Robert Kaplan’s beat is bad news and says his editor and guiding spirit is Thomas Hobbes.
Life in most parts of the world, Robert Kaplan is here to tell you, is nasty, brutish and short. Surrounding the global internet economy is global anarchy. Poverty, disease, swelling populations, environmental degradation and a culture of militarized gangsterism are rampant in West Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East, Kaplan reports.
And they’re all coming to a country near you. Robert Kaplan’s now famous essay for the Atlantic Monthly called “The Coming Anarchy” argues that the Third World’s current nightmare is the West’s future.
It’s the kind of controversial big bold claim Kaplan likes best. Like the final essay in his newest collection in which says that peace and prosperity may be just be overrated.
Robert Kaplan’s “Coming Anarchy” in this hour.
(Hosted by Christopher Lydon)
Guests:
Robert Kaplan