The Middle East remains one of the world’s most complicated, thorny—and, uncharitably, unstable—parts of the world, as countless headlines make clear. Internal strife, regional competition and external interventions have been the region’s history for the past several decades.
Robert Kaplan—author, foreign policy thinker, longtime writer on international affairs—has written about what he terms the “Greater Middle East”, a region that spans from the Mediterranean, south to Ethiopia and eastwards to Afghanistan and Pakistan, for decades. These insights are the foundation of his latest book: The Loom of Time: Between Empire and Anarchy, from the Mediterranean to China(Random House, 2023)
In his book, Kaplan criticizes how the U.S. has approached the region—intervention and regime change (including his own mea culpa for his previous support for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, only for Washington to look somewhere else when newly-formed regimes inevitably disappoint.
In this interview, Robert and I talk about his idea of the “Greater Middle East,” some of the experiences that most stood out to him, and his conclusions on how to think about democracy, order, and anarchy in this part of the world.
Robert D. Kaplan is the bestselling author of twenty books on foreign affairs and travel, including Adriatic: A Concert of Civilizations at the End of the Modern Age (Random House: 2022), The Good American: The Epic Life of Bob Gersony, the U.S. Government's Greatest Humanitarian (Random House: 2021), The Revenge of Geography: What the Map Tells Us About Coming Conflicts and the Battle Against Fate (Random House: 2012), Asia's Cauldron: The South China Sea and the End of a Stable Pacific (Random House: 2014), Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power (Random House: 2010), The Coming Anarchy: Shattering the Dreams of the Post Cold War (Random House: 2000), and Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History (St. Martins Press: 1993). He holds the Robert Strausz-Hupé Chair in Geopolitics at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. For three decades he reported on foreign affairs for The Atlantic. He was a member of the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board and the U.S. Navy’s Executive Panel.
Bringing into dialogue the fields of social history, Andean ethnography, and postcolonial theory, The Lettered Indian: Race, Nation, and Indigenous Education in Twentieth-Century Bolivia (Duke University Press, 2024) by Dr. Brooke Larson maps the moral dilemmas and political stakes involved in the protracted struggle over Indian literacy and schooling in the Bolivian Andes.
Dr. Larson traces Bolivia’s major state efforts to educate its unruly Indigenous masses at key junctures in the twentieth century. While much scholarship has focused on “the Indian boarding school” and other Western schemes of racial assimilation, Dr. Larson interweaves state-centred and imperial episodes of Indigenous education reform with vivid ethnographies of Aymara peasant protagonists and their extraordinary pro-school initiatives. Exploring the field of vernacular literacy practices and peasant political activism, she examines the transformation of the rural “alphabet school” from an instrument of the civilising state into a tool of Aymara cultural power, collective representation, and rebel activism. From the metaphorical threshold of the rural school, Dr. Larson rethinks the politics of race and indigeneity, nation and empire, in postcolonial Bolivia and beyond.
This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose forthcoming book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars.
We're talking about severe storms that brought damage to several states and where they're headed today.
Also, another typically routine vote sent the U.S. House spiraling into chaos.
And the women who inspired 'Rosie the Riveter' finally got a proper thank you.
Plus, the first national limits on forever chemicals in water, why we might not see an interest rate cut this year after all, and new previews for some of the most highly-anticipated upcoming movies.
Those stories and more news to know in about 10 minutes!
A group of House Republicans dealt Speaker Mike Johnson another embarrassing blow on Wednesday when they blocked legislation to extend part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. They did so after former President Donald Trump posted to “kill” the bill on social media.
Meanwhile, Republicans struggled to deliver a coherent response to Tuesday’s Arizona Supreme Court decision that said an 1864 law banning almost all abortion was enforceable. Trump said Wednesday, that the ruling went too far, just days after he said the issue should be left to the states. Other Arizona Republicans tried to distance themselves from the ruling after previously supporting harsh abortion restrictions. We pulled the receipts.
And in headlines: The latest Consumer Price Index report shows inflation is still stubbornly persistent; the Biden Administration announced a first-of-its-kind federal limit on so-called “forever chemicals” in drinking water; and New York City officials want to give rats birth control.
The list of alleged instances of a weaponized federal government is getting longer, Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., says.
“The problem of the federal government being weaponized against the American people's fundamental constitutional rights is pervasive and it seems, although I think we've done some things good to uncover and deter it, it is a constant problem and growing,” Bishop says.
As recent examples, the North Carolina Republican points to instances of the White House's asking social media companies to censor content related to COVID-19 vaccines and to the FBI's misusing database information against Americans.
The crisis at America’s southern border, Bishop says, is another way government has been weaponized against the American people during the Biden administration.
Bishop joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to detail these instances of government weaponization and what Congress can do to stop the abuse.
Paris Marx is joined by Edward Ongweso Jr. to discuss Kara Swisher’s attempt to rebrand herself as the most feared journalist in Silicon Valley, how she spent her career forwarding the industry’s narratives, and the larger problems with access journalism.
Edward Ongweso Jr. is finance editor at Logics Magazine and co-host of This Machine Kills.
Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.
The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham. Transcripts are by Brigitte Pawliw-Fry.
In 2021, Kara told CNBC that just because NFTs are digital “doesn’t mean it’s not of value.” The following year she also defended promoting investments in crypto for retirement.
Japan’s next-gen bullet train uses “magnetic levitation” to coast 4 inches above the track at 300 mph — Japan’s train megaproject reminds us of America’s Fusion Energy project.
Starting this week, internet companies must display “nutritional facts” for the cost and performance of their internet — The same nutrition labels from your Doritos are about to land on Xfinity.
Momofuku, the legendary noodle brand, owns the trademark on “chili crunch” — But asian restaurant entrepreneurs think copyright feels really a copy-wrong.
Plus, Starbucks just acknowledged that its stores are too loud — So it’s turning down the volume so their baristas can hear you.
How Florida Judge Aileen Cannon is delaying Donald Trump’s trial over classified documents taken to Mar-a-Lago—and what special prosecutor Jack Smith can do to get things moving.
Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen.
