By Robert D Kaplan - Just finished reading it today, very interesting book. Being a neophyte compared to our resident SD person, that's you JD , & the forum isolationist from LA , I will pass on some thoughts.

Apparently our SD doesn't learn from history, if they did we would have a much different game plan in the ME. Why are we engaged in action whose chief beneficiary will be China?

I found one passage particularly humorous - things change little over time -

Quote Originally Posted by kaplan
if we knew a little more about Jalal ed-Din Rumi, the 13th century founder of the Turkic tariquat that was associated with the whirling dervishes, we would have been less surprised by Islam's compatibility with democracy, & Islamic fundamentalism might not seem so monolithic & threatening. Rumi dismissed "immature fanatics" who scorn music & poetry. He cautioned that a beard or mustache on a cleric is no sign of wisdom. Rumi favored the individual over the crowd, & consistently spoke against tyranny. Rumi's legacy is more applicable to democratiizing tendencies in the muslim world than are figures of the Arab & Iranian pantheons with whom the West is more familiar. The eclectic nature of Turkish Islam, as demonstrated by Rumi, goe4s together with Turkey's very Westernization.
Turkey is a member of NATO, yet is not a member of the EU. & we wonder why Ergodan is like he is .

I took a course in geopolitics while a college student - got the only A in a class full of honor roll folks, so find it interesting. Lots of food for thought -

I recommend it as a read -