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》评选其为“100 位全球顶级思想者”之一

★《大西洋月刊》资深国际事务记者

★全球首屈一指的战略预测公司STRATFOR 首席地缘政治分析师

★美国海军学院特聘教授

★华盛顿新美国安全中心高级研究员

★美国防务政策委员会成员

★曾担任美国陆军特种兵团、美国空军和美国海军顾问

★地缘政治家、知名畅销书作家

卡普兰共写过14 部外交事务及旅游类畅销书。在20 世纪80 年代，他是第一个对巴尔干地区即将发生的剧变发出警告的美国作家，《纽约时报》专栏作家托马斯•弗里德曼称他为“后冷战时代至关重要、值得受到广泛关注的四位作家之一”。

他的主要作品包括：

《巴尔干鬼魂》（Balkan Ghosts）：《纽约时报书评》年度最佳图书

《阿拉伯专家》（ The Arabists）：《纽约时报》年度最值得阅读的图书，

《华尔街日报》关于美国与中东地区历史关系的五本必读书目之一

《地球边缘》（The Ends of the Earth）：《纽约时报》年度最值得阅读

的图书

《帝国的荒野》（ An Empire Wilderness）：《纽约时报》年度最值得阅

读的图书，《华盛顿邮报》《洛杉矶时报》年度最佳图书

《东进鞑靼大地》（Eastward to Tartary）：《纽约时报》年度最值得阅

读的图书

《战之华》（Warrior Politics）：《纽约时报》年度最值得阅读的图书

卡普兰的文章也有巨大的影响力。据《美国新闻与世界报道》称，“美国总统克林顿对卡普兰的文章印象深刻，并特意为此组织了跨部门研究，该研究对卡普兰的结论深表同意”。前总统乔治•W. 布什也是他的读者，认为卡普兰对世界局势的诸多观点与他本人的世界观颇为吻合。除了在《大西洋月刊》任主笔外，卡普兰的文章也常见于《纽约时报》《华盛顿

邮报》《金融时报》《华尔街日报》《洛杉矶时报》等，《外交事务》等主要外交类杂志也有刊登。

此外，卡普兰还经常在美国军事战争学院、联邦调查局、国家安全局、五角大楼联合参谋部、国防情报局、中央情报局、各主要院校及全球财经论坛上发表演讲，并在美国国务院开放论坛上作为秘书发言。100 多个国家的媒体报导过关于他的新闻。

罗伯特•D. 卡普兰于1952 年6 月23 日生于纽约，1973 年毕业于康涅狄格大学。1975 年起，他游历阿拉伯和地中海世界，自此开始了长达16 年的海外生涯。他曾在以色列国防部队服役一年，并在希腊和葡萄牙生活9 年之久。直至现在，他已游历了近70 个国家。

欲知更多信息，请访问其主页www.robertdkaplan.com