Fred Kaplan

Fred M. Kaplan (born July 4, 1954) is an American author and journalist. His weekly "War Stories" column for Slate magazine covers international relations and U.S. foreign policy.

Early life and education Kaplan was born in Hutchinson, Kansas, to Jewish parents Julius E. and Ruth (Gottfried) Kaplan.

Kaplan earned a bachelor's degree at Oberlin College in 1976, followed by two degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: a Master of Science in 1978 and a Ph.D. in political science in 1983. a work which analyzes the George W. Bush administration's use of Cold War tactics in post-9/11 military activities. He criticizes the administration for pursuing policies he believes to be unilateral and violate prohibitions on pre-emptive warfare. In late 2012, Kaplan published The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War, which examines how General David Petraeus attempted to implement new thinking in Afghanistan and Iraq regarding the traditional clear-and-hold counter-insurgency strategy, and the shortcomings of this strategy, its intellectual underpinnings, and the individuals who defined it. The book was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 2014.

In 2009, Kaplan published 1959: The Year Everything Changed. The book argues that the course of world history was not changed by the counter-culture movements of the 1960s but rather by artistic, scientific, political and economics events occurring in the year 1959.

Personal life Kaplan married Brooke Gladstone, a journalist, author and media analyst, in 1983. The couple has twin daughters.

Kaplan is an enthusiast of high-end audio and video equipment, and has reported from the Consumer Electronics Show on new technologies in this area, as well as penning shopping-advice columns on which new televisions offer the best value. He has also authored articles covering jazz and hi-fi equipment for the magazine Stereophile.

Works Books Dubious Specter: A Skeptical Look at the Soviet Nuclear Threat, Institute for Policy Studies, 1980,

The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War, Simon and Schuster, 2013,

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