Stratfor Global Intelligence Asks: Why and What Next?

Robert D. Kaplan is a writer whose work I have admired, books like “The Coming Anarchy,” and “Balkan Ghosts” stood out with their powerful messages. He used to go to places that many people would never set foot in, and the books mixed his travelogue to danger zones and interviews with local journalists, former ambassadors, or college professors.

I was looking to see what Kaplan had written lately and found that he’s been working for George Friedman at Stratfor Global Intelligence, in Austin. The newsletter and website publishes articles about hot spots around the world, and in a video Friedman explains what’s different about how they write and report.

It’s not about what happened, or the history and events. It’s about speculating about what will happen next, and what the reasons were behind the events. I downloaded one of their reports about a series of murders in Mexico between the Zetas and the Sinaloa Federation and it was fascinating to read not only who got left hanging dead on a rope on a Chihuahua bridge but who the killings were trying to send a message to and the many factions fighting each other in detail.

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