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Flashpoints

The Emerging Crisis in Europe

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About this listen

 A major new book by New York Times bestselling author and geopolitical forecaster George Friedman (The Next 100 Years), with a bold thesis about coming events in Europe. This provocative work examines “flashpoints,” unique geopolitical hot spots where tensions have erupted throughout history, and where conflict is due to emerge again.

“There is a temptation, when you are around George Friedman, to treat him like a Magic 8 Ball.” —The New York Times Magazine

With remarkable accuracy, George Friedman has forecasted coming trends in global politics, technology, population, and culture. In Flashpoints, Friedman focuses on Europe—the world’s cultural and power nexus for the past five hundred years . . . until now. Analyzing the most unstable, unexpected, and fascinating borderlands of Europe and Russia—and the fault lines that have existed for centuries and have been ground zero for multiple catastrophic wars—Friedman highlights, in an unprecedentedly personal way, the flashpoints that are smoldering once again.
The modern-day European Union was crafted in large part to minimize built-in geopolitical tensions that historically have torn it apart. As Friedman demonstrates, with a mix of rich history and cultural analysis, that design is failing. Flashpoints narrates a living history of Europe and explains, with great clarity, its most volatile regions: the turbulent and ever-shifting land dividing the West from Russia (a vast area that currently includes Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania); the ancient borderland between France and Germany; and the Mediterranean, which gave rise to Judaism and Christianity and became a center of Islamic life.
Through Friedman’s seamless narrative of townspeople and rivers and villages, a clear picture of regions and countries and history begins to emerge. Flashpoints is an engrossing analysis of modern-day Europe, its remarkable past, and the simmering fault lines that have awakened and will be pivotal in the near future. This is George Friedman’s most timely and, ultimately, riveting book. Europe Future Studies International Politics & Government Social Sciences World War Middle East Imperialism Socialism Military Middle Ages Refugee Self-Determination Iran Russia Africa Soviet Union European Union

Critic reviews

One of the Wall Street Journal's Top 16 Books on Wall Street’s Spring Break Reading List

"In this insightful examination of contemporary Europe, political scientist Friedman (Next Decade) challenges the view that the European Union and its neighbors have transcended the threat of violent conflict among nations….. By dispassionately anatomizing the fears, aspirations, and interests of the key players, particularly a resurgent and resentful Russia, Friedman vividly describes a region where memories are long, perceived vulnerabilities are everywhere, and major threats have emerged rapidly and unexpectedly many times before."
--Publishers Weekly

"This nonacademic but erudite view of European history shows that the 20th century's trauma of war and violence is not quite behind us….A thoughtful, uncluttered treatise considering Europe's intractable patterns of unemployment, immigration and racism."
--Kirkus
All stars
Most relevant
We'll worth listening to. And listening to again. Insightful, sweeping analysis. Helpful background to understanding current geopolitical events. Will now be following up with other books by the author.

Superb

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Highly recommended to anyone interested in the history and future of Europe. The introduction, read by the author, explaining the history of his family was particularly interesting. The narration is nice and clean though not desperately engrossing. It would have been better if read in full by the author. Overall this has really improved my understanding of the relationships between EU countries, Russia and the rest of the world and includes some ideas that the author has about the future of these regions.

A tour of European geopolitics

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Rich, enlightening, impeccably written, thoughtful, insightful, Friedman's analysis flows naturally, logically, seamlessly and tells Europe's story like it's never been told before. A must read for every head of state.

Simply superb

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An excellent book on the past, present and future geopolitical challenges Europe faces.

If you have a growing interest in this topic, then this is the book. The issues are not sensationalised, rather, a solid case for future outcomes explored.

GeoPolitical

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I struggled at the beginning but enjoyed the book more once the authors point became clear and he built up the threads of his argument

Very interesting

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