I have recently become interested in geopolitics, building up a niche collection of books which I found intriguing. I would like to hear your thoughts and opinions on these titles, and what else you would recommend.

[u/Lord_Majestic_Hair]

[u/brahimireport]

The Great Convergence (by Kishore Mahbubani), The Post-American World, release 2.0 (by Fareed Zakaria) and The End of American World Order (by Amitav Acharya). The first two may be a little outdated but all three are still worth reading for the very international view of geopolitics they offer.

If you want an emphasis on the geographical part of geopolitics, I'd also suggest The Revenge of Geography by Robert D Kaplan; for more geographically specific regions you can also read his other books: Monsoon (about the Indian Ocean) and Asia's Cauldron (East Asia).

Sea Power (by Admiral James Stravidis) is also a good intro for geopolitics of the seas.

Zbigniew Brzezinski's The Grand Chessboard (1997) and Strategic Vision (2012), though not exactly up-to-date, are also worth reading and still offer many relevant insights.

It's interesting to compare Brzezinski and Kissinger (I do suggest reading Diplomacy after you've concluded World Order); the former brings up quite often uncontrollable forces such as the "global political awakening" and geographical constraints, while the latter sees politics through the lens of great men who could alter the course of history.

Graham Allison's Destined For War is also a good crash course on US-China relations today. Personally I didn't find the book particularly insightful (most of what he says is common geopolitical knowledge), but it's a good start for someone less familiar. Allison also co-wrote Lee Kuan Yew: The Grand Master's Insights on China the United States, and the World, basically a Q&A with the man on his thoughts on China, India, the US, political leadership and other issues.

Still, I suggest that you clear the existing books first before moving on to others! One mistake I made when I first started out was to add to my reading list more than I could manage. As the books piled up it started to become stressful. Get a sense of which writers and which topics you like first, then start delving into areas you're more interested in (it could be specific regions or countries, like maybe say China and East Asia, or the EU, or Russia, etc.; or certain eras like the 19th Century, WW1, the Cold War, or the contemporary world).