Former Portuguese politician turned author, Bruno Maçäes, claims world politics has changed, as geopolitics is no longer simply a contest to control territory. In this age of advanced technology, it has become a contest to create the territory. Great powers seek to build a world for other states to inhabit, while keeping the ability to change the rules or the state of the world when necessary. The book aims to introduce a radically new theory of world politics and technology wars between China and the United States, the pandemic, the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and the energy transition. Bruno Maçäes considers the more distant future, when the metaverse and artificial intelligence become the world, a world the great powers must struggle to build and control. Competition between the great powers is moving from the world of atoms to bits, revolving around software and internet protocols as much as rockets and battleships.

World Builders: Technology and the New Geopolitics by Bruno Maçäes (Cambridge), 274 pages, £22.99.