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De Wraak Van De Geografie: Wat De Wereldkaart Ons Voorspelt Over Komende Conflicten En Het Gevecht Tegen Het Onvermijdelijke (2012)

by Robert D. Kaplan(Favorite Author)

3.55 of 5 Votes: 4

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Spectrum

review 1: "For wise policymakers, while aware of their nation's limitations, know that the art of statesmanship is about working as close to the edge as possible, without stepping over the brink. In other words, true realism is more an art than a science, in which the temperament of a statesman plays as much of a role as his intellect." (24)"According to [Karl] Haushofer, only nations in decline seek stable borders, and only decadent ones seek to protect their borders with permanent fortifications: for frontiers are living organisms. Virile nations build roads instead. Frontiers were but temporary halts for master nations." (85)"A Eurasia and North Africa of vast, urban concentrations, overlapping missile ranges, and sensational global media will be one of constantly enraged crow... moreds, fed by rumors and half-truths transported at the speed of light by satellite channels across the rimlands and heartland expanse, from one Third World city to another. ... Loneliness is a particular characteristic of urban existence, in which strangers are many and true friends and family relatively few. Ans so the new urban geography of the former Third World in the twenty-first century will constitute a map of intense, personal longing." (122-3)."[T]he west-to-east flow of rivers in a subcontinent oriented from north to south has, as [Mughali] Aurangzeb's experience demonstrates, made it difficult for the north to govern the south until relatively late in history. Put simply: there are relatively few geographical connecting links between northern and southern India." (239)'[T]he very persistence of its [Iran's] suffocating clerical rule that while impressive in a negative sense -- using Iran's strong state tradition to ingeniously crush a democratic opposition and torture and rape people -- has also dulled the linguistic and cosmopolitan appeal that throughout history has accounted for a Greater Iran in a cultural sense." (278)"America, I believe, will actually emerge in the course of the twenty-first century as a Polynesian-cum-mestizo civilization, oriented from north to south, from Canada to Mexico, rather than as an east to west, racially lighter-skinned island in the temperate zone stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific. ... America, in my vision, will become the globe's preeminent duty-free hot zone for business transactions, a favorite place of residence for the global elite." (339)
review 2: As the title suggests, Kaplan uses geography - climate, topography, resources - to illuminate the world's political hot spots. He traces their history, how their geography affected their evolution and, especially, their proximity to other embattled lands. He then applies the historical lessons learned in these places to current challenges in Europe, Russia, China, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent. The result is an interesting predictive tool based on temperature, land allotment, and other physical certainties. Kaplan demonstrates that globalism will not, indeed cannot, trump geography. This is not a cheery book, but it is a pretty interesting one. less

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