Robert Kaplan follows up his “pre-Patraeus report analysis”:http://cominganarchy.com/2007/09/13/kaplan-re-petraeus/ by widening his bottom-up tribalism theory to include Pakistan, Baluchistan and Afghanistan in his latest article in _The Atlantic_ “It’s the Tribes, Stupid!”:http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200711u/kaplan-democracy:
bq. Where democratic governance does not exist, we must work with the material at hand. … Throughout the Arab world, old monarchial and authoritarian orders are now weakening. Keeping societies stable will depend largely on tribes, and the deals they are able to cut with one another. In the Middle East, an age of pathetic, fledgling democracies is also an age of tribes.
_via_ “Soob”:http://soobdujour.blogspot.com/2007/11/going-tribal.html who also links to Adrian’s article “How to attack an national identity”:http://a517dogg.blogspot.com/2007/11/how-to-attack-national-identity.html as well as a pretty map.
About Younghusband
Sir Francis Edward Younghusband (1863-1942) was a British explorer, army officer, military-political officer, and foreign correspondent born in India who led expeditions into Manchuria, Kashgar, and
Tibet. He three times tried and failed to scale Mt. Everest and journeyed from China to India, crossing the Gobi desert and the Mustagh Pass (alt. c.19,000 ft/5,791 m) of the Karakoram mountain range in modern day Pakistan. Convinced of Russian designs on British interests in India, Younghusband proactively engaged in the nineteenth century spying and conflict over Central Asia between the British and the Russians known as the Great Game.
"Younghusband" is a Canadian who has spent a number of years bouncing back and forth between his home country and Japan. Fluent in Japanese and English with experience in numerous other languages from Spanish to Georgian, Younghusband has travelled throughout Asia. He graduated with an MA from the War Studies Department at the
Royal Military College of Canada, where he focussed on the Japanese oil industry and energy security issues. He has recently returned to Canada from Japan, and is working in the technology sector.
thanks for the nod. commenter (and new fellow blog chum) cannoneer no. 4 passes on related reading of interest.
bad link. the address: http://www.d-n-i.net/fcs/pressfield_tribes.htm
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Ah, Pressfield. Interesting guy.
Related: John Robb says “Kaplan supports open source warfare”:http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2007/11/journal-robert.html,
Thanks for the link!