Prisoners of Geography (Updated: 2025)

Prisoners of Geography is the book people need to understand what’s happening in the news today, from China’s ambitions to the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.

Bestselling author and geopolitics expert Tim Marshall looks at the past, present and future to offer crucial insights into one of the major factors that determines world history – because if you don’t know geography, you’ll never have the full picture.

This completely revised and updated edition brings the classic text up to date with the events and trends of the past decade, with new material including:

• The Russia–Ukraine war and Moscow's alliances with authoritarian states
  the conflicts in the Middle East.
  
• China’s growing military and strategic power, and its stance on Taiwan
  American global power and pivot to the Pacific.
  
• Europe’s leaning towards more extreme politics, increased defence spending, and the new ‘Iron Curtain’.
  
• Japan's remilitarisation and increasing power.
  
• Great power play in Africa.
  
• The growth of Indian economic and military strength.

***

Tim Marshall (Author)

Tim Marshall was Diplomatic Editor and foreign correspondent for Sky News. After thirty years’ experience in news reporting and presenting, he left full time news journalism to concentrate on writing and analysis.

Originally from Leeds, Tim arrived at broadcasting from the road less traveled. Not a media studies or journalism graduate, in fact not a graduate at all, after a wholly unsuccessful career as a painter and decorator he worked his way through newsroom nightshifts, and unpaid stints as a researcher and runner before eventually securing himself a foothold on the first rung of the broadcasting career ladder.

After three years as IRN’s Paris correspondent and extensive work for BBC radio and TV, Tim joined Sky News. Reporting from Europe, the USA and Asia, Tim became Middle East Correspondent based in Jerusalem.