Tabloid realism and the reconstruction of American security culture before 9/11

Pointing to the inescapable conditioning power of tabloid press and tabloid talkshows (and their hosts) in late twentieth-century America, culture critic Joshua Gamson once wrote: “You know you’re in trouble when Sally Jessy Raphael seems like your best bet for being heard, understood, respected and protected.”2 Paraphrasing Gamson, I would like to suggest that you are equally in trouble when Robert D. Kaplan seems like your best bet to redefine geopolitical realities, diagnose foreign policy threats, and prescribe new ways of thinking about national security in the twenty-first century. In the case of Sally Jessy Raphael’s talk-show and of Kaplan’s endless succession of doomsday prophecies, we are witnessing a similar popular socio-cultural phenomenon: tabloid realism at its best (or worst).