I have read Kaplan's CNAS paper from August on South Asia's Geography of Conflict, and look forward to the longer read. As we have found it to be true in Iraq and Afghanistan, he states of India "but even as the Indian political class understands at a very intimate level America's own historical and geographical situation, the American political class has no such understanding of India's." What mistakes will we make if we do not take the time now to understand this region? How will we fix mistakes already made without a better understanding of South Asia? My hope is that after reading the book I will understand the area better, and that decison makers at State, Defense, and other agencies read it and learn from it as well. The learning must never stop!

can you ask you good friend Robert Kaplan"

1. Why he cant fine any ethnic Macedonians in Greece?

http://the-macedonian-tendency.blogspot.com/2007/07/why-cant-robert-kaplan-find-any.html

2. Does Kaplan agree the every racist, every fascist and every ethnic cleanser in the Balkans sees Greece's treatment if its ethnic Macedonia minority in Greece and Turkey's treatment of its Kurdish minority as a model of how to treat their own minorities ... and that NATO should pay reparation payments the Macedonians and Kurds for aiding and abetting cultural genocide?

What an interesting title for a book that concerns the Indian Ocean region? A region that in addition to containing about ¼ of the earth’s landmass, and home to 1/3 of the world’s population, also just by coincidence, accounts for nearly 70 % of the planet’s natural disasters. Now who’d a thunk that besides an ignorant country boy that used to collect nautilus sea shells on the beaches off the IO (anecdotally, piracy off the Somalia coast also dies down during the Monsoon season).

Mr. Kaplan ain’t lying the IO is a global energy interstate - after all, how else does one access that key prize, the Persian Gulf? Of course everyone knows in addition to a portion of our oil needs, America depends on the IO shipping lanes for something like 50 different strategic minerals these days?

I suppose it’s worth mentioning, and I hope Kaplan does too, (I ordered, and will readyour book, “you magnificent bastard!”) it should also be pointed out that India is showing it understands the importance of the IO and coastal states there will play as India evolve as a World economic power. An economic nuclear power that the U.S. will have to contend with (whatever this warming of relations crap means). A fact not lost on China, who derive 1/3 of their GDP, through foreign trade that must transit the shipping lanes, giving rise to a sure bet, China has no intention of letting India have a free reign in these waters and will seek to establish its position within the IO most aggressively.

Just for fun, put in the back of your mind Socotra Island off southern Yemen, Gan in the Maldives, and Port Victoria in the Seychelles for future reference. : )

Oh they call me hanging Johnny. Away, boys, away.
They says I hangs for money. Oh hang, boys, hang.
And first I hanged my daddy. And first I hanged my daddy.
And then I hanged my mother, My sister and my brother.
And then I hanged my granny. And then I hanged my granny.
And then I hanged my Annie; I hanged her up sae canny.
We'll hang and haul together; We'll haul for better weather.

It's highly unlikely Chinese and Indian carrier battle groups are going to be cruising the Indian Ocean any time in the next few decades (or ever). Why does the author think it's a good idea to invest heavily in an expanded naval presence in this theatre?

To what end? Does he want to interdict oil shipments to China? Guarantee free trade? Free pizza for everybody?

If you go in heavy handed looking for trouble you'll probably find it.

The author said:

"As I stared at the map, the book began to emerge in my mind: Here was the entire arc of Islam from the Sahara Desert to the Indonesian archipelago. Here was the global energy interstate..."

As I read this the image that unfolds in my mind is a trillion dollars worth of US taxpayer dollars sailing around chasing dhows and harassing dolphins.

Why not hang this silly idea now rather than finding more phantoms to lose sleep over.

Kaplan more often than not tends to get too attached to the subject at hand. Whatever he is writing about, be it a SF team in the Phillipeans, or the Indian Ocean, it becomes "this is what we should put all of our rescources into." It makes for a lot of book sales, but if you step back and read Kaplan, you will be far less impressed.

All I can say is that perhaps my greatest contribution as the random intellectual on the US Joint Staff' (J-5) Balkan branch was to delete Balkan Ghosts from the reading list given to newcomers. I have not read Kaplan's more recent work, but Balkan Ghosts set back our understanding of everything by about 50 years.

For those readers in the greater Philadelphia area, the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia and the Foreign Policy Research Institute are having a BookTalk event with Robert Kaplan on Monsoon tomorrow night in Center City. Details can be found here: http://www.fpri.org/events/#indianocean .