Marshall here. Welcome back to The Realignment.

Big news before we dive into this episode. I got married this past weekend, living

I had a small Jewish ceremony in D.C. with our families. In a few weeks, we're hosting a bigger celebration

Austin. But of course, the show must go on. Today's guest is one of my favorite authors, Robert Kaplan,

who's just released a new book, The Room of Time, Between Empire and Anarchy, from the Mediterranean

to China. We also discussed the other book he released this year. The tragic mind, fear, fate,

and the burden of power. As an author, Robert combines geopolitical insight with deep experience on

the ground. He famously wrote about the Balkans in the 1980s for the region broke out into warfare

during the 1990s. He warned about the coming anarchy of a post-Cole war world, despite all the initial

triumphalism after the fall of the Berlin Wall. And in the limb of time, he offers a conceptualization

of the challenges and dynamics of what he calls the greater Middle East, though defines you a politics

for the next two decades. All that said, sorry I released our latest Q&A episode this past Friday.

So if you'd like to check that out and submit your own questions and comments, go to realignment.supercast.com.

Huge thanks to the Foundation for American Innovation for support. Hope you enjoy the conversation.

Robert Kaplan, welcome to The Realignment.

It's a pleasure to be here. Yeah, it's great to chat with you. You've released two really

interesting books this year. We're going to go in reverse order starting with The Room of Time,

which is out now, given when we're publicizing this episode. But I also would like to discuss

the tragic mind as well. Let's just kind of get started by placing you a couple guests,

Ridge Colby and Evan Thomas have actually brought you up on episodes we've done recently. So I

think listening as well have heard your name before. But just kind of looking you up, you've been

described as a realist when it comes to foreign policy, a term which I think for most people is

...