their socio-historical context. Kaplan's writing contributes to an "unwelcome return" to what Megoran loosely perceives as militarist-imperialist discourses in traditional geopolitics. This study and approach, due to its historical associations, is considered a discredited field amongst academic geographers, but Megoran objects to its influence on Kaplan and on the foreign policy of states. However, this view fails to take into account the role that the study of classical geopolitics and military geography may play in the prevention and mitigation of conflict over territorial space. Environmental determinism Late academic geographer Harm de Blij has criticized Kaplan's book The Revenge of Geography for tending toward what de Blij interprets as environmental determinism, a school of thought often regarded as a discredited paradigm by geographers. He also argues that the book lacks acknowledgment of thinkers associated with postmodern schools of geographic thought, such as critical geopolitics. Finally, he describes Kaplan's book The Revenge of Geography as one of several "misleading" books on geography by non-formally trained geographers, and as such misrepresents the field to those unfamiliar (other examples that de Blij alludes to include Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat and Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel). Orientalism Dag Tuastad, senior lecturer of Middle East and Africa at the University of Oslo, claims that Kaplan, "like Huntington (author of Clash of Civilizations), perpetuates a neo-Orientalist sentiment, namely, emphasizing 'features innately embedded in the Muslim religion, including the provision that Islam is a religion of the sword and a religion that glorifies military virtues'". Istvan Deak, Columbia University Professor Emeritus of History, labels Balkan Ghosts "an often delightful romp through the past and present politics of a region," saying that Kaplan "intends to convince us, and he assuredly does, with gusto, that the peoples of these five alienated countries do indeed form an unhappy whole." Recognition In 2012, Kaplan was named by Foreign Policy magazine on its list of top global thinkers. Bibliography , published August 1998 , published January 2000 , published February 1996, republished January 2000 (also titled Soldiers of God: With Islamic Warriors in Afghanistan and Pakistan), published February 1990, reprinted November 2001 , published September 1988, reprinted November 2003 , published February 1993, reprinted March 1994 , published November 2000 , published December 2001 , published February 2004 , published September 2005 , published September 2007 , published October 2010 , published September 2012 , published March 2014 , published