The Tragic Mind: Fear, Fate, and the Burden of Power

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A moving meditation on recent geopolitical crises, viewed through the lens of ancient and modern tragedy   “Spare, elegant and poignant. . . . If there is a single contemporary book that should be pressed into the hands of those who decide issues of war and peace, this is it.”—John Gray, New Statesman   Some books emerge from a lifetime of hard-won knowledge. Robert D. Kaplan has learned, from a career spent reporting on wars, revolutions, and international politics in Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia, that the essence of geopolitics is tragedy. In The Tragic Mind, he employs the works of ancient Greek dramatists, Shakespeare, German philosophers, and the modern classics to explore the central subjects of international politics: order, disorder, rebellion, ambition, loyalty to family and state, violence, and the mistakes of power.   The great dilemmas of international politics, he argues, are not posed by good versus evil—a clear and easy choice—but by contests of good versus good, where the choices are often searing, incompatible, and fraught with consequences. A deeply learned and deeply felt meditation on the importance of lived experience in conducting international relations, this is a book for everyone who wants a profound understanding of the tragic politics of our time. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents Preface Chapter 1: The Battle of Good Against Good Chapter 2: The Age of Dionysus Chapter 3: Order: The Ultimate Necessity Chapter 4: Order and Necessity Must Be Obeyed, Even When They Are Unjust Chapter 5: Order Creates Perpetual Conflict Between Loyalty to the Family and Loyalty to the State Chapter 6: The State Becomes the Wellspring of Ambition Chapter 7: Ambition and the Struggle Against Tyranny and Injustice Chapter 8: War and Its Horrors Chapter 9: Because War Is Ever-Present, the Burden of Power Is Overwhelming Chapter 10: Imperial Wars Are Decided by Fate Chapter 11: From the Suffering of Heroes Comes the Essence of Tragedy Chapter 12: The Truth Is Possessed Only by the Old and the Blind Chapter 13: Because Different Goods Struggle Against Each Other, We Have Consciences Chapter 14: Time Is Ungrateful Epilogue Notes Acknowledgments Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W X Y Z