I've been a fan of his for years, and glad I was able to review this one. I will be buying the physical version for my personal library.

What is the dividing line between East and West? Where does the Western World end and the Orient begin?

“Adriatic: A Concert of Civilizations at the End of the Modern Age,” by Robert D. Kaplan, asserts the Adriatic Sea forms the dividing line. Kaplan explores the role played by the Adriatic from ancient times through the present day, examining its role as an interface between east and west.

“Adriatic” is part travelogue, part history, and part personal reminisce. Starting in Rimini, Italy, Kaplan takes readers around the Adriatic, working his way around the coast to Corfu in Greece. He stops at Ravenna, Venice, Trieste, two cities in Slovenia, four cities in Croatia, two each in Montenegro and Albania, before arriving at Corfu.

At each city, he examines its history, culture, and place in the modern world. He looks at local architecture and art, consulting with several residents active in the local art and literary scene. This includes discussions of famous nineteenth and twentieth-century western artists and authors who resided in those towns; Ezra Pound in Rapallo and Joyce in Trieste as examples.

In each chapter, he reviews the history of each place he visits. He examines its place in ancient and medieval history, shows how the boundaries between east and west shifted, and the role each place played. He also examines its place in the modern world and its potential future. This includes an examination of the effects of the Balkan Wars of the 1990s, and the current state of each country and city visited.

It examines the role he expects each place will play in the near future. Kaplan believes China’s Belt and Road system will restore the Adriatic’s traditional role as conduit between East and West. Just as Venice brought Eastern goods to Western Europe through the Adriatic during medieval times, Chinese investments in northern Adriatic pots will restore it to that role in the present.

Kaplan is a globalist. He believes China will become an enduring superpower and Russia will be restored to its prior superpower status, leading to a multipolar world. These views infuse the book. It was researched prior to the Covid lockdowns, and the changes it brought about. His predictions of Chinese and Russian dominance and inevitable Western decline seem potentially anachronistic in view of 2022 events. Regardless, “Adriatic” is a fascinating read, for its tour of the bordering polities, if not its prophecies.

“Adriatic: A Concert of Civilizations at the End of the Modern Age,” by Robert D. Kaplan, Random House, 2022, 368 pages, $28.99 (Hardcover), $13.99 (Ebook), $27.56 (Audiobook)
This review was written by Mark Lardas who writes at Ricochet as Seawriter. Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, historian, and model-maker, lives in League City, TX. His website is marklardas.com.

I really enjoyed Robert Kaplan’s book of the Adriatic region. He explores geography, geopolitics and has an eye for detail in describing it all. I would recommend this read.

Ahhh,,,the beguiling, exotic, oft misunderstood Adriatic with echoes of Byzantium and the Renaissance, dry stone walls and rustling palms, glittering azure sea and sweeping bora, fascinating culture and unsettled history, olive oil figs and changing borders, just a snippet of a list so long it would take several full days to describe.

Kaplan's outstanding new book is about reflection, introspection, geopolitics, geography, culture, history, religion, civilization and travel in "the globe in miniature". Referring to various media such as art, music, architecture, landscape (sea, karst, limestone) and poetry he discusses what it means to travel and how his recent experiences as a traveler compare with those forty years ago when he first traveled to the region as a journalist. He includes interviews with the ordinary and extraordinary who live here. I am very fortunate to live in the Adriatic part time and most places described are very near to my heart. I was transported in a nanosecond to Rimini, Ravenna, Venice, Trieste (which I prefer over Venice), Piran, Ljubljana, Zagreb, Istria and Dalmatia. But there are also Montenegro, Albania and Corfu. Kaplans prefers travel in off season as do I.

This book is more than "just" travel but also a thoroughly-researched encapsulation of ancient and recent history, European identity and the EU, various rulership, the concept of countries changing borders, roles of other countries, adaptation and resistance and how people feel about the future.

Whether you are familiar with this part of the world or not, get ready to learn more! Kaplan's writing is comprehensive yet accessible, bursting at the seams with information. Do prioritize this book if you have any interest at all about what it means to travel, especially to the Adriatic. Kaplan is a gem of a writer and his descriptions are vivid, original and lovely.

My sincere thank you to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for the privilege of reading this wonderful, wonderful book!

Sometimes you read a book and partially through it you realize that you don't care for what the author is saying and how he's saying it. That's my take away from reading about a quarter of this book. I was expecting to read about the places Kaplan traveled, and how he perceived/understood/learnt/etc from his visiting these places. But what we got was a treatise on everything that Kaplan had learnt over forty years whether it had any relevance or not. I'm impressed by his overall knowledge but it makes for a lot of diary jottings.

Adriatic is a great resource for anyone interested in or traveling to/through the region. Kaplan explores history and politics through a more casual travel essay style, which is both a pro and a con. At times, the language is a bit overdone, but it is a fun way to learn more about history.

Robert Kaplan, deservedly, is a legend by now. I have read every single one of his books and very few, if any, were disappointments. This book is no exception. If you have any interest whatsoever in geography, geopolitics, United States defense and military policy or, really, just the world in general then you need to be reading his books. Adriatic, like a lot of Mr. Kaplan's books, identifies a geopolitical hotspot that he foresees playing a big role in international conflicts and then gives the reader a history, travel diary, and contemporary analysis of the region with predictions of things to come. Kaplan is one of America's great non-fiction writers with a superb eye for detail. I learned a lot in Adriatic and I think any reader is bound to as well. Highly recommended

Mr. Kaplan tries something different, returning to the Adriatic world as a middle-aged man examing the future. This would be typical of many works, but Kaplan makes it worthwhile in his deep and abiding love of older travel works. Kaplan tries and succeeds to do something new.

Adriatic: A Concert of Civilizations at the End of the Modern Age by Robert D. Kaplan
I have read all of Mr. Kaplan’s 20+ books beginning with Balkan Ghosts published nearly 30 years ago. In most cases I would buy his books as soon as they would have been published. I have enjoyed this writer/reader friendship for all these years and even introduced my daughter to his writing when she was in high school.
In this book Adriatic, Mr. Kaplan returns to the area he wrote about in Balkan Ghosts but I sense many differences with the passage of time. It is not that there are changes in the regions but that he and I are getting old. I am three months older than he. Even writes in this book; “As I grow older and continue to read and question my early path actually becomes more and more of a mystery to me, even as I continue to realize its value and to hold tight to memories……. Wisdom can be facilitated by moving through different layers of existence, economic and social, that have nothing to do with growing old.”
He also writes with much more retrospection which I find interesting as we both know our clocks of life are winding down. As usual he travels alone, with a backpack of books and meets and listens to as many people as possible. But what seems different is he writes with more details and expects the reader to slow down and pace themselves through this book. As he writes about one of the books he carries and is I think true of this book he says; “The books are not readable in a popular sense, owing to the highly abstract nature of the subject and the intricate and capacious scholarly detail. But, as with the best of academic writing, I find if I can truly concentrate and read slowly a few pages at a time, the riches gained are beyond measure.” I to found myself making sure I was in a quiet spot and no not with a double expresso like he had while writing but with a glass of child white wine.
As to the story of his travels around the Adriatic, I find it typical and amusing that he goes in the winter when most of the seacoast is shut down and only the locals are there. It is so Kaplan. I am sure over the years he has finally grown accustomed to having a credit card and an expense account ( as have I) but I think he still prefers buses and trains and cafes rather than flash traveling. As usual, Mr. Kaplan is well read and brings out not the minute detail but instead the historical, political and geographic details of the places he visits. I have used his books on occasion when I have traveled more so than any other writer. Time is quickly passing and it may- be I never get to Slovenia or Albania but I feel I know more than I could know by reading his book. Thank you, Robert. I hope there are still more books to come.