Recommended: The Revenge of Geography

I have been reading Robert Kaplan's 2012 book The Revenge of Geography: What the Map Tells Us About Coming Conflicts and the Battle Against Fate. It is a refreshing excursion away from the day-to-day crises toward a much longer-term view of the world.  Kaplan argues that geography shapes history and civilizations today just as it has all through recorded history.  The first two-thirds of the book look back at past empires and civilizations to see how their geography shaped their destiny.  The last third of the book looks at America in that light, and explores what the future might hold for us.

I was particularly struck by his argument that, despite the obsession of the East Coast ruling elite with the Middle East and Asia, it is actually the influence -- good or bad -- of Mexico that ought to concern us most, a point Samuel Huntington made repeatedly in his later years. If we are bordered by an increasingly autonomous, lawless and wealthy narco-state, no longer controlled by Mexico's central government, and driven primarily by the drug markets in our own nation, this ought to be a prime concern to us.

And indeed, one wonders what would have happened if we had put the trillion dollars we spent on Iraq and Afghanistan into helping Mexico overcome its problems.  The result mught have been much more satisfactory.   This is a book worth reading.