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The Tragic Mind

Fear, Fate, and the Burden of Power

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The Tragic Mind

By: Robert D. Kaplan
Narrated by: John Chancer
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About this listen

A moving meditation on recent geopolitical crises, viewed through the lens of ancient and modern tragedy

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.

©2023 Robert D. Kaplan (P)2023 Yale Press Audio Literary History & Criticism Political Science Politics & Government Thought-Provoking War Military Middle East Tragic Mind

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Captures something that's implicit in Thucydides, Machiavelli and other great exponents of classical realism, but which isn't necessarily easy to make explicit. It's not a social science theory, it's a sensibility honed on the classics and the experience of war.

Unique introduction to classical realism through Greek tragedy and Shakespeare

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