Articles & Multimedia
Showing 1-20 of 79 Publications
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The Fury of History
Commentary
Even manifestly unpopular regimes do not end on their own. There has to be a trigger....
By Robert D. Kaplan
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Israel's New Rules of War
Commentary
Netanyahu knows that there is no modern world. In the Middle East, there is only the continuation of the ancient. Despite technology, humankind has not morally progressed, eve...
By Robert D. Kaplan
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Putin’s Shakespearean Demons
Commentary
Imagine the condition in the heart of Europe today had NATO’s boundaries remained frozen after 1989....
By Robert D. Kaplan
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What I Failed to Understand About Saddam’s Iraq—and American Power
Commentary
Iraq, rather than permanently traumatizing us, has proved to be a great teacher....
By Robert D. Kaplan
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A Democratic Iran Is Coming and It Will Lead the Middle East
Commentary
A 44-year epoch in the greater Middle East may be coming to an end, as the region begins to turn on its axis. In early 1979, a radical Islamic regime under Ayatollah Ruhollah ...
By Robert D. Kaplan
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Xi Jinping: An Echo of Saddam?
Commentary
Xi Jinping’s consolidation of power at the recent Communist Party congress in Beijing was accomplished with a Shakespearean twist. Xi’s predecessor as president, Hu Jintao, se...
By Robert D. Kaplan
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The Downside of Imperial Collapse
Empires form out of chaos, and imperial collapse often leaves chaos in its wake....
By Robert D. Kaplan
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Commentary
Transatlantic Security / Middle East Security
Russia, Iran, and the Perils of Post-autocracyNeither the Russian nor the Iranian regime is now specifically threatened. Each could hang on for years. But this month provided a glimpse of their eventual demise....
By Robert D. Kaplan
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Commentary
Defense / Transatlantic Security
Biden’s Team Saved Ukraine by Learning from Its MistakesThe weaker the Russian position becomes, the more likely it could still resort to extreme measures....
By Robert D. Kaplan
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The Biden administration just stalled China’s advance in the Indo-Pacific
Commentary
Australia, by intensifying the military competition with China, could tee up a chain of as yet unforeseen events....
By Robert D. Kaplan
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Robert D. Kaplan on why America can recover from failures like Afghanistan and Iraq
Commentary
There they were in the flesh: wizened veterans of the Spanish-American War from 1898 marching a few feet away from me at the Memorial Day parade on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn...
By Robert D. Kaplan
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America Must Rediscover Human-Rights Realism
Commentary
The US must not throw away the strategic advantage conferred by its longstanding commitment to human rights...
By Robert D. Kaplan
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A New Cold War Has Begun
Commentary
In June 2005, I published a cover story in the Atlantic, “How We Would Fight China.” I wrote that, “The American military contest with China … will define the twenty-first cen...
By Robert D. Kaplan
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Time to Get Out of Afghanistan
The decision by President Trump to withdraw 7,000 of the roughly 14,000 American troops left in Afghanistan, possibly by summer, has raised new concerns about his impulsive be...
By Robert D. Kaplan
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The Anarchy That Came
What I said was provocative, or at least deemed to be, by complacent champions of globalization. Yet evolution is inexorable. Technology in particular is not so much defeating...
By Robert D. Kaplan
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How President Trump is helping Beijing win in the South China Sea
For years now, China has been at war against the United States in the South China Sea — only Washington didn’t notice until the process was well underway. The Chinese way of w...
By Robert D. Kaplan
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5 forgotten books about geography and place to read now
Robert Kaplan said he knew the mixing of genres in “Earning the Rockies” ran the risk of alienating some readers. Parts of the book read like a travelogue, while others delve ...
By Robert D. Kaplan
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Why China Is Brutally Suppressing Muslims
Commentary
The repression of the Turkic Uighur Muslim community in western China—including the reported internment of up to a million people in secret camps—is a key part of Beijing’s ne...
By Robert D. Kaplan
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Write ‘what is absolutely true in your eyes,’ says best-selling author Robert Kaplan
Commentary
Our September pick for the PBS NewsHour-New York Times book club, “Now Read This,” is “Earning the Rockies” by Robert D. Kaplan. Become a member of the book club by joining ou...
By Robert D. Kaplan
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The Decline of the American Brand
Commentary
What is the United States in functional, geopolitical terms? In the words of the great British geographer of a century ago, Halford Mackinder, the temperate zone of North Amer...
By Robert D. Kaplan
