Books on the rise and fall of empires, the life of Elon Musk, and a fictional next world war offer ... [+] powerful lessons for leaders. Geopolitics in 2025 feels like a Dickensian paradox.

1. Near and Far Waters: The Geopolitics of Seapower by Colin Flint, Stanford University Press, 2024. 2. Seapower: A Guide for the Twenty-First Century by Geoffrey Till, 4th Edition, Routledge, 2018.