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Taiwan is the greatest geopolitical question of the 21st century says Kerry Brown, sinologist, and former Diplomat to the British Embassy in Beijing.

He is, I am thrilled to say the guest on todays podcast. A sinologist is a scholar and expert of China, its language, history, politics, and culture - and the theme today is top to bottom the myriad questions looming over one of the largest political issues for China… Taiwan.

Kerry published a book last year called The Taiwan Story: How a Small Island Will Dictate the Global Future. It is marvelous, and my hope was to do as much justice to the various questions which Kerry approaches Taiwan with as possible in a brief podcast.

The big questions being, the economy, given Taiwan’s semi conductor supremacy with its home grown TSMC, the perplexing idea that Xi would view Taiwanese reunification as the most significant achievement to his legacy, how a more fractured, less unified global order creates lots of wiggle room, Taiwan’s history, and that despite having 95% Han ethnicity, what is it about Taiwan which makes them a distinctly different culture to China, Kerrys feeling for the inevitability of an attempt at reunification and lots more between those cracks.

00:00 - Kerry Brown
01:20 - Big Opportunity For China
04:13 - Brief Taiwan History
07:33 - TSMC
24:09 - What China Thinks Of Taiwan
37:42 - Taiwanese Identity & Culture
50:14 - It’s All Xi
52:35 - Opinions Of Taiwan
58:30 - Kerry’s Life Work
1:06:00 - Kevin Rudd & Australia
1:16:30 - Indonesia & Serendipity


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Robert Kaplan has been sighted as one of the most influential geopolitical thinkers of the modern era. The Revenge Of Geography, Surrender or Starve, Balkan Ghosts, Asias Cauldron, The Tragic Mind, and so on, I counted 18 books so far with his most recent being - Waste Land: A World In Permanent Crisis.

I’ve listened to many of his books at this point, I found Revenge Of Geography a few years ago whilst preparing for my interviews with Tim Marshall.

00:00 - Robert D. Kaplan
00:54 - Deterioration Of The Rules Based Order
08:34 - Utopian Versus Tragic Leaders
14:32 - Geographies Role In Shaping Geopolitics
23:05 - Writing For History Or Influence?
25:13 - Australia
28:46 - A Position Robert Holds That Folds Against The Status Quo


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The following is with german political scientist, former beer brewer in the Congo, and author of How Tyrants Fall - Marcel Dirsus

Marcel interviewed coup leaders, dissidents and soldiers to write about the workings and malfunctions of tyrants. Because while the individual personas, eccentricities and reputations might make them all distinct from one another, there are more threads that draw disparate dictator's together than don’t.

I think this excerpt from the book sums up the essence of Marcel’s work and as well, the themes in todays podcast.

“The most powerful tyrants on earth are condemned to live their life in fear. They can make their enemies disappear with a snap of their fingers. They, their families, and their acolytes may control entire countries from the luxury of their palace, but they also have to spend their every waking hour plagued by the fear of losing everything. No matter how powerful they become, they cannot pay for or order that fear to disappear. If such tyrants make one wrong move, they will fall.”

So the interview is about the workings of various tyrants around the world, both living and dead.

I ask Marcel in the about applying a prisoners of geography lens to this topic, china and the case for dictators not being all bad all the time, marcel’s rogues gallery of tyrants and as well, Marcel offers a raw reflection of the potential future of authoritarianism in the USA particularly because of the astounding moves made so far under trump. This was recorded the day after the US inauguration.

00:00 - Marcel Dirsus
01:40 - Economist's Book Of The Year
03:55 - Serendipity & The Congo
11:35 - Prisoners Of Geography Lens
17:17 - Singapore A Dictatorship?
20:10 - China
27:50 - Saudi & MBS
30:43 - Marcel's Unconventional Idea's
34:15 - Geographical Concentration Of These Regimes
39:10 - Tipping Point (When Regimes Collapse)
49:10 - Rogues Gallery Of Tyrants
53:25 - The Leader Who's Coming Closest To Power
56:46 - Does Global Order Sustain Or Undermine These Regimes?
1:00:25 - Trump's Chances At Dictatorship
1:07:40 - Bullish & Bearish Country


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