Just Finished Reading: Warrior Politics – Why Leadership Demands a Pagan Ethos by Robert D Kaplan.

Kaplan puts forward an interesting idea in this book. His thesis is that with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the consequent end of the Cold War the world has reverted back to a geo-political landscape that the Ancients would have recognised. This being so Kaplan proposes that the best way to navigate our way through these dangerous times is to have an appreciation of the political thinking of Ancient Greece, Rome and China. Once we understand the teachings of people like Livy, Thucydides and Sun-Tzu we will be more able to cope with whatever the ‘new world order’ can throw at us.

Warrior Politics is a well written and fascinating book – to say nothing of it being a pleasure to read (and a book hard to put down). The author has an impressive breadth of knowledge and a skill of presenting it well. Drawing parallels between ancient wars in Greece, Rome and China and modern times he makes a solid case for a need to understand the past in order to navigate the present and survive the future. Rather inevitably Kaplan does make the mistake, in my opinion, of comparing contemporary America to ancient Rome but he’s not alone in that viewpoint. But he goes on to make a greater error of judgement when he concludes that not only can America protect the world from itself but that it must do so. Written just before the fiasco in Iraq I’m guessing that the author might be having second thoughts about now.

Questionable conclusions aside this was a very good book which gives an interesting slant on the present and many useful avenues of inquiry on the future political shape of the world. Recommended to anyone interested in our collective future and especially to those who are attempting to shape it.