Robert Kaplan, The Future of Populist Politics

Text of Mr. Kaplan's Address

ROBERT D. KAPLAN is a Contributing Editor of The Atlantic Monthly and the author of six books: Surrender or Starve (about the Horn of Africa); Soldiers of God, With the Mujahidin in Afghanistan; Balkan Ghosts, A Journey Through History; The Arabists, The Romance of an American Elite; The Ends of the Earth: A Journey at the Dawn of the 21st Century; and An Empire Wilderness: Travels into America’s Future. He has written for Forbes, The New Republic, the editorial pages of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, among many other publications.

Kaplan lectures often at U.S. Military colleges and has been a consultant to the U.S. Army’s Special Forces Regiment. He delivered the Secretary of State’s Open Forum Lecture at the U.S. State Department. He has been a Fellow of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He has also lectured at the Wharton School of Business, Harvard, Middlebury and many other colleges and universities.

In 1993, the editors of The New York Times Book Review named Kaplan’s book, Balkan Ghosts, as one of the 14 "best books" of the year while also naming The Arabists a "notable" book of the year. In 1996, the Times editors named The Ends of the Earth a "notable" book of the year. Kaplan’s works have been translated into a dozen languages. He has been twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. His February, 1994 Atlantic Monthly cover story, "The Coming Anarchy," has become, along with The End of History and The Clash of Civilizations, a post-Cold War political science classic and the subject of intense debate at the highest levels in Washington and at the U.N.

Kaplan was born in 1952 and is a graduate of the University of Connecticut.

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