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Prisoners of Geography

Why the map still writes the rules

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Geopolitics

The world explained through geography.

Foundations
How to read a geopolitical map.
0/3
  1. 1
    Prisoners of Geography
    4 chapters
  2. 2
    Sallust's theorem
    7 chapters
  3. 3
    Thucydides's trap
    7 chapters
Russia & the European rim
Buffers, plains and pinch-lines.
0/2
  1. 1
    Why Russia invaded Ukraine
    9 chapters
  2. 2
    Chokepoints & pinch-lines
    5 chapters
The Americas
The hemisphere doctrine, old and new.
0/4
  1. 1
    The US won the geographic lottery
    7 chapters
  2. 2
    US in Latin America
    6 chapters
  3. 3
    Why Washington cannot ignore Cuba
    7 chapters
  4. 4
    Why the US wants Greenland
    7 chapters
China & the First Island Chain
Buffer ring inland, wall of allies at sea.
0/3
  1. 1
    China's buffer ring
    5 chapters
  2. 2
    Why China wants Taiwan
    7 chapters
  3. 3
    North Korea — the buffer that became a threat
    5 chapters
South Asia
India, Pakistan and the Indian Ocean.
0/1
  1. 1
    India — the rising third pole
    6 chapters
Resources & the AI race
Minerals, chips, energy — the stack that runs the century.
0/5
  1. 1
    Critical minerals — the new oil
    6 chapters
  2. 2
    The AI race — chips, power, data, people
    10 chapters
  3. 3
    Energy independence — fossil, nuclear, green
    9 chapters
  4. 4
    War in the Middle East & the world's energy supply
    9 chapters
  5. 5
    Europe's energy after Russia
    5 chapters
Africa & the Middle East
Coup belts, migration routes, uranium and oil.
0/2
  1. 1
    The Sahel and the African coup belt
    5 chapters
  2. 2
    War in the Middle East & the world's energy supply
    9 chapters
Security & defensibility
What makes a country hard to invade.
0/2
  1. 1
    Defensibility — why some countries are hard to invade
    9 chapters
  2. 2
    The Arctic — the new frontier
    5 chapters
Perspectives
The world through one capital's eyes.
0/5
  1. 1
    Perspective: the United States
    11 chapters
  2. 2
    Perspective: China
    10 chapters
  3. 3
    Perspective: Russia
    9 chapters
  4. 4
    Perspective: Europe
    9 chapters
  5. 5
    Perspective: the Global South
    9 chapters

Ideopolitics

The world explained through ideology.

Ideologies of the great powers
How Moscow, Beijing and Washington see the world.
0/3
  1. 1
    Putinism
    8 chapters
  2. 2
    Xi Jinping Thought
    8 chapters
  3. 3
    Trumpism / MAGA
    8 chapters
Democratic backsliding
How democracies die in slow motion — from Budapest to Delhi.
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  1. 1
    Democratic backsliding
    4 chapters
  2. 2
    Orbánism
    3 chapters
  3. 3
    Putinism
    8 chapters
Nationalism & populism
The people vs the elite, everywhere at once.
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  1. 1
    The populist wave
    4 chapters
  2. 2
    Hindutva
    4 chapters
  3. 3
    Trumpism / MAGA
    8 chapters
Religion & geopolitics
Faith as a foreign policy — Islam, Orthodoxy, Hindutva.
0/3
  1. 1
    Political Islam
    4 chapters
  2. 2
    Orthodoxy & the state
    4 chapters
  3. 3
    Hindutva
    4 chapters

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