Now thoroughly revised and updated, this concise text offers a deeply knowledgeable and balanced history and overview of political geography since its inception in the late nineteenth century. Rather than trying to impose a single "fashionable" theory, leading geographers John Agnew and Luca Muscarà consider the underlying role of changing geopolitical context for understanding the evolution of the discipline. The authors focus especially on reinterpretations of the post-Cold War period, exploring the renewed questioning of international borders, the emergence of the Middle East and displacement of Europe as the center of global geopolitics, the rise of China and other new powers, the reappearance of environmental issues, and the development of critical geopolitics. Offering more flexibility than a traditional core text, this book will be a valuable resource for all courses in political geography.