Why Geography Matters: Three Challenges Facing America: Climate Change, the Rise of China, and Global Terrorism

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Author: Harm de Blij

ISBN-10: 0195315820

ISBN-13: 9780195315820

Category: General & Miscellaneous

Over the next half century, the human population, divided by culture and economics and armed with weapons of mass destruction, will expand to nearly 9 billion people. Abrupt climate change may throw the global system into chaos; China will emerge as a superpower; and Islamic terrorism and insurgency will threaten vital American interests. How can we understand these and other global challenges? Harm de Blij has a simple answer: by improving our understanding of the world's geography.\ In...

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Over the next half century, the human population, divided by culture and economics and armed with weapons of mass destruction, will expand to nearly 9 billion people. Abrupt climate change may throw the global system into chaos; China will emerge as a superpower; and Islamic terrorism and insurgency will threaten vital American interests. How can we understand these and other global challenges? Harm de Blij has a simple answer: by improving our understanding of the world's geography. In Why Geography Matters, de Blij demonstrates how geography's perspectives yield unique and penetrating insights into the interconnections that mark our shrinking world. Preparing for climate change, averting a cold war with China, defeating terrorism: all of this requires geographic knowledge. De Blij also makes an urgent call to restore geography to America's educational curriculum. He shows how and why the U.S. has become the world's most geographically illiterate society of consequence, and demonstrates the great risk this poses to America's national security. Peppering his writing with anecdotes from his own professional travels, de Blij provides an original treatise that is as engaging as it is eye opening. Casual or professional readers in areas such as education, politics, or national security will find themselves with a stimulating new perspective on geography as it continues to affect our world.

Preface     ixWhy Geography Matters     3Reading Maps and Facing Threats     23Earth's Changeable Environments     52Climate and Civilization     74A Future Geography of Human Population     91The Mesh of Civilizations     108Red Star Rising: China's Geopolitical Gauntlet     125Terrorism's Widening Circle     150From Terrorism to Insurgency     174European Superpower?     197Russia: Trouble on the Eastern Front     231Hope for Africa?     255Epilogue     275Works Cited     283Index     287