The world turned upside down

President Obama's trip to India, Indonesia, Japan and South Korea is more than a simple diplomatic mission or, as some have changed, an effort to avoid domestic politics. Rather, it is a journey into what the future of a post Iraq, post Afghanistan world might look like, as we confront China, and face new challenges in a world that might look very different than the Mercator Projection we grew up with. Robert D.Kaplan, Atlantic's national correspondent and Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security, in his new book Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power, looks at a 21st century world centered around the Indian Ocean and very different than everything we learned years ago. My conversation with Robert Kaplan: var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); try { var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-6296941-2"); pageTracker._trackPageview(); } catch(err) {}