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    Asia's Cauldron: The South China Sea and the End of a Stable Pacific
    Asia's Cauldron: The South China Sea and the End of a Stable Pacific
    Asia's Cauldron: The South China Sea and the End of a Stable Pacific
    Audiobook8 hours

    Asia's Cauldron: The South China Sea and the End of a Stable Pacific

    Written by Robert D. Kaplan

    Narrated by Michael Prichard

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Over the last decade, the center of world power has been quietly shifting from Europe to Asia. With oil reserves of several billion barrels, an estimated nine hundred trillion cubic feet of natural gas, and several centuries' worth of competing territorial claims, the South China Sea in particular is a simmering pot of potential conflict. The underreported military buildup in the area where the Western Pacific meets the Indian Ocean means that it will likely be a hinge point for global war and peace for the foreseeable future.

    In Asia's Cauldron, Robert D. Kaplan offers up a vivid snapshot of the nations surrounding the South China Sea, the conflicts brewing in the region at the dawn of the twenty-first century, and their implications for global peace and stability. One of the world's most perceptive foreign policy experts, Kaplan interprets America's interests in Asia in the context of an increasingly assertive China. He explains how the region's unique geography fosters the growth of navies but also impedes aggression. And he draws a striking parallel between China's quest for hegemony in the South China Sea and the United States' imperial adventure in the Caribbean more than a century ago.

    To understand the future of conflict in East Asia, Kaplan argues, one must understand the goals and motivations of its leaders and its people. Part travelogue, part geopolitical primer, Asia's Cauldron takes us on a journey through the region's boom cities and ramshackle slums: from Vietnam, where the superfueled capitalism of the erstwhile colonial capital, Saigon, inspires the geostrategic pretensions of the official seat of government in Hanoi, to Malaysia, where a unique mix of authoritarian Islam and Western-style consumerism creates quite possibly the ultimate postmodern society; and from Singapore, whose "benevolent autocracy" helped foster an economic miracle, to the Philippines, where a different brand of authoritarianism under Ferdinand Marcos led not to economic growth but to decades of corruption and crime.

    At a time when every day's news seems to contain some new story-large or small-that directly relates to conflicts over the South China Sea, Asia's Cauldron is an indispensable guide to a corner of the globe that will affect all of our lives for years to come.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateMar 25, 2014
    ISBN9781452689197
    Asia's Cauldron: The South China Sea and the End of a Stable Pacific
    Author

    Robert D. Kaplan

    Robert D. Kaplan is the bestselling author of nineteen books on foreign affairs and travel translated into many languages, including The Good American, The Revenege of Geography, Asia’s Cauldron, Monsoon, The Coming Anarchy, and Balkan Ghosts. He holds the Robert Strausz-Hupé Chair in Geopolitics at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. For three decades he reported on foreign affairs for The Atlantic. He was a member of the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board and the U.S. Navy’s Executive Panel. Foreign Policy magazine twice named him one of the world’s “Top 100 Global Thinkers.”

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    Reviews for Asia's Cauldron

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      Interesting and engaging history of the nations vying for power in the South China Sea. I didn’t make it past the intro in the first attempt, it waxes long and lyrical about sculpture, which does not reflect the character or pace of the rest of the book. Worth persisting though, and the fairly dreadful narrator improves at 1.2 -1.5x. This narrator is clear but maybe better suited to technical writing.
    • 4/5
      There is a chapter in this book entitled "America's Colonial Burden" which is a complete, absolute trashing of the Philippines. Any potential tourist reading this will stay away from Manila, which Kaplan basically describes as somnolent and decrepit, lacking Asian dynamism. So much contempt really and I think Kaplan was holding back so much more. I am amazed this has escaped the attention of Manila City Hall, the same city hall that got so incensed when one American actress said Manila smelt funny. But, alas, one couldn't really argue Kaplan was being entirely misleading.
      Takeaways from the book: 1) Vietnam is unyielding in its South China Sea claims as it sees China as its traditional rival and has no qualms, no chips on the shoulder, drawing in the US because, after all, it defeated the US in the past; 2) Filipinos are not competent to defend maritime claims because we are a "semi-failed" state ; 3) Taiwan, the lock around the neck of a great dragon, is more crucial than the sea dispute, as a development there would reconfigure everything; 4) Even if China were to have the military hardware, Taiwanese generals believe Taiwan's problematic coastal geography would pose an almost insurmountable problem for an invasion (you have to wonder though how Koxinga managed it in the past against the Dutch); and 5) the integrity of Malaysian territory is not as secure as we think.

      There is also a discussion on the relative merits of Lee Kuan Yew and Mahathir Mohamad. Not really integral to the book but the author added as a filler, which I found quite interesting.
    • 3/5
      A little military heavy, particularly in the beginning, this book gives a quick overview of the geopolitical scene while providing interesting relevant histories of the governments as well.
    • 4/5
      Once again cutting insight and unfamiliar history about the coming hotspot in the south China Sea. Erudite and readable I always look forward to Kaplan's next offering. The only thing that kept it from a 4.5 was his condescension of the Vietnamese (like China and the rest don't pose) and a few misplaced exclamation points. Great read.