Our world is entering a new era. An era characterized by an explosive combination of wars, climate change, great power competition, rapid technological developments, and countless other challenges.

Robert D. Kaplan, one of the most important geopolitical thinkers and author of more than twenty books on international politics, insightfully explains how we got here and where we are headed. He turns to history, philosophy, and literature to shed light on the present—including the poem by T. S. Eliot that gives this book its title.

Kaplan compares the current situation to the Weimar Republic, the fragile democratic government of interwar Germany, which collapsed under the weight of multiple crises, leading to the rise of Nazism. He argues that the unique challenges of the 21st century—pandemics, recession, mass migration, great power competition, urbanization, technological interconnection, and digital networking—create the conditions for a "global Weimar": every disaster in one country can turn into a global crisis.

Kaplan warns that the situation may spiral out of our control and points out ways in which we might—perhaps—protect ourselves from a chaotic future.