Robert Kaplan is the highly acclaimed author of seven books on international affairs and the Middle East, including Balkan Ghosts, The Arabists, The Ends of the Earth and The Coming Anarchy. His book, Eastward to Tartary, takes readers on a geopolitical tour of the Middle East, the Balkans and the Caucasus. Imperial Grunts (2006), his latest book, is an account of the frontiers of U.S. imperium, from the dustbowl of northern Yemen to the insurgent hotbed of Fallujah. Mr. Kaplan is an accomplished essayist and contributing editor to The Atlantic Monthly.