Eastward to Tartary: Travels in the Balkans, the Middle East, and the Caucasus

This book is a detailed political, historical and social analysis of Central Europe, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, and the countries of the Caucasus. Kaplan begins his journey in Budapest. After visiting with friends there, he boards the train to visit Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan. Later, he arrives again in Turkey to head east to travel through Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan. At each stop along the way, he discusses politics and history with political leaders, dissidents, friends, and ordinary people. He combines comments from these sources with skilled observations of how society is working from the ground up in each locale to create extremely well-thought out and informed analyses of the social and political situation in the countries that he visits.By happenstance, I read this book immediately after reading Peter Theroux's Great Train Bazaar. What a contrast- - although their journey followed the same route for much of the way, Theroux told us little more about the countries he visited than the wines available within easy reach of the train station- -Kaplan sees so much more. Theroux sets off on his trip because he wants a trip to write about and he likes trains. Kaplan also takes his trip to get material to write about, but Kaplan first begins by writing a very clear list of questions that he plans to research during the trip. He wants to understand "the future borders of Europe, the underpinnings of the coming meltdown of Arab dictatorships, and the social and political effects of new Caspian Sea energy pipelines." He also wants to know "how people saw themselves. Were national or ethnic loyalties giving way to new forms of cosmopolitanism, through globalization? If so, what did that mean for the future of authoritarian regimes? If dictatorships gave way to more democratic rule, would that mean more stability or less- -more civility or less- -in the countries through which [he] would pass?" These are very heavy questions, and answers to them should be of interest to all global citizens, (especially policy makers, we would hope).Kaplan's observations and quotations cut to the quick of global society and culture. Kaplan's phrases like "social anarchy", "kleptocracy," and "moral vacuum" are brilliant descriptions of so many parts of the new Eastern Europe-Western Asia. In Romania, he is told "When we buy computers, compact disks, and clothes, we borrow the material consequences of the West without grasping the fundamental values that created such technologies in the first place." In Turkey, a human rights activist tells him "Westernization here is interpreted as secularization, not as democratization." In Bulgaria, his observations lead him to comment "The illusion that human progress is inexorable arises from the accident of one's historical and geographical good fortune." In Syria, he notes "Arab society was a conundrum: Among themselves, and in the privacy of their o

I have read several of Kaplan's books and he continues his winning streak in this one. Unlike many travel writers who merely offer westernized descriptions of people and scenery in places that are already well known, Kaplan covers areas that most of us in the western world are unfamiliar with. Interesting places in this book include Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan. He also focuses on history and politics, and has remarkable insights into the possible futures of the regions he visits, and how the past influences the present and future to a much greater extent than in the West. Some key insights offered by Kaplan here include the notion that Europe is currently splitting into regions that are eerily similar to the Ottoman and Holy Roman empires of ancient times, with the collapse of communism and the weakening of NATO. Kaplan also predicts that the next Yugoslavia-style bloodbath, which will drag in the rest of the world, will occur in the Caucasus region (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan). Tellingly, Chechnya is not too far away. Kaplan knows what he's talking about, as he predicted the Yugoslavia disaster back in the late 1980's. And throughout the book Kaplan proves that the collapse of communism and the rise of so-called democracy is only a good thing at a high level of international politics. But for millions and millions of regular people, life has become far more dangerous and miserable.Since the portion of this book covering Romania and Bulgaria is meant as a sequel to Kaplan's earlier "Balkan Ghosts," and since some of the other areas covered are also featured in "The Ends of the Earth," this book is slightly weaker than those two masterpieces. Kaplan also occasionally stumbles into cultural arrogance when dealing with non-Western people and politics. However, these are slight weaknesses in a very strong book that offers highly enlightening insights into the history and peoples in areas that Americans should stop ignoring.

This latest effort by renown travel journalist Robert D. Kaplan is, as should be expected from him, a timely, incisive and at times alarming look at the "ideological geography" which is bound to create conflict and instability-the likes of which we have seen in the Balkans-in years to come. This is a book that dares to go to places where the electronic media has very little (if any) interest in. Besides presenting us with places we'd heard very little about, Mr. Kaplan clearly shows us how the old imperialistic foundations, like plate tectonics, are sometimes coming back to haunt the region (this is something he'd pointed in The Ends of the Earth). The fear of Russian "hegemony" is palpable, and oftentimes the urge for Western capitalism enters in conflict with age-old ideologies which are still very present today. The book also leads us to understand that the "democracy at all cost" approach, so much vaunted by the West, is more often than not the wrong way of assisting countries which for decades found themselves under the unforgiving rule of totalitarianism, with no democratic foundations to start with. Failure to grasp this reality leads to a widening gap between the population and the few cronies who, opportunistic as they are, were able to seize the various help packages that were injected (blindly) into the region after the fall of communism (and other forms of totalitarianism, such as the Ottoman Empire). What, Kaplan asks, is the solution, then? Jordan, he argues, is a good place to start. But again, one country, however stable, cannot dissociate itself from regional currents; and in the Middle East, as in the other places Kaplan visits in this book, instability, fueled by the striated periods of history-Assyrian, Byzantine, Ottoman, etc-is an ever-present danger. One political earthquake (in an earthquake-prone region) could lead to a "domino-like" chain reaction which, it is almost certain, would affect several countries. One could argue that this is where the "real" historical "civilizations," to use Samuel Huntington's theme,-age-old "alliances,"-would reemerge. The places are also filled with many unknowns (and probably unknown unknowns as well). In the Caucasus, the fall of communism created a void which sucks in whatever ideology is fit to fill that void. Which one(s) will? One can feel the nostalgia for the days under Stalin. A very preoccupying symptom. In the Middle East, what will happen after Saddam Hussein either dies or is thrown out, or Syria loses its "avuncular" grip on Lebanon? These, and many others, are some questions you will encounter in this book.Eastward to Taratry tackles the age-old questions, much debated by historians, scientists and pundits, of religion versus history, and nationalism versus globalism. In a region which has yet to find firm ground to stand on, where few people are extremely rich and most live in poverty, the questions of "market economy" and Western principles of equality and democracy are ve

In "Eastward to Tartary," Robert Kaplan, author of the classic "Balkan Ghosts" and several other excellent books, doesn't sugarcoat things, that's for sure, as he explores the "New Near East" (the corpses of two major empires -- the Ottoman and the Soviet) and writes back to inform us how the rotting is going. Personally, I think we should all be thankful to Kaplan for traveling to some of these hellholes and reporting back to us so, if for nothing else, so WE don't have to go there ourselves (just kidding)! We are also lucky that Kaplan, with his keen eye, tenacity, persistence, courage, and fine journalistic skills, is there to give us the uncomfortable truths that most of us would prefer to ignore or gloss over. As Kaplan modestly puts it, his goal is to "discover the obvious" - obvious, though, only if you are willing (and skillful enough) to really look for it, and most Western journalists aren't willing or able. Luckily for us, Kaplan is both!"Eastward to Tartary" is bracing, as have been all of Kaplan's books, and not for the weak of stomach! Whether or not you like what he has to say, you have to admit that Kaplan has vast knowledge and wisdom and cuts right to the chase - no bull. Reading Kaplan, I kept thinking: this guy is the anti-Friedman! No cloying cuteness, no wonders of globalization for Kaplan, and no rhapsodizing over the wonders of shopping malls and McDonalds either. Thank goodness! Instead, Kaplan writes clearly, brutally honestly, without sentimentality, glibness, or cuteness. Kaplan is NOT an optimist, and I mean this as a compliment. Instead, Kaplan is a clear-eyed realist, and, as Michael Ignatieff calls him, a "travel writer from hell" (that's a compliment, too, by the way!) Many Americans, steeped in naïve, mushy, rose-colored, and even dangerous optimism, would probably call him a pessimist by way of dismissing him because they don't WANT to believe what he has to say. But just because Kaplan is a disturbing messenger, that doesn't mean that we should shoot him (metaphorically speaking, of course)! As Kaplan himself puts it, "a viewpoint is not necessarily inaccurate because it happens to be morally risky or pessimistic, especially if it helps explain phenomena that are otherwise unexplainable."Kaplan's stress on the salience of history is a jarring contrast with mainstream American thought, which tends strongly towards the "history is bunk" school. Kaplan also disillusions us of the mushy notion that if only everyone could be globalized, then everyone would be peaceful liberal democrats and we'd be at the "end of history". NOT!Kaplan is successful in part because of HOW he travels - slowly, by land or sea, mainly. As he puts it, "the essence of travel was to slow the passage of time. One could fly...but "flying from place to place encourages abstractions, whereas land travel brings one face-to-face with basic, sometimes unpleasant truths. I preferred to travel by second-class car and stay in

Having read, enjoyed and profited from every one of Kaplan's books, I've recommended many and given several to valued friends. Kaplan has emerged as the best of a fine new breed of journalists, men and women who break out of the capital city circuit to bring us an up-close view of foreign realities. Often, those realities have conflicted with the comfortable diplomatic "wisdom," and Kaplan is unpopular with those who prefer an easy fantasy of mankind to the insistent, often-tragic reality. For my money, Kaplan is a national treasure, a clear-eyed, sure-voiced man of courage who takes risks to bring back an urgent vision of a world "globalizing" at a very uneven rate. And "Eastward to Tartary" is the finest of his many fine books. My only hesitation is in calling him a journalist, since he's so much more than that--he's a genuine strategic thinker whose vision consistently has proven more accurate than the work of any Washington think-tank drone or campus "expert," most of whom are as fearful of the people they wish to analyze as they are of the water from their hotel tap. Kaplan has an explorer's soul and a veteran soldier's eye for the lie of the ground. I have been to seven of the countries Kaplan discusses in this book, and I can attest that his eye is unerring. He has a gift for clear, literate prose that captures in a phrase what another writer could not get in a page. And he talks to everyone, not just to ambassadors and government mouthpieces. A man of boundless curiosity and as restless as Huckleberry Finn, his portraits of states and peoples from Eastern Europe to the Caucasus and down into the region long known as the Levant are timely and useful. What you read on these pages is exactly what is there in Georgia, or Turkey, or Lebanon. This book really is a remarkable achievement, for which my praise is insufficient. So, let me simply say this is a valuable, fascinating work that would reward readers on Capitol Hill, on Wall Street, or in Bisbee, Arizona: a wonderful, wonder-filled book!