The first thing to recognize not just about Afghanistan but about any poor undeveloped country is that as big as it looks on the map, it's much bigger when you're there.

ISBN 0-375-75489-X. Kaplan (2003-11-11). Kaplan (2001-02-13).

In 2009 Secretary of Defense Robert Gates appointed Kaplan to the Defense Policy Board a federal advisory committee to the United States Department of Defense. He is currently working for Stratfor in Austin TX. In 2011 Foreign Policy magazine named Kaplan as one of the world's "top 100 global thinkers.