The New Map by Daniel Yergin

Daniel Yergin’s book, The New Map, came to me through a recommendation from a professional I respect greatly. I trust his judgment, so I bought it and read it during 2024. I have to admit that I liked it and really enjoyed the read. There were moments that held me captive as if I were reading a thriller novel… because truly, this world of energy, climate, and clash of nations, as the book’s subtitle reads, sometimes resembles just that: an intrigue.

It is an exhaustive analysis of how the geopolitics of energy and the climate crisis are reconfiguring the world order in the 21st century. Yergin examines the forces of change—from the shale revolution in the United States to the global energy transition and the growing rivalry between major powers—that are drawing a new map of power, alliances, and conflicts. The author argues that energy security continues to be fundamental to national security, but it is now inextricably intertwined with climate policies and commercial and technological tensions, presenting unprecedented challenges to global stability.

The book is divided into six chapters, which provide a global vision to understand many of the current situations.

Chapter 1: America’s New Map

It begins with the shale revolution (shale oil and gas, or what we call fracking) in the United States, a key shift that has transformed the U.S. from a net importer to the world’s number one energy power. Yergin details how this technological innovation fundamentally altered the global market and reduced American dependence on external sources, rewriting geopolitical relationships and giving the U.S. new flexibility and a strategic advantage in the world arena. We have seen this, subsequent to the book’s publication, during Russia’s war in Ukraine, as the gas supply to Europe changed from Russian origins and how the U.S. played a fundamental role in supplying gas, which it is extracting and selling to European countries using techniques that some European countries do not authorize within their territories.

Chapter 2: Russia’s Map

The second chapter was the one that most impacted me because, seeing that the book was published in 2020 and I was reading it in 2024, and I knew what began in February 2022, I thought this guy was a clairvoyant, because reading the book, one can almost sense what would happen two years after its publication. The chapter explores the critical position of Russia as an energy giant, especially in natural gas, and how it uses this leverage to project power and influence, particularly in Europe. Yergin analyzes the large pipeline projects (like Nord Stream 2), Russia’s ambitions, and its complex relationship with its European customers, where energy is both a commercial good and a geopolitical weapon, a key factor in East-West tensions. When I read it, I understood it as a premonition.

Chapter 3: China’s Map

This chapter focuses on China, a central actor that Yergin examines through its dual role as the world’s largest energy consumer and the main driver of clean energy technology. The author describes the Chinese strategy to dominate the renewable energy supply chain (solar, batteries), while, at the same time, securing fossil fuel supply routes, seeking technological self-sufficiency and geopolitical supremacy. There is an expression that struck me when, on page 142, it indicates that “China has become what Britain had been during the Industrial Revolution – the manufacturing ‘workshop of the world’.” And how Malcom McLean (page 161), “known as ‘Idea-a-Minute’, is one of the most consequential figures in the history of transportation.”

Chapter 4: Maps of the Middle East

This chapter deals with the challenges facing the Middle East in a world where oil demand might peak and where the U.S. no longer needs its crude so urgently. Yergin describes how the region—still essential for global supply—is facing political instability, the rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and the need to diversify its economies before the global energy transition undermines its main source of wealth and power. On page 277, he perfectly explains the situation of shale vs. conventional: “The emergence of shale forced the oil industry to learn a new vocabulary – ‘short cycle’ versus ‘long cycle’. (…) A single well that might have cost $15 million a year or two earlier might now cost as little as $7 million.”

Chapter 5: Roadmap

The final chapter synthesizes the tensions that define the new map, concluding that the rivalry between the United States and China is the dominant geopolitical force, with energy and technology serving as key battlegrounds. Yergin underscores that the world is dividing into spheres of technological and economic influence, where the conflict over the control of information, trade, and leadership in the energy transition will determine the shape of the world order in the coming decades.

Chapter 6: Climate Map

Yergin dedicates this chapter to the geopolitics of the climate crisis and the energy transition, highlighting the dilemma between economic growth and sustainability. He examines the challenges of the Paris Agreement, the emergence of clean energy technologies, the role of LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) as a transition fuel, and how political decisions about emissions are creating new fault lines and collaboration between countries and continents. I found the expression he uses on page 425 regarding manufacturing and locations to be quite ingenious and intelligent: “Just-in-time manufacturing and inventory management will make room for ‘just be sure’.” And the data shown on page 435 makes clear the reason for the geopolitical change that has been generated in society: “In 2008, the United States spent almost $400 billion on oil imports. In 2020, the number was zero, meaning that hundreds of billions of dollars remained inside the U.S. economy each year.”

Recommendation by Jose Ramon Largo (CEO at RAMPALLO Consulting S.L.) on the edition by Penguin Books, published in 2023. ISBN 9780143111153.