Oreo Book Club: Revenge of Geography by Robert Kaplan

We reviewed the book, Revenge of Geography, written by Robert Kaplan, a reporter who has traveled the world on assignments and has a grasp of the history and culture of each region. His thesis was that geography matters in the development of each region, both in terms of defense of the region and its industrial development. Comments from the groupwere critical of the book, pointing out that resources and water equally matter and modern technology has trumped geography, except in places like Afghanistan and poorly settled desert regions. It was agreed that the U.S. should get its hands out of the Middle East and let the combatants face off without us.
—Norton Schwartz