On this episode of Newtworld, we're entering a new era of global cataclysm, in which the world faces a deadly mix of war, climate change, great power rivalry, rapid technological advancement, the end of both monarchy and empire and countless other dangers.

In his new book, Wasteland, Robert

D. Kaplan incisively explains how we got here and where we are going. Kaplan makes a novel argument

that the current geopolitical landscape must be considered alongside contemporary social phenomena,

such as urbanization and digital news media.

The singular dilemmas of the 21st century, pandemic disease, recession, mass migration,

the destabilizing effects of large-scale democracy and great power conflicts,

and the intimate bonds created by technology

mean that every disaster in one country has the potential to become a global crisis, too.

According to Kaplan, the solutions lie in prioritizing order and governing systems,

arguing that stability and historic liberalism,

rather than mass democracy, will save global populations from an anarchic future.

I'm really pleased to welcome my guest, somebody who I admire deeply.

I have used his book, The Coming Anarchy, for a quarter century now,

as probably the best single insight to what was going to happen and how it's happened.

He is the best-selling author of 20 books on foreign affairs and travel.

He holds the Robert Strauss-Houpe chair in geopolitics at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

For three decades, he reported in Foreign Affairs for the Atlantic.

I am thrilled to have him with him.

Thank you. Robert, welcome and thank you for joining me in Newts World.

It's a great pleasure to be here with you.

You begin Wastelandon by going into the history of the Weimar Republic.

...