Chapter 1 Summary and Analysis

Why Geography Matters: Three Challenges Facing America was written by Harm de Blij, a Dutch-born geographer who has taught geography at US universities for half a century. De Blij identifies these three major challenges as being the rising power of China, climate change, and global terrorism; however, he also recognizes that there are many other potential challenges to the US. Using physical and cultural geography, de Blij explains the reasons for many of the planet's problems and offers solutions. Through his focused discussion of the three major threats, de Blij provides vital historical data about the geologic development of the planet, global warming, the development of the human race, the rise and fall of significant empires, and the root and future of Islamic terrorism.

In the decade leading to the turn of the 20th Century, the world, from a geographic perspective...