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.

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

★《外交政策》評選其為“100 位全球頂級思想者”之一

★《大西洋月刊》資深國際事務記者

★全球首屈一指的戰略預測公司STRATFOR 首席地緣政治分析師

★美國海軍學院特聘教授

★華盛頓新美國安全中心高級研究員

★美國防務政策委員會成員

★曾擔任美國陸軍特種兵團、美國空軍和美國海軍顧問

★地緣政治傢、知名暢銷書作傢

卡普蘭共寫過14 部外交事務及旅遊類暢銷書。在20 世紀80 年代，他是第一個對巴爾乾地區即將發生的劇變發齣警告的美國作傢，《紐約時報》專欄作傢托馬斯•弗裏德曼稱他為“後冷戰時代至關重要、值得受到廣泛關注的四位作傢之一”。

他的主要作品包括：

《巴爾乾鬼魂》（Balkan Ghosts）：《紐約時報書評》年度最佳圖書

《阿拉伯專傢》（ The Arabists）：《紐約時報》年度最值得閱讀的圖書，

《華爾街日報》關於美國與中東地區曆史關係的五本必讀書目之一

《地球邊緣》（The Ends of the Earth）：《紐約時報》年度最值得閱讀

的圖書

《帝國的荒野》（ An Empire Wilderness）：《紐約時報》年度最值得閱

讀的圖書，《華盛頓郵報》《洛杉磯時報》年度最佳圖書

《東進韃靼大地》（Eastward to Tartary）：《紐約時報》年度最值得閱

讀的圖書

《戰之華》（Warrior Politics）：《紐約時報》年度最值得閱讀的圖書

卡普蘭的文章也有巨大的影響力。據《美國新聞與世界報道》稱，“美國總統剋林頓對卡普蘭的文章印象深刻，並特意為此組織瞭跨部門研究，該研究對卡普蘭的結論深錶同意”。前總統喬治•W. 布什也是他的讀者，認為卡普蘭對世界局勢的諸多觀點與他本人的世界觀頗為吻閤。除瞭在《大西洋月刊》任主筆外，卡普蘭的文章也常見於《紐約時報》《華盛頓

郵報》《金融時報》《華爾街日報》《洛杉磯時報》等，《外交事務》等主要外交類雜誌也有刊登。

此外，卡普蘭還經常在美國軍事戰爭學院、聯邦調查局、國傢安全局、五角大樓聯閤參謀部、國防情報局、中央情報局、各主要院校及全球財經論壇上發錶演講，並在美國國務院開放論壇上作為秘書發言。100 多個國傢的媒體報導過關於他的新聞。

羅伯特•D. 卡普蘭於1952 年6 月23 日生於紐約，1973 年畢業於康涅狄格大學。1975 年起，他遊曆阿拉伯和地中海世界，自此開始瞭長達16 年的海外生涯。他曾在以色列國防部隊服役一年，並在希臘和葡萄牙生活9 年之久。直至現在，他已遊曆瞭近70 個國傢。

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