The Foreign Service Journal, May 2011

M A Y 2 0 1 1 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 77 But perhaps the most refreshing contribution this book makes is to treat systemic reform as an embodiment of the concept of the public good. Gor- don Brown’s “Scottish” sense of seri- ousness and restraint reflects his upbringing, but his vision is very global. Harry C. Blaney III, a retired FSO, is currently a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy. He spent six years on the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff covering global issues, among many other Foreign Service as- signments, and also worked on interna- tional environmental policy as a special assistant to the chairman of the Coun- cil on Environmental Quality. Seeing the World Anew Monsoon Robert D. Kaplan, Random House, 2010, $28, hardcover, 366 pages. R EVIEWED BY J OSH G LAZEROFF Let me be blunt. Don’t bother reading this book unless you’d like to see the world in a new way, with a new map in front of you. Remember the map on the wall in school? It depicted the United States between two oceans, with everything else far away. Author Robert D. Kaplan explains why we need to rethink that world view, reassessing which two oceans surround us. As he points out, the newworld dy- namic features a rising China and India, and many other players we must consider. And these are all connected not by the Atlantic, but by the Indian Ocean. Africa, the Middle East, India, B O O K S