The Tragic Mind: Fear, Fate, and the Burden of Power

by Robert D. Kaplan

Overview

A moving meditation on recent geopolitical crises, viewed through the lens of ancient and modern tragedy
 
“Spare, elegant and poignant. . . . If there is a single contemporary book that should be pressed into the hands of those who decide issues of war and peace, this is it.”—John Gray, New Statesman
 
“It is tragic that Robert D. Kaplan’s luminous The Tragic Mind is so urgently needed.”—George F. Will
 
Some books emerge from a lifetime of hard-won knowledge. Robert D. Kaplan has learned, from a career spent reporting on wars, revolutions, and international politics in Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia, that the essence of geopolitics is tragedy. In The Tragic Mind, he employs the works of ancient Greek dramatists, Shakespeare, German philosophers, and the modern classics to explore the central subjects of international politics: order, disorder, rebellion, ambition, loyalty to family and state, violence, and the mistakes of power.
 
The great dilemmas of international politics, he argues, are not posed by good versus evil—a clear and easy choice—but by contests of good versus good, where the choices are often searing, incompatible, and fraught with consequences. A deeply learned and deeply felt meditation on the importance of lived experience in conducting international relations, this is a book for everyone who wants a profound understanding of the tragic politics of our time.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300276770
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	02/13/2024
Pages:	152
Sales rank:	260,226
Product dimensions:	8.40(w) x 5.40(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Robert D. Kaplan, the Robert Strausz-Hupé Chair in Geopolitics at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, was twice named one of the world’s “Top 100 Global Thinkers” by Foreign Policy. A reporter with decades of experience writing for The Atlantic, he has written twenty-two books, including The Loom of Time; Adriatic; The Good American; The Revenge of Geography; Asia’s Cauldron; Monsoon; The Coming Anarchy; and Balkan Ghosts. He has served on the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board and the U.S. Navy’s Executive Panel.

Table of Contents

Preface xi

Chapter 1 The Battle of Good Against Good 1

Chapter 2 The Age of Dionysus 17

Chapter 3 Order: The Ultimate Necessity 29

Chapter 4 Order and Necessity Must Be Obeyed, Even When They Are Unjust 41

Chapter 5 Order Creates Perpetual Conflict Between Loyalty to the Family and Loyalty to the State 47

Chapter 6 The State Becomes the Wellspring of Ambition 57

Chapter 7 Ambition and the Struggle Against Tyranny and Injustice 63

Chapter 8 War and Its Horrors 69

Chapter 9 Because War Is Ever-Present, the Burden of Power Is Overwhelming 77

Chapter 10 Imperial Wars Are Decided by Pate 85

Chapter 11 From the Suffering of Heroes Comes the Essence of Tragedy 93

Chapter 12 The Truth Is Possessed Only by the Old and the Blind 99

Chapter 13 Because Different Goods Struggle Against Each Other, We Have Consciences 103

Chapter 14 Time Is Ungrateful 109

Epilogue 113

Notes 117

Acknowledgments 127

Index 129

Editorial Reviews

A poignant exploration of the limits of Western military intervention in some of the world’s darkest places. . . . This powerful book [is] a meditation on the meaning of geopolitical tragedy in our age of disorder.”—A Times (UK) Best Book of the Year, 2023

“Spare, elegant and poignant. . . . If there is a single contemporary book that should be pressed into the hands of those who decide issues of war and peace, this is it.”—John Gray, New Statesman

“A brilliant study of how, as foreign policy often comes down to a search for the lesser evil, self-knowledge is a better guide than the CIA Factbook.”—Dominic Green, Washington Examiner

“Classical drama provides crucial lessons for policymakers. . . . A road map for effective, well-considered policy.”—Kirkus Reviews

“[A] short but profound book. . . . [Kaplan] brings to his work a knowledge of the inextricable link between history and geography, experiences of the chaos of war as a foreign correspondent embedded with American forces, and a careful study of the relevance of classical geopolitics to international relations.”—Francis Sempa, New York Journal of Books

“[An] eloquent meditation on war, geopolitics, and the human condition.”—G. John Ikenberry, Foreign Affairs

“Both a personal and a professional meditation. . . . Written in an aphoristic style that begs quotation.”—Robert D. Granieri, Chronicles

“Robert Kaplan . . . has a talent for accessible writing that conveys great insight. . . . Leaders will want to read this book and learn from it. For those anxious about the direction of America’s own leadership, the book includes plenty of evidence that there is a good deal to worry about.”—Graham McAleer, Law & Liberty

“If anyone is qualified to talk about war and conflict, it’s Robert Kaplan and his forty years as a foreign correspondent. He is on everyone’s list of top policy thinkers and has written 20 books to back up his reputation. He has now added another, The Tragic Mind, his most personal book, . . . about deep regret by a keen observer of war.”—Patrick Luciani, The Hub

“[At] an efficient 150 pages, [the book] is a deep meditation on the concept of tragedy as developed by the Greeks, German philosophers, and an array of Western literary figures from Shakespeare to Camus. The book is engrossing, both as literary survey and personal essay on what it takes to navigate crises.”—John Waters, RealClear Defense

“It is tragic that Robert D. Kaplan’s luminous The Tragic Mind is so urgently needed.”—George F. Will

“Robert Kaplan has augmented his many penetrating studies of societies, regions, and strategies with The Tragic Mind. It deals brilliantly with the impact on the human mind of the changes wrought by conflicts and transformations in various historical periods. A moving culmination by one of America’s most thoughtful observers of international trends.”—Henry A. Kissinger, author of Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy
 
“This is a brilliant and unique philosophical journey from the ancient Greeks through Shakespeare’s canon and on to modern existential literature. But above all, it is a meditation on geopolitics grounded in a lifetime of global reporting.”—Admiral James Stavridis, 16th Supreme Allied Commander at NATO and author of To Risk It All
 
“Robert Kaplan combines his knowledge of the classics with four decades of firsthand experience with wars and crises to wisely warn ahistorical Americans that all could have been helped by a greater tragic sensibility. He shows that tragedy is not fatalism or despair, but comprehension. A beautifully thoughtful essay.”—Joseph S. Nye, Jr., author of Do Morals Matter?
 
“Robert Kaplan has long been his own toughest critic. Now, in The Tragic Mind, he draws on Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles for an unflinchingly courageous course correction: a deeply significant book for troubled times.”—John Lewis Gaddis, author of On Grand Strategy
 
“This is an author who has made it his business to see the world we live in. I have always read his work with awe. In this book, Kaplan takes the reader beyond the realm of information and knowledge and into the territory of wisdom. It is a profound must-read for all who wish to understand the world as it is.”—Ayaan Hirsi Ali, author of Prey: Immigration, Islam, and the Erosion of Women’s Rights 

“If there's a single volume that should be required reading—and deep reflection—for all leaders and policy makers, this is it.”—Evan Thomas, author of Road to Surrender: Three Men and the Countdown to the End of World War II

From the Publisher

“Robert Kaplan combines his knowledge of the classics with four decades of first hand experience with wars and crises to wisely warn ahistorical Americans that all could have been helped by a greater tragic sensibility. He shows that tragedy is not fatalism or despair, but comprehension. A beautifully thoughtful essay.”—Joseph S. Nye, Jr., author of Do Morals Matter?

Joseph Nye

“This is a brilliant and unique philosophical journey from the ancient Greeks through Shakespeare’s canon and on to modern existential literature. But above all, it is a meditation on geopolitics grounded in a lifetime of global reporting.”—Admiral James Stavridis, 16th Supreme Allied Commander at NATO and author of To Risk It All

James Stavridis

2022-09-21
Classical drama provides crucial lessons for policymakers.

Kaplan has had an impressive career: many years as a journalist reporting on the Middle East, author of numerous books on international affairs, and many years working in high-level think tanks. Consequently, it may seem strange that he begins this meditative narrative with an admission of a mistake that still haunts him. He saw the regime of Saddam Hussein firsthand and believed it was so awful that it had to be removed. Consequently, he supported the U.S. invasion, but the anarchy that followed, he admits, was even worse. This led him to the conclusion that order, even that imposed by dictators, was preferable to chaos in all but a few extreme cases. Kaplan suggests that presidents and policymakers should look to Greek classical dramas and Shakespeare’s plays to understand the importance of considering the consequences of actions and the limits of power. The tragic mind, in this sense, is one that is aware of itself and of the contrariness of human events. He cites George H.W. Bush as the last president with this sort of depth. After him, presidents have been quick to send troops to one hot spot or another, always with good intentions but with little in the way of positive outcomes. Military involvement should be a last resort, used only as a response to true evil, such as the Nazi regime. In fact, the author notes that the idea of evil has been devalued through overuse. “Every villain is not Hitler,” he writes, “and every year is not 1939….Passion should not be allowed to distort analysis, even as social media does exactly that.” Kaplan can often sound pompous and old-fashioned (not a new criticism), but the advice that military actions should be carefully thought through, and then thought through again, should be heeded by anyone who contributes to making life-and-death decisions.

A road map for effective, well-considered policy.

Kirkus Reviews