thedrifter
10-04-06, 06:28 PM
Matter of national security
Acclaimed correspondent visiting professor at Naval Academy
By EARL KELLY, Staff Writer
Foreign correspondent Robert D. Kaplan, who made a career covering the far corners of the globe - the past four years in Afghanistan and Iraq - is serving as the first Class of 1960 Distinguished Visiting Professor in National Security at the Naval Academy.
Mr. Kaplan said recently that leaders in the future, whether they are in government, business or the military, must know more about world affairs than previous generations ever imagined.
Asian countries have evolved a long way from they days when they had primitive armies made up of poorly armed peasants, Mr. Kaplan said. And Middle Eastern countries are no longer autocracies with three people running a country.
"You have a real civilian-military industrial complex" in countries such as China and Korea, Mr. Kaplan said. "Europe is dying as a military power. Asia is rising."
A second major theme, Mr. Kaplan said, is that the Middle East has changed, and the number of people who must be influenced has grown as authoritarianism has declined.
"You no longer have two or three people in a given country who can make decisions on their own so politics is going to make diplomacy more complex than it used to be," Mr. Kaplan said.
Mr. Kaplan said he supports the war in Iraq.
Iraq under Saddam Hussein was one of the most brutal governments in the world, Mr. Kaplan said, and toppling Saddam was in America's best interest.
In his writings, Mr. Kaplan has called Iraq a "one-man thugocracy."
"I supported the war in 2001 and 2002; I assumed we had (found) weapons of mass destruction because of what the experts said," Mr. Kaplan said.
Now, Mr. Kaplan said, a sudden withdrawal of American forces would create chaos.
Mr. Kaplan, 54, has spent his career bouncing around the globe as a freelance writer, producing articles that paint pictures more than breaking the news.
"I have never had a job where they expected you to 'show up' for work," he said.
He has been a correspondent for Atlantic Monthly for 25 years, and he also writes for the editorial pages of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.
Academic Dean William C. Miller said midshipmen will benefit from having a working journalist in their midst. Mr. Kaplan will hold the chair for two years.
"Having someone with first-hand experience on the leading edge of the nation's political-military engagements, such as Bob Kaplan brings to the Naval Academy, offers our midshipmen a perspective that will stimulate their deeper learning," Dr. Miller said.
Mr. Kaplan has just completed the field work for volume two of his "Imperial Grunts" - the first volume dealt with lives of Marines and soldiers, and the second volume will look at life in the Navy and Air Force - and he aims to use his time at the academy to write, in addition to teach.
Mr. Kaplan, who will hold the chair for two years, has lectured at the military war colleges, the FBI and the CIA, as well as at a number of universities. He has been a consultant to the Army's Special Forces and to the Air Force and Marine Corps.
He lived in Israel for four years in the 1970s and served a year in the Israeli Army.
The Class of 1960 began raising the money to endow the National Security chair five years ago, as part of the group's 45-year reunion gift to the academy. The group raised more than $3 million, according to class president retired Vice Adm. Edward William Clexton Jr.
"We wanted to make sure (in endowing a rotating chair) that you have someone who's current in the field of national security, instead of having someone who is there forever," Adm. Clexton said.
Besides raising money for the visiting professor position, the Class of 1960 has funded a speaker series dedicated to national security for the past five years. The series, which includes lectures, conferences and seminars, will complement the visiting professor position, Adm. Clexton said.
Ellie
Acclaimed correspondent visiting professor at Naval Academy
By EARL KELLY, Staff Writer
Foreign correspondent Robert D. Kaplan, who made a career covering the far corners of the globe - the past four years in Afghanistan and Iraq - is serving as the first Class of 1960 Distinguished Visiting Professor in National Security at the Naval Academy.
Mr. Kaplan said recently that leaders in the future, whether they are in government, business or the military, must know more about world affairs than previous generations ever imagined.
Asian countries have evolved a long way from they days when they had primitive armies made up of poorly armed peasants, Mr. Kaplan said. And Middle Eastern countries are no longer autocracies with three people running a country.
"You have a real civilian-military industrial complex" in countries such as China and Korea, Mr. Kaplan said. "Europe is dying as a military power. Asia is rising."
A second major theme, Mr. Kaplan said, is that the Middle East has changed, and the number of people who must be influenced has grown as authoritarianism has declined.
"You no longer have two or three people in a given country who can make decisions on their own so politics is going to make diplomacy more complex than it used to be," Mr. Kaplan said.
Mr. Kaplan said he supports the war in Iraq.
Iraq under Saddam Hussein was one of the most brutal governments in the world, Mr. Kaplan said, and toppling Saddam was in America's best interest.
In his writings, Mr. Kaplan has called Iraq a "one-man thugocracy."
"I supported the war in 2001 and 2002; I assumed we had (found) weapons of mass destruction because of what the experts said," Mr. Kaplan said.
Now, Mr. Kaplan said, a sudden withdrawal of American forces would create chaos.
Mr. Kaplan, 54, has spent his career bouncing around the globe as a freelance writer, producing articles that paint pictures more than breaking the news.
"I have never had a job where they expected you to 'show up' for work," he said.
He has been a correspondent for Atlantic Monthly for 25 years, and he also writes for the editorial pages of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.
Academic Dean William C. Miller said midshipmen will benefit from having a working journalist in their midst. Mr. Kaplan will hold the chair for two years.
"Having someone with first-hand experience on the leading edge of the nation's political-military engagements, such as Bob Kaplan brings to the Naval Academy, offers our midshipmen a perspective that will stimulate their deeper learning," Dr. Miller said.
Mr. Kaplan has just completed the field work for volume two of his "Imperial Grunts" - the first volume dealt with lives of Marines and soldiers, and the second volume will look at life in the Navy and Air Force - and he aims to use his time at the academy to write, in addition to teach.
Mr. Kaplan, who will hold the chair for two years, has lectured at the military war colleges, the FBI and the CIA, as well as at a number of universities. He has been a consultant to the Army's Special Forces and to the Air Force and Marine Corps.
He lived in Israel for four years in the 1970s and served a year in the Israeli Army.
The Class of 1960 began raising the money to endow the National Security chair five years ago, as part of the group's 45-year reunion gift to the academy. The group raised more than $3 million, according to class president retired Vice Adm. Edward William Clexton Jr.
"We wanted to make sure (in endowing a rotating chair) that you have someone who's current in the field of national security, instead of having someone who is there forever," Adm. Clexton said.
Besides raising money for the visiting professor position, the Class of 1960 has funded a speaker series dedicated to national security for the past five years. The series, which includes lectures, conferences and seminars, will complement the visiting professor position, Adm. Clexton said.
Ellie