Earning The Rockies*: How Geography Shapes America's Role In The World, Kaplan - B-

                                               Robert Kaplan is a fascinating author who analyzes geopolitical issues and foreign affairs through the lens of geography. I have read his books on the Balkans, the Middle East, the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea,and a handful of his magazine articles. I have gained a better understanding of world affairs because of his writing. Much of his work is a a travelogue because he thoroughly researches what he writes about. The subject of this work is a cross-country trip from Stockbridge, Massachusetts to San Diego. To some extent, this is an homage to his dad, a WW2 vet, Queens-based truck driver in Brooklyn, who was way smarter than that job description implies. His father took his family on innumerable car outings to places of historical interest. This trip, by a man now in his mid-sixties, is characterized as "a landscape meditation about America's place in the world."  That said, he keeps his meditations close to the vest and hardly makes a noteworthy observation about the entire three-week drive, other than the standard statements about how our continental temperate climate with innumerable navigable rivers and two oceans has contributed to our good fortune. Upon arrival in San Diego, home of the Pacific fleet, he discusses our role in the world. Fated to lead by our geography and institutions, we saved the world from Fascism and Bolshevism and must continue to act as a counterweight to Russia and China, the dominant forces on the Eurasian landmass. Interestingly, of the century-long upheaval in the post-Imperial Islamic world, he observes that there is little we can do. And to my immense satisfaction, he cites George Kennan, who he refers to as believing that the security of the US is less endangered by its adversaries than it is by the illusions of its leaders and elites. He closes suggesting that successful empires have been cautious, restrained and strategically patient.

*"Earning the Rockies" was a phrase in a juvenile travel article that Kaplan read on a trip as a boy and stems from the statement that driving through the great interior was a dues to pay before you saw the Rockies.