Episode 9

America first: Hemispheric dominance?

Published on: 12th January, 2026

In this episode we follow up on the implications of the American capture of President Maduro of Venezuela and President Trump's anouncements about the nature and future of American foreign policy. We apologise if it seems we are paying undue attention to this but it is very important and is radically reshaping the world we live in. President Trump has also announced (again) that the USA needs Greenland for national security, that he will run Venezuela and its oil sales and that he aims to control the western hemisphere: that it the half of the globe which stretches from the mid Pacific to the Greenwich meridian in London and includes both north and south America, Canada, Greenland and the Caribbean. This represents both a pull back from previous American foreign policy which saw itself as a global 'hegemon' running what is termed the rules based international order, to a much more explicit 'America first' focusing primarily on the western hemisphere. This has implications for Europe which president Trump now seems to see as not very important, and for the role of major global powers - notably America, China and Russia. We discuss to what extent, if at all, it is possible to draw parallels with George Orwell's novel 1984 (published in 1948) which envisaged a world divided into three competing power blocs - Oceania, Eurasia and East Asia - all constantly at war with one another. We hope this distopian vision remains just that but it is clear is that President Trump is both responding too and reshaping global political geographies.

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About the Podcast

Geography Matters

Geography is everywhere

Geography Matters explores the importance of geography in shaping and influencing the world we live in: economy, society, politics and environment. Whether looking at world affairs and geopolitics, at global trade, regional inequality or the character of particular places, geography is important. History looks at when and why things happen. Geography looks at where and why. Everything takes place at particular times and in particular places. You can't escape the importance of geography whether its about conflicts over international borders, religion, the environment or the impact of climate change. Geography is everywhere. It affects who we are, our opportunities and our life chances. You can't escape geography. Follow us at https://feeds.captivate.fm/geography-matters/

About your hosts

Klaus Dodds

Klaus Dodds is a leading expert in geopolitics and human geography, specialising in the polar regions, border issues, and global security. He is a Senior Research Fellow at RAND Europe and an Honorary Professor of Geopolitics at Royal Holloway, University of London, where he worked for 30 years. He is currently Interim Faculty Dean for Science and Technology at Middlesex University London

Klaus is the author of many books, including the co-written volume Unfrozen: The Fight for the Future of the Arctic (2025), Border Wars (2022), and the best-selling Geopolitics: A Very Short Introduction. His books have been translated into many languages and reviewed in leading newspapers, magazines, and social media platforms.

Beyond the academy, he served as a specialist adviser to several UK parliamentary select committees, including the House of Lords Select Committee on the Arctic and the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee. He has worked with NATO’s Strategic Foresight Analysis group, advising on future geopolitical trends. Dodds has also provided expert advice to the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, amongst other international bodies and companies.

Klaus’s focus is on investigating and explaining how geopolitical and resource competition will shape the present and future. His insights have been gleaned from many years of working with commercial, military, and government stakeholders, alongside global travel which has enabled him to gain first-hand experience of this competition.

Chris Hamnett

Chris Hamnett is Emeritus professor of geography at King's College London and a visiting professor in the Department of Urban Planning, Renmin University, Beijing. He has held visiting appointments at UBC, Vancouver; University of Cambridge; LSE; Nuffield College Oxford; Sciences Po, Paris; George Washington University, Washington DC, Netherlands Institute of Advanced Studies; UESTC, Chengdu and RUC, Beijing.

He has authored or co-authored several books including 'Cities, Housing and Profits', 1987'; Winners and Losers: the housing market in contemporary Britain, 1998; Safe as Houses: Housing wealth and inheritance in Britain, 1991; A Shrinking world, 1995; London: Unequal city, 2003; Ethnicity, Class and Aspiration, 2011 and Gentrification: An Advanced Introduction, 2021 and over 100 papers in international journals.

He has written for the Times, the FT, the Guardian and the Independent. He is particularly interested in social and housing change in big cities. He was research director of the Nugee Committee on Leasehold flats which led to the 1987 Landlord and Tenant Act, and was a member of both City of Westminster and Ealing Housing Commissions.