We’re now well advanced in the new space race. The previous one was driven by the desire of both the USSR and the USA to prove that their political system was superior by getting to the Moon first. Now it’s more about the military and commercial opportunities space provides geopolitical rivals. It’s not to say that, because we don’t have the laws… I don’t think there will necessarily be a war in space. Ley, David, and Marwyn S. Samuels, eds. Humanistic Geography: Prospects and Problems. Chicago: Maaroufa, 1978.

Holiday workshops are very strictly for students within the age criteria advertised for each event. We are unable to accept bookings for students outside these ages and any bookings made for students who are not of the correct age at the time of the workshop will be cancelled. This is to make sure students attending can get the most out of their experience. Other information There is a name for Marshall’s line of thinking: geopolitics. Although the term is often used loosely to mean “international relations”, it refers more precisely to the view that geography – mountains, land bridges, water tables – governs world affairs. Ideas, laws and culture are interesting, geopoliticians argue, but to truly understand politics you must look hard at maps. And when you do, the world reveals itself to be a zero-sum contest in which every neighbour is a potential rival, and success depends on controlling territory, as in the boardgame Risk. In its cynical view of human motives, geopolitics resembles Marxism, just with topography replacing class struggle as the engine of history. Last fall, while attending the AAG regional meetings, several early career physical geographers relayed to me their concerns that an unanticipated consequence of the explosive growth in the AAG annual meeting is relatively light attendance at some of the many concurrent sessions, making it more difficult for their research to receive the visibility within the discipline needed to help build their careers. Several other AAG members expressed their concern that the growing attraction of meetings of other scholarly societies, especially if these meetings provide or are perceived to provide greater visibility, further draws attendance away from individual sessions at the AAG annual meeting. These concerns were also repeatedly raised during the special session in Tampa. However, the importance of the AAG annual meeting to the viability of physical geography was also highlighted, along with the need to promote attendance at the annual meeting. Essential intellectual and social networks are disrupted when physical geographers do not participate in the annual meeting. Attendees of the special session expressed considerable support for experimenting with alternative formats to help increase the visibility of individual oral and poster presentations. Of particular interest is a format similar to that of the popular Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), with a modest number of themed oral sessions accompanied by large poster sessions. Several attendees further argued that, if themed sessions were to be adopted, keynote speakers for these sessions should be drawn from multiple disciplines, not only geography, to help attract more non-geographers to the annual meeting, and that the presentations should be peer-oriented and science intensive. Arguments made for large poster sessions include a greater potential for networking compared to an oral or poster presentation in one of multiple concurrent sessions. Not only did he identify that the space race will be tripartite, he convincingly pointed out that the acrimony will eventually classify into two major camps respectively led by the US and China, surrounded by scattered weathervanes if not rogue nations. I had very high hopes for this book, which have been very much met :) A superb 9 out of 12, Four Star read.Now his sights have turned to the skies as his new book, The Future of Geography:How Power and Politics in Space Will Change Our World, predicts how society will grow with the geopolitical space race in the near future. Turning to his new book and what motivated him to write it, Marshall described “the realisation of the obvious that international relations has moved up in terms of space as well”. He stated that “given that I write about international relations, I should write about this aspect of it because it’s not well covered in mainstream, generalist writing.” He is “fascinated by space anyway, at different levels, whether it’s the awe at the cosmos, the international relations aspect of it, and the aspect of our wandering human spirit.”

This is a super fun, entertaining book about serious topics. You really don’t expect to be laughing when reading about near future space age, but this author is incredibly witty and it fits! And we need to understand it fast if we’re to avoid history repeating itself, because “each time humanity has ventured into a new domain it has brought war with it”. Marshall reminds us how shipbuilding and aerospace gave us warships and fighter jets. For him, the mushrooming space technology sector is unlikely to follow a different trajectory. The “battlefield” as he calls it, is beginning to take shape: “tensions are already surfacing surrounding hotspots” such as Moon bases. As noted above, this is my last presidential column — whew! Thank you for providing me with the opportunity to serve as AAG President and for the support you have shown. It has been a privilege and an honor. This year was a wonderful and memorable experience.

Environmental consultant 

These tensions arise not just from geopolitics, but also from a parallel commercial imperative: “There’s money to be made in space, and people are out to get it.” So if you’re not worried about the prospect of a Star Wars future, you’ll need to get used to the idea of advertising being beamed across the firmament. Marshall poses many questions around unrelated military activity out there in the great beyond, at some points he even creates possible scenarios, sometimes taking a bit too much artistic license, but his overall point is serious and certainly valid. After three years as IRN’s Paris correspondent and extensive work for BBC radio and TV, Tim joined Sky News. Reporting from Europe, the USA and Asia, Tim became Middle East Correspondent based in Jerusalem. The spark for writing a book on the subject came after overcoming what George Orwell described as a constant struggle ‘to see what is in front of your nose’. Once the blindingly apparent became obvious – that international relations have moved into space – it was a small step to putting fingers to keyboard.