Waste Land

Praise

“A compelling, stark, critically important book that conveys the urgency of the present moment and the unprecedented challenges that face mankind . . . Once again, Robert D. Kaplan has brilliantly distilled an exceedingly complex set of issues that have to be resolved. And once again he has impressively consulted history to provide prescriptions to help us navigate the ongoing conflicts, security dilemmas, great power rivalries, health crises, environmental issues, and other looming difficulties. Waste Land solidifies Kaplan’s reputation as one of the truly masterful observers and thinkers of our time!”—General David Petraeus, US Army (Ret), former Commander of the Surge in Iraq, US Central Command, and Coalition Forces in Afghanistan, and former Director of the CIA

“One of the great geopolitical thinkers of our time has produced yet another compelling, scholarly, and eminently readable book of thoughtful global analysis. Weaving together everything from the gorgeous poetry of T. S. Eliot to the neo-realistic thinking of Jeane Kirkpatrick to the tragic history of the Weimar Republic, Robert D. Kaplan provides a dark mirror held to a dangerous world that commands our attention page after page. . . . A cautionary tale of absolute brilliance!”—Admiral James Stavridis, USN (Ret), 16th Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, 12th Dean of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and author of Sea Power: The History and Geopolitics of the World’s Oceans

“Robert D. Kaplan’s Waste Land is a provocative but penetrating diagnosis of the anomie that marks the evolving international order. The deconcentration of power, the fraying of authority, and the weakening of institutions, which are occurring against the backdrop of revolutions in technology that are producing a simulacrum of social intimacy, threaten to engender persistent economic fragility, a resurgence of illiberal ideologies, and the legitimation of new autocratic leaders. All this together foreshadows a world crisis that looks uncomfortably like Weimar redux but with even deadlier consequences. Obviously, nothing is inevitable in history, but perspicaciously understanding its rhythms is essential to help avert the looming catastrophe. The reader will not find a better guide toward that end.”—Ashley J. Tellis, Tata Chair for Strategic Affairs, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
 
“Robert D. Kaplan’s Waste Land is a darkly brilliant and engaging survey of our world in chaos—globalization simultaneously uniting and destabilizing nations and tribes, greater wealth and with it envy and anger, the postwar powers in decline with a China confident to fill their void, and an America without borders, fraught with internal dissension and debt, and blinkered by ossified strategies and ideologies. And yet in this deeply erudite literary, cultural, and historical narrative, Kaplan offers both warning and hope that America amid such confusion and danger will be all right—if it remembers to reestablish and cherish its traditions of order, the rule of law, moderation, humility, unity, borders, and its unique commitment to economic, individual, and constitutional freedom and tolerance.”—Victor Davis Hanson, the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and New York Times bestselling author of The End of Everything
 
“Robert D. Kaplan is one of the most sophisticated and incisive geopolitical analysts of today’s world. His latest work is typically elegant, grounded in a vast range of philosophy, travel, and literature. The book is a tribute to the role that history can play in illuminating a path for policymakers in an ever more uncertain and chaotic world.”—John Bew, Professor in History and Foreign Policy at King’s College London, and author of Clement Attlee: The Man Who Made Modern Britain