Prisoners of Geography — Tim Marshall

Marshall's argument is that geography — rivers, mountains, plains, coastlines — constrains political choices far more than politicians or commentators acknowledge. Working through ten regions in turn, he examines how physical terrain has shaped Russian expansionism, Chinese ambition, American foreign policy, and the political instability of Africa. The analysis is deliberately simplified, but the simplification is a feature rather than a flaw: the book forces a question that more sophisticated accounts tend to avoid.