A review by tsharris
Asia's Cauldron: The South China Sea and the End of a Stable Pacific by Robert D. Kaplan

2.0

Very disappointing. Could have been a much better book given the policymakers Kaplan had access to - could have been more about the dilemmas facing Southeast Asian states that are deeply economically integrated with China despite security tensions. But Kaplan wrote a boring, cliche-ridden tract. The book is at its best when Kaplan lets his interlocutors speak for themselves. Kaplan's own analysis is wretched: pseudo-macho, realpolitik claptrap that mocks liberals and journalists and intellectuals with their concern for democracy and human rights and engages in the power worship common to many realists. His pose as a disciple of Samuel Huntington is awful: parrots Huntington's "civilizations" reductionism, his disdain for liberal values, and his admiration of military men.

The funny thing is, though, that at times Kaplan's analysis is spot on. He frequently downplays the risks of conflict in the region, stressing Mearsheimer's "stopping power of water." Again, it would have been possible to write a much better book.