The Power of Geography: Ten Maps that Reveal the Future of Our World – the sequel to Prisoners of Geography

by Tim Marshall

Many people dislike the idea that the USA played the role of ‘world policeman’ in the post-Second World War era. You can make a case for both the positives and negatives of its actions. But, either way, in the absence of a policeman various factions will seek to police their own neighbourhood. If you get competing factions, the risk of instability increases.

The starting point of any country’s story is its location in relation to neighbours, sea routes and natural resources.

Almost 50 per cent of the people live in just three cities – Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

They and the others were ‘Poms’, shortened from pomegranate, sometimes spelt pommygrant, which was close enough to the word ‘immigrant’ to be incorporated into Aussie slang.

It has abundant natural resources including many that are perfectly suited for selling around the world. Its wool, lamb, beef, wheat and wine industries remain world leaders; it holds a quarter of the world’s uranium reserves, the largest zinc and lead deposits, and is a major producer of tungsten and gold, as well as having healthy deposits of silver; and it is a key supplier of liquefied natural gas while also still producing large quantities of coal. And there we see how the country is caught between an Ayers Rock and a hard place.

However, it is vulnerable to blockade. Most of its imports and exports flow through a series of narrow passageways to the north, many of which could be closed in times of conflict. They include the Malacca, Sunda and Lombok Straits.

Influence equals access, and China wants access to fishing zones, ports for its fleets, possible mining of seabeds, and something else which is often overlooked: votes at the United Nations and other world bodies.

Australia is also an enthusiastic member of what is probably the world’s most efficient intelligence-gathering network – ‘Five Eyes’ – along with the USA, the UK, New Zealand and Canada.

Ibn Saud had united Saudi Arabia by force of arms; to hold it together he then married a daughter from each of the defeated tribes and senior religious families. He had about twenty wives but, in accordance with religious law, never more than four at a time. The result was more than 100 children and the creation of a family network which dominates the state.