Since writing Balkan Ghosts — which was reputedly very influential in the Clinton White House during the Balkan conflict — Robert Kaplan has become famous for writing travel literature that is part travelogue and part foreign policy briefing. Most of his books are about parts of the world most Americans couldn’t pick out on a [...]

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Since the first book I read this year is about, among other things, the effect of the collapse of the Soviet Union on former satelittes, I thought I would share this story. I realize it’s a stretch for a blog about books, but I couldn’t resist shining an admittedly small light on the plight of [...]

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Places Robert Kaplan visited in “Eastward to Tartary”

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One of the interesting things about reading a non-fiction book about current events nearly ten years after the book was originally published is that you have the opportunity to check the author’s analytical ability. Anyone can say anything about the future. But once the future becomes the past, well, then we get to argue about [...]

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I have a confession to make. I actually started reading the first book I plan to discuss here in 2008. I’m not sure if a book partially read in 2008 technically counts towards my goal of 25 books about foreign places in 2009, but since I’m in charge, I made the executive decision that it [...]

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