Reveal the Future of Our World. His latest book is The Future of Geography: How Power and Politics in Space Will Change Our World.
