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THE LOOM OF TIME
Between Empire and Anarchy from the Mediterranean to China
A sweeping exploration of the Greater Middle East, where lasting stability has often seemed just out of reach and which may hold the key to the shifting world order of the 21st century.
The Greater Middle East, which Robert D. Kaplan defines as the vast region between the Mediterranean and China - encompassing much of the Arab world, parts of northern Africa, and Asia - sat at the crossroads of empires for millennia. But with their dissolution in the twentieth century, postcolonial states have struggled to maintain stability in the face of power struggles, leadership vacuums, and the arbitrary borders drawn by exiting imperial rulers.
In THE LOOM OF TIME, Kaplan explores this broad, fraught space through reporting and travel writing to reveal deeper truths about the impacts of history on the present and how the requirements of stability over anarchy are often in conflict with the ideals of democratic governance. Kaplan makes the case for realism as an approach to the Greater Middle East. Just as Western attempts at democracy promotion across the Middle East have failed, a new form of economic imperialism is emerging today as China's ambitions fall squarely within the region as the key link between Europe and East Asia. As in the past, the Greater Middle East will be a register of future great power struggles across the globe. And like in the past, thousands of years of imperial rule will continue to cast a long shadow on politics as it is practiced today.
To piece together the history of this remarkable place and what it suggests for the future, Kaplan weaves together classic texts, immersive travel writing, and a great variety of voices from every country that all compel the reader to look closely at the realities on the ground and to prioritize these facts over ideals on paper. THE LOOM OF TIME is a challenging, clear-eyed book that promises to reframe our vision of the global twenty-first century.
Robert D. Kaplan is the Robert Strausz-Hupé Chair in Geopolitics at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and was twice named one of the world's "Top 100 Global Thinkers" by Foreign Policy. A reporter with decades of experience working at The Atlantic, he has written nineteen books including, Adriatic, The Good American, The Revenge of Geography, Asia's Cauldron, Monsoon, The Coming Anarchy, and Balkan Ghosts.
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Published 2023-08-22 by Random House |