A Sunday Times 'Book of the Week'

A Financial Times 'Book to Read'

A darkly brilliant, wide-angled vision of our chaotic, globalised world, where present crises resonate with past tyrannies—from a bestselling geopolitical expert.

We are entering a new era of global cataclysm; a deadly mix of war, climate change, great-power rivalry, rapid technological advancement, and the end of empire. In Waste Land, renowned world affairs author Robert D. Kaplan explains incisively how we got here and where we are going.

Kaplan’s trademark sweep of history, literature, politics and philosophy draws parallels between today’s challenges and those of Germany’s interwar Weimar Republic. Today, too, every national disaster could spread across the world, given this century’s singular dilemmas—pandemics, recessions; urbanisation, mass migration; destabilisation under large-scale democracy and great-power conflict; and the intimate bonds forged by digital media. Could stability and historic liberalism, rather than mass democracy per se, save world populations from anarchic breakdown?

Waste Land is a bracing glimpse into a future defined by twenty-first–century technology, but remarkably resonant with the past. The situation may be spiralling out of our control—unless our leaders act first.

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‘Kaplan’s message is that our only hope as human beings in a chaotic and dangerous world moving at breathtaking speed is to act with moderation and restraint . . . Nothing is inevitable. The beginning of wisdom is to open our eyes.’

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'In a book perfectly timed for our miserable moment, Kaplan shows why well-chosen words, slow-thinking and appreciation of history matter still.'

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‘Explores whether “stability and historic liberalism” … could help the world cope with a range of transnational problems … warns that “global cataclysm” is on the horizon.’

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'[A] formidable contribution.'

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'Robert D. Kaplan is one of America's most prolific and important writers ... Waste Land [gives us] a lot to ponder about the resilience of our ancestral tradition of liberal humanism.'

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'Undeniably our world is in a state of crisis and, however much one may take issue with Kaplan's views on how and why we have reached this state, they provide fascinating and, at times, provocative forebodings.'

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‘A welcome new beginning for an already remarkable career.’