From the author of the New York Times bestseller Prisoners of Geography, a fascinating, refreshing, and very useful (The Washington Post) follow-up that uses ten maps to explain the challenges to todays world powers and how they presage a volatile future.

Tim Marshalls global bestseller Prisoners of Geography offered us a fresh way of looking at maps (The New York Times Book Review), showing how every nations choices are limited by mountains, rivers, seas, and walls. Since then, the geography hasnt changed, but the world has.

Now, in this wonderfully entertaining and lucid account, written with wit, pace, and clarity (Mirror, UK), Marshall takes us into ten regions set to shape global politics. Find out why US interest in the Middle East will wane; why Australia is now beginning an epic contest with China; how Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and the UK are cleverly positioning themselves for greater power; why Ethiopia can control Egypt; and why Europes next refugee crisis looms closer than we think, as does a cutting-edge arms race to control space.

Innovative, compelling, and delivered with Marshalls trademark wit and insight, this is an immersive blend of history, economics, and political analysis that puts geography at the center of human affairs (Publishers Weekly).