Intelligence Squared19 Jul 2025

How Geography Explains Our World, with Tim Marshall

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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