The Revenge Of Geography: What the Map Tells Us About Coming Conflicts and the Battle Against Fate by Robert D. Kaplan

Description

In-this-provocative,-startling-book,-Robert-D.-Kaplan,-the-bestselling-author-of Monsoon and Balkan-Ghosts, offers-a-revelatory-new-prism-through-which-to-view-global-upheavals-and-to-understand-what-lies-ahead-for-continents-and-countries-around-the-world.In The-Revenge-of-Geography, Kaplan-builds-on-the-insights,-discoveries,-and-theories-of-great-geographers-and-geopolitical-thinkers-of-the-near-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.-The-Russian-steppe’s-pitiless-climate-and-limited-vegetation-bred-hard-and-cruel-men-bent-on-destruction,-for-example,-while-Nazi-geopoliticians-distorted-geopolitics-entirely,-calculating-that-space-on-the-globe-used-by-the-British-Empire-and-the-Soviet-Union-could-be-swallowed-by-a-greater-German-homeland.Kaplan-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.-Remarkably,-the-future-can-be-understood-in-the-context-of-temperature,-land-allotment,-and-other-physical-certainties:-China,-able-to-feed-only-23-percent-of-its-people-from-land-that-is-only-7-percent-arable,-has-sought-energy,-minerals,-and-metals-from-such-brutal-regimes-as-Burma,-Iran,-and-Zimbabwe,-putting-it-in-moral-conflict-with-the-United-States.-Afghanistan’s-porous-borders-will-keep-it-the-principal-invasion-route-into-India,-and-a-vital-rear-base-for-Pakistan,-India’s-main-enemy.-Iran-will-exploit-the-advantage-of-being-the-only-country-that-straddles-both-energy-producing-areas-of-the-Persian-Gulf-and-the-Caspian-Sea.-Finally,-Kaplan-posits-that-the-United-States-might-rue-engaging-in-far-flung-conflicts-with-Iraq-and-Afghanistan-rather-than-tending-to-its-direct-neighbor-Mexico,-which-is-on-the-verge-of-becoming-a-semifailed-state-due-to-drug-cartel-carnage.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.