It is a cliche these days to observe that the United States now possesses a global empire - different from Britain's and Rome's but an empire nonetheless.

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.