12 thinkers, books, and ideas connected to this field.
French-American writer who wrote The Soul of China, Rome and the United States, and Sex and Power in History — developing civilizational comparisons and arguing that American civilization parallels Rome at the moment of its transformation from republic to empire.
American energy historian and analyst — author of The Prize (Pulitzer Prize, 1991) and The Quest — vice chairman of IHS Markit — the most authoritative writer on the history of oil and global energy.
P.W. Singer and August Cole's 2015 near-future novel about a war between the US, China, and Russia — notable for its meticulous research (over 400 footnotes) and its influence on actual US military thinking about future warfare.
Ray Dalio's 2021 book analyzing 500 years of economic and political history to identify recurring patterns — rising and declining empires, debt cycles, wealth gaps — arguing that the US is in a late-stage empire decline analogous to the Dutch and British empires.
American military historian at the US Naval War College whose work on Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars provides the historical context for understanding great power competition in Asia and the strategic significance of Taiwan.
Slovenian-American historian and strategist who founded Bismarck Analysis — developing a framework for understanding how institutions maintain or lose the 'live player' capacity for genuine initiative — and who writes on great founder theory, intellectual dark matter, and the conditions for civilizational renewal.
Leopold Aschenbrenner's 2024 long-form essay arguing that AGI is coming by 2027–2030, that OpenAI and other labs lack adequate security measures against Chinese espionage, and that the AI race represents the defining geopolitical competition of the next decade.
Peter Zeihan's 2022 argument that the post-WWII era of globalization and American-enforced free trade is ending — and that the deglobalization it produces will be catastrophic for most of the world (especially China and Europe) while moderately bad for the energy-independent, food-sufficient United States.
Eva Dou's 2024 account of Huawei — China's most powerful technology company — covering its founding by former PLA officer Ren Zhengfei, its global expansion, and the US government's campaign to contain it as a national security threat.
Russian political philosopher and geopolitical theorist — author of The Foundations of Geopolitics (1997) and The Fourth Political Theory, associated with Eurasianism and often called 'Putin's brain.'
Alexander Dugin's 1997 geopolitical manual — providing a strategic blueprint for Russian expansion through subversion of Western institutions, assigned reading in Russian military and political academies.
Matt Yglesias's provocative argument that the U.S. should triple its population through immigration and pro-natalism — to maintain geopolitical primacy relative to China.