The Revenge of Geography : Book Review

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Behind the book

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. 

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 neighbour Mexico, which is on the verge of becoming a semi failed 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.

Verdict

The author describes global politics in the first part, specifically going through the theories of well appreciated intellectuals of the past. However in the part two author helps in informing about the various areas of the world  i.e. Russia, China, India, Iran, etc. that have a probability  for conflict with neighbouring countries or political unrest within. Finally in the last part of the book, author deals largely with the United States and the consequences of what our future might hold if we prolong with existing associations and interest abroad and the implication to the home country. 

This book is definitely a thought provoking view of Global Politics.

P.S. : I received this book from the publishers and in return I promised an honest and unbiased review.

c) Reviewed by Sridevi Nayak Karopady