This work looks at the struggle between the processes of globalization and geopolitical forces since 1850. The 20th century witnessed a struggle between geopolitical states who wanted to control earth space, resources and population (Nazi Germany, the USSR) and globalizing ones who wished to open up the world to the free flow of ideas, goods and services (Britain and, later, America). The book describes and analyzes the tug-of-war between these two tendencies, the playing out of which determined the shape and behaviour of the world we live in today. Beginning his survey in the late 19th century, which saw an end to the era of national unification, the author shows how World War II served to focus international awareness on the ramifications of global controls, and how with the end of the Cold War, we may finally be facing the end of geopolitics.