The Revenge of Geography
What the Map Tells Us About Coming Conflicts and the Battle Against Fate
by Robert D. Kaplan
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Pub Date Sep 11 2012 | Archive Date Oct 16 2012
Random House Publishing Group | Random House
Description
Bestselling author Robert D. Kaplan builds on the insights, discoveries, and theories of great geographers and geopolitical thinkers of the recent and distant past to look back at critical pivots in history and then to look forward at the evolving global scene. Kaplan traces the history of the world’s hot spots by examining their climates, topographies, and proximities to other embattled lands. He then applies the lessons learned to the present crises in Europe, Russia, China, the Indian Subcontinent, Turkey, Iran, and the Arab Middle East. The result is a holistic interpretation of the next cycle of conflict throughout Eurasia, a visionary glimpse into a future that can be understood only in the context of temperature, land allotment, and other physical certainties. A brilliant rebuttal to thinkers who suggest that globalism will trump geography, this indispensable work shows how timeless truths and natural facts can help prevent this century’s looming cataclysms.
Praise for The Revenge of Geography
“[An] ambitious and challenging new book . . . [The Revenge of Geography] displays a formidable grasp of contemporary world politics and serves as a powerful reminder that it has been the planet’s geophysical configurations, as much as the flow of competing religions and ideologies, that have shaped human conflicts, past and present.”—Malise Ruthven, The New York Review of Books
“Robert D. Kaplan, the world-traveling reporter and intellectual whose fourteen books constitute a bedrock of penetrating exposition and analysis on the post-Cold War world . . . strips away much of the cant that suffuses public discourse these days on global developments and gets to a fundamental reality: that geography remains today, as it has been throughout history, one of the most powerful drivers of world events.”—The National Interest
“Kaplan plunges into a planetary review that is often thrilling in its sheer scale . . . encyclopedic.”—The New Yorker
“[The Revenge of Geography] serves the facts straight up. . . . Kaplan’s realism and willingness to face hard facts make The Revenge of Geography a valuable antidote to the feel-good manifestoes that often masquerade as strategic thought.”—The Daily Beast
Advance Praise
Advance
praise for The Revenge of Geography
"Robert D. Kaplan wields geography like a scalpel, using it to examine
international relations and conflicts that globalization fails to explain. The
Revenge of Geography is a sagacious account of how geography has shaped the
world we know-and what this means for the future. Kaplan's wedding of
historical and present-day analysis on a region-by-region basis makes for a
well-researched, entertaining, and informative read that cannot be
ignored."-Ian Bremmer, president of Eurasia Group and author of Every Nation
for Itself
"The importance of geography in shaping history is the great issue that Robert
Kaplan tackles in this extraordinary book. Thirty years of scholarship and
travel lie behind his recounting of human triumphs and conflicts through the
ages. At the heart of his wide-ranging analysis is his belief in the abiding
influence of geography on human behavior, now and in the future."-James Hoge,
counselor, Council on Foreign Relations
"Geography is destiny. This is well known. History, too, is destiny. Sadly, few
notice that the twenty-first-century will not see the end of history but the
return of history. Robert Kaplan's The Revenge of Geography describes
well how many old fault lines will once again reemerge. Kaplan bravely writes,
‘America, I believe, will actually emerge in the course of the twenty-first
century as a Polynesian-cum-mestizo civilization.' Why, then, have American
strategic thinkers failed to anticipate the real challenges America will face?
Kaplan's book provides a valuable wake-up call for them."-Kishore Mahbubani,
author of The Great Convergence
"In this fascinating blend of geography and history, Robert Kaplan offers a
compelling look at economic and political trends that will shape our future.
Well written and brimming with insight and historical anecdotes, this smart
book is a refreshing call to reconsider the pivotal role of geography in global
strategy and how to understand American interests in it."-Vali Nasr, author of The
Shia Revival and The Rise of Islamic Capitalism
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781400069835 |
| PRICE | $28.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 432 |
