Books mentioned in “Sarah Paine - Why Putin and Xi can't escape geography”

Dwarkesh Patel · watch the video ↗

The Art of War

Sun Tzu (Sunzi)

Paine cites Sunzi's Art of War as making no reference to maritime warfare, reflecting the continental-empire worldview.

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Mare Liberum (The Freedom of the Seas)

Hugo Grotius

Quoted for its argument that every nation is free to travel and trade by sea.

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De Jure Belli ac Pacis (Law of War and Peace)

Hugo Grotius

Cited for Grotius's argument, via Roman and Byzantine law, that the sea belongs to all men.

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Crime and Punishment

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Named as Dostoevsky's book while quoting his diary on Russia's civilizing mission in Asia.

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The Geography of the Peace

Nicholas J. Spykman

Spykman's 'very important work' completed in 1943, the year he died — his posthumous rimland book The Geography of the Peace (1944); quoted on sea power and rimland control. Title inferred; corrected from America's Strategy in World Politics after the 2026-09-04 audit.

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Possible passing references

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