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Imperial Grunts: On the Ground with the American Military, from Mongolia to the Philippines to Iraq and Beyond Paperback – 12 September 2006

by Robert D Kaplan (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars 88 ratings
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A fascinating, unprecedented first-hand look at the soldiers on the front lines on the Global War on Terror. Plunging deep into midst of some of the hottest conflicts on the globe, Robert D. Kaplan takes us through mud and jungle, desert and dirt to the men and women on the ground who are leading the charge against threats to American security. These soldiers, fighting in thick Colombian jungles or on dusty Afghani plains, are the forefront of the new American foreign policy, a policy being implemented one soldier at a time. As Kaplan brings us inside their thoughts, feelings, and operations, these modern grunts provide insight and understanding into the War on Terror, bringing the war, which sometimes seems so distant, vividly to life.
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  1. Print length
    448 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    12 September 2006
  4. Dimensions
    13.18 x 2.57 x 20.32 cm
  5. ISBN-10
    1400034574
  6. ISBN-13
    978-1400034574
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"Few writers are better equipped to tell this story . . . Imperial Grunts is vintage Kaplan. His narrative is rich in spit and grit, taking the reader into the heads of soldiers."-Chicago Tribune"The grunts Kaplan describes so brilliantly will be out there representing America in the chaotic zones of a dangerous world, and to understand them one is well advised to read this book."-The Washington Post Book World"A consistently thought-provoking and vividly evocative book . . . that challenges many preconceptions about the place of the military in American life and the world"-The New York Review of Books "Provocative and superbly written. . . . [Kaplan] offers the reader an enlightened way to understand what is happening in the world."-San Francisco Chronicle"Mr. Kaplan has been kept at arm's length by wonks and intellectuals. Yet through the medium of travel writing and the voices of the soldiers he quotes, Mr. Kaplan captures the simple truths that elude the elites. . . . Imperial Grunts stands in vivid and bracing counterpoint to most academic analyses of the Pax Americana . . .A great story, very well told." -The New York Sun"One of the most important books of the last several years. Robert Kaplan uses his prodigious energy and matchless reporting skills to takes us on to the front lines with the new warrior-diplomats who use weapons, imagination, and personal passion to protect and advance the interests of the United States. This is a generation every American should come to know."-Tom Brokaw"No recent book so well or so vividly portrays the challenges of the modern United States military. With an impressive grasp of the complexities of military missions worldwide, Robert Kaplan exposes the reader to the world of the modern soldier, sailor, airman, and Marine. A must read for both civilian and military leaders."-General Barry R. McCaffrey, United States Army (Ret.), Bradley Distinguished Professor of International Security Studies, United States Military Academy"Robert Kaplan has brilliantly captured the story of today's U.S. military operating in far-flung places on strange missions. Imperial Grunts is the most insightful and superbly written account of soldiering in the New World Disorder to date. It is a must read for all Americans."-General Anthony C. Zinni, United States Marine Corps (Ret.)"Kaplan infuses us with a sense of hope about the future. Through astonishing observations, truths, and stories, Imperial Grunts introduces a brand-new way of thinking about the enduring virtue of the American spirit."-George Crile, author of Charlie Wilson's War"Imperial Grunts is vintage Robert Kaplan, combining a deep appreciation of history and wonderfully vivid writing with an infectious wanderlust."-Max Boot, Senior Fellow, National Security Studies, the Council on Foreign Relations, author of The Savage Wars of Peace"Splendid! This is the finest work in print about today's American fighting men and the challenges they face around the globe. Kaplan's courage in researching this book under combat conditions is complemented by his integrity and great literary skill. Imperial Grunts simply could not be better."-Ralph Peters, author of Beyond Baghdad

About the Author

Robert D. Kaplan is the bestselling author of twenty books on foreign affairs and travel translated into many languages, including Adriatic, The Good American, The Revenge of Geography, Asia's Cauldron, Monsoon, The Coming Anarchy, and Balkan Ghosts. He holds the Robert Strausz-Hupé Chair in Geopolitics at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. For three decades he reported on foreign affairs for The Atlantic. He was a member of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board and the U.S. Navy's Executive Panel. Foreign Policy magazine twice named him one of the world's "Top 100 Global Thinkers."

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ 12 September 2006
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 448 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1400034574
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1400034574
  • Item weight ‏ : ‎ 322 g
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13.18 x 2.57 x 20.32 cm
  • Best Sellers Rank: 244,083 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 out of 5 stars 88 ratings

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Robert D. Kaplan

Robert D. Kaplan

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Robert David Kaplan (born June 23, 1952 in New York City) is an American author of many books on politics primarily foreign affairs and travel, whose work over three decades has appeared in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The New Republic, The National Interest, Foreign Affairs and The Wall Street Journal, among other newspapers and publications.

His more controversial essays about the nature of US power have spurred debate and criticism in academia, the media, and the highest levels of government. One of Kaplan's most influential articles include "The Coming Anarchy", published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1994. Critics of the article has compared it to Huntingon's Clash of Civilizations thesis, since Kaplan presents conflicts in the contemporary world as the struggle between primitivism and civilizations. Another frequent theme in Kaplan's work is the reemergence of cultural and historical tensions temporarily suspended during the Cold War.

From March 2008 to spring 2012, Kaplan was a Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security in Washington, which he rejoined in 2015. Between 2012 and 2014, he was chief geopolitical analyst at Stratfor, a private global forecasting firm. 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. In 2011, Foreign Policy magazine named Kaplan as one of the world's "top 100 global thinkers."

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Rosalie Bolender [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

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  • James H. Boschma III
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent look at what it means to be in the 21st century American military
    Reviewed in the United States on 8 November 2005
    Verified Purchase
    This book is an excellent glimpse of what life is like in the modern American military for the civilian reader who may not know the first thing about the intricacies of military bureaucracy, acronymese and other forms of military-speak, and the like. Quite simply, and quite at odds with 99% of what is written about the military (flattering or negative) he simply seems to get it, to have some understanding of the men and women who choose to wear the uniform, their world view, and why so many choose to continue serving despite danger, protracted and repeated deployments overseas, etc. In this, the book is wonderfully refreshing.

    One reviewer expressed a negative opinion of the book because the author admits he tends to like the people he interviews and travels among. So what? Kaplan himself assesses issues of objectivity even as he discusses his fondness for the American officers and NCOs he meets. It is rather refreshing to see a journalist admit his bias and place himself in the narrative rather than cling to the fiction that any human being can be truly neutral and objective, hiding real motives and agendas behind a facade of false impartiality. So long as an author is forthcoming about his personal opinions and background I can only see the narrative enriched, rather than flawed, by such candor.

    For any reader who wants to understand American foreign policy and the role of the military this is a reasonable book, though there are better. But, for a reader who wants to understand the mid-level officers and sergeants who are called on to enact American foreign policy and, in some cases, create and define it this book is as good a read as you will find. You may or may not like what Kaplan has to say (and even more so the officers and NCOs he quotes in the book), but if you are not a member of the US military you will learn something about how the men and women in uniform view the world and their place in it.

    Addendum: In reading over other reviews of this book, I'm struck by two intriguing, but, in my opinion utterly wrong notions.

    First, are those reviewers who fault Kaplan for favoring foreign involvement over the defense of the continental United States. This is simply ill-informed isolationism. Preventing the next regional war before it begins by deploying a few dedicated and veteran troops is not skimping on the defense of the United States or its interests, it is the absolute antithetis of the critics' claims.

    Second, one reviewer claims that the lesson of the last 40 years is that special operations forces cannot win wars by themselves. They certainly cannot win every war scenario, but the belief that they cannot win wars is the same thinking that transformed Vietnam into a decade long bleeding wound as Big Army thinkers found the absolute worst way to fight that war, ignoring the historical value of special operations and unconventional warfare in both American history as well as our foreign allies such as the British in Malaya. The reason Americans do not reflect back on our war in El Salvador is because a handful of Special Forces personnel, tied in with indigenous forces, won that war quietly and without requiring an ordeal on the order of Vietnam.

    Concerning both these topics, Kaplan seems far more coherent and far more in tune with reality than the critics.
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  • Matt
    5.0 out of 5 stars Accurate Information on every aspect of Spec Ops Forces. Extreemly well written.
    Reviewed in the United States on 13 August 2025
    Verified Purchase
    This Book is the BOMB for knowing what goes on in Special Operations Forces - Especially the Special Forces (Green Berets). I can personnally attest to it's authenticity - especially the Chapter on Afghanistan. Bob was assigned to my A-Team and rode in my Hummer every time we went out. Heck, we put him to work on missions. Great Guy and an Excellent Writer. Many good memories from his writings.
    SFC Matt Costen
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  • victor klassen
    2.0 out of 5 stars Travelogue
    Reviewed in Canada on 23 September 2020
    Verified Purchase
    The book was rather shallow with Little insight into the minds of the soldiers. The book told me nothing new. It essentially just catalogued the authors travels.
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  • sneaky-sneaky
    5.0 out of 5 stars The Roman Road Revisited
    Reviewed in the United States on 20 October 2006
    Verified Purchase
    The first of what Kaplan states will be a series of books, "Imperial Grunts" tours seven military operations with a variety of Special Forces, and also spends some time with the Marines. Each theater is utterly different and fascinating: Yemen, Colombia, Mongolia, the Philippines, Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa, and Iraq. Rather than open with the easy headliner, Iraq, Robert Kaplan starts in "injun country" and stays there, gradually working his way across to the big story. As he progresses, Kaplan shows the effectiveness of small army, groups of highly trained individuals with the freedom and initiative to act who combine features of statesmen, ambassador, doctor, economist and mediator. Once big army becomes involved as in Afghanistan and Iraq, less is done with far more expenditure in terms of both lives and money. Whether we like to be told it or not, the US is an empire, and it seeks to maintain security by placing bases in strategic locations that can be lightly manned and maintained, but remain capable of receiving large numbers of aircraft and troops at any time, the principle of the Roman road, where Rome's army was not so much large as highly mobile. Kaplan's view of the military is frankly startling and optimistic next to the avalanche of negativity that is justifiably being written about Iraq; he bemoans lingusitic capabilities that are adequate only in South America, and frequently points out that the US military is still configured to fight the Cold War, and not the decentralized threats of the twenty-first century. Having written ten books, Kaplan also reveals that he attended the School of Advanced Military Studies at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and served in the Israeli Army.
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  • Eduardo Sturla
    4.0 out of 5 stars Another great read from a great war reporter.
    Reviewed in the United States on 31 December 2015
    Verified Purchase
    Kaplan again delivers an excellent look at the life of those serving in the wars of the 21st century. An indispensable look into the actual travails and efforts of the US military on the war on terror. Will surprise those that thought that US theatre of operations were only limited to Irak ans and Afghanistan. Highly recommended.
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