Scan barcode
A review by starduest
Asia's Cauldron: The South China Sea and the End of a Stable Pacific by Robert D. Kaplan
2.0
I was rather frustrated reading this book and was writing some comments as I went along, which I have left below, in case anyone feels the same way and is wondering if it's worth pressing on with the book.
Kaplan's opening and concluding chapters are probably the weakest of all, as he says a lot without actually saying very much at all, and throws in a lot of (to me) irrelevant historical facts from elsewhere to make a point.
His chapters on the various countries in Southeast Asia were more interesting, although being familiar with some of them, I noticed some factual inaccuracies that cast doubt on all the facts in his book - I would advice readers to proceed with caution and not assume that what Kaplan presents as fact is actually true.
Kaplan also has the nasty habit of concluding each chapter with a sweeping, grand statement that appears from nowhere with no justification to how he came to that conclusion - a style more akin to high school student trying to be clever with an essay than something I'd expect from a renowned journalist.
Overall, read this book if you want to but I wouldn't trust his conclusions or his facts.
=================================================================
These are my thoughts 5 chapters in.
Chapters 1 and 2:
Kaplan analyses events and issues in the south China sea from a very American lens. That's fine, except that the parallels drawn are lost unless you're familiar with historical events in the Americas (chapter 2 compared the south China sea to the Caribbean).
He also likes referencing irrelevant historical events and uses a lot of words to say very little. His prose is quite grandiose. Kaplan loves America and exaggerates its influence. His factual accuracies are also questionable - he claims that southeast Asia has little Chinese influence beyond north Vietnam, which is laughable to one with any knowledge of the ethnicities represented in Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.
I'm not sure why he's so critically acclaimed because I'm not finding this book that insightful so far (he's hasn't told me anything I don't already know, and I'm far from being an expert on the geopolitics of the south China sea) but I suspect his popularity stems from a fairly specific audience.
Chapters 3 - 5:
The prose flows a lot better and it's much easier to read - less disjointed. But Kaplan continues to make some rather sweeping statements or arrives at a conclusion without elaborating the reasoning behind it, and makes some terrible, politically incorrect statements tinged with a hint of racism.
Kaplan's opening and concluding chapters are probably the weakest of all, as he says a lot without actually saying very much at all, and throws in a lot of (to me) irrelevant historical facts from elsewhere to make a point.
His chapters on the various countries in Southeast Asia were more interesting, although being familiar with some of them, I noticed some factual inaccuracies that cast doubt on all the facts in his book - I would advice readers to proceed with caution and not assume that what Kaplan presents as fact is actually true.
Kaplan also has the nasty habit of concluding each chapter with a sweeping, grand statement that appears from nowhere with no justification to how he came to that conclusion - a style more akin to high school student trying to be clever with an essay than something I'd expect from a renowned journalist.
Overall, read this book if you want to but I wouldn't trust his conclusions or his facts.
=================================================================
These are my thoughts 5 chapters in.
Chapters 1 and 2:
Kaplan analyses events and issues in the south China sea from a very American lens. That's fine, except that the parallels drawn are lost unless you're familiar with historical events in the Americas (chapter 2 compared the south China sea to the Caribbean).
He also likes referencing irrelevant historical events and uses a lot of words to say very little. His prose is quite grandiose. Kaplan loves America and exaggerates its influence. His factual accuracies are also questionable - he claims that southeast Asia has little Chinese influence beyond north Vietnam, which is laughable to one with any knowledge of the ethnicities represented in Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.
I'm not sure why he's so critically acclaimed because I'm not finding this book that insightful so far (he's hasn't told me anything I don't already know, and I'm far from being an expert on the geopolitics of the south China sea) but I suspect his popularity stems from a fairly specific audience.
Chapters 3 - 5:
The prose flows a lot better and it's much easier to read - less disjointed. But Kaplan continues to make some rather sweeping statements or arrives at a conclusion without elaborating the reasoning behind it, and makes some terrible, politically incorrect statements tinged with a hint of racism.