Praise for The New Great Game:
"Traveling with some danger to himself and marshaling the political and historical facts with authority, Kleveman [produces] a coherent study of a notoriously complex and unpredictable region, much of which is torn by terrible violence and civil wars."
—The Sunday Times (UK)
"[Kleveman] can take credit for a book that is essential for those seeking as many views as possible on this complicated moment in history."
—The Seattle Times
"Well reported … [Kleveman] offers readers the tools they need to understand the foolishness of investing enormous political and financial resources in places like Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan without demanding fundamental changes in the way these places are governed."
—Tim Marchman, The New York Sun
"A compact style and a sharp eye for detail … help the reader digest a huge and complex subject…. [Kleveman] is clearly an intelligent observer whose views are representative of a large proportion of global opinion."
—Carlos Ramos-Mrosovsky, National Review
"Kleveman, a journalist who has crisscrossed the region and met numerous oil barons, politicians and warlords, as well as ordinary people, concludes that the great powers are once again playing a cynical 'great game,' leaving blood and tears in their tracks…. Kleveman feeds his argument with enlightening historical background and colorful anecdotes from his extensive travels and interviews."
—The Economist (UK)
"Kleveman's timely, panoramic book examines the consequences of the presence of enormous quantities of fossil fuels in one of the world's most inaccessible and unstable regions."
—Andy Beckett, The Guardian (UK)
"[The New Great Game] combines strategic analysis with colorful vignettes of these far-flung communities."
—The Week (UK)
"Kleveman moves well beyond the tired formulas that plague coverage of Central Asia and the Caucasus (or the entire former Soviet Union, for that matter) to effectively assess the contradictory and nuanced forces that shape the region. Taking the reader through a wide swath of the Caspian area, Kleveman creates context with easily digestible historical overviews, discussions with local oligarchs, power players and politicians; and dusty, dangerous treks to the Caspian to kick its soft underbelly of oil."
—The Moscow Times
"In Baghdad, where I have been working as a surgeon among the casualties of an ongoing war, Iraqis say that their country was invaded to secure control of its oil. Lutz Kleveman's odyssey into the heart of United States energy policy in Central Asia reveals that this conflict is just one front in a global oil war."
—Jonathan Kaplan, author of The Dressing Station
"Lutz Kleveman has written a timely and daring book to remind us that the Great Game is alive and well in the twenty-first century."
—Jason Elliot, author of An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan
"The New Great Game is an urgent, vigorous insight into a vital issue of the new century. It is undertaken with clear sight and bulldog energy."
—Colin Thubron, author of The Lost Heart of Asia
"Part reportage, part essay, written with journalistic wit by a reporter who also has the historian's eye, Kleveman's new book has the merit to show us how much is at stake—strategically, financially and militarily—in corners of the world that, after the colonial era ended, became irrelevant and were considered just a 'big black hole.' Kleveman explains in a convincing way that the New Great Game for the 'Devil's tears' is becoming the new Cold War, with the Caspian Sea now as important as the old Berlin Wall. A book that will provide us with ideas and analysis for some years to come."
—Riccardo Orizio
"Kleveman's book ploughs an important new furrow…. [He] is scrupulous with facts…. This book's strength lies in the author's sharp journalistic eye, and his apparent fearlessness."
—Michael Church, Independent (UK)
"[Kleveman's] reportage is first-class and his findings truly enlightening…. Not only does Kleveman brim with ingenuity, he also seems to have been so charming that virtually no fox of a diplomat or politician, east or west, could resist giving him an interview…. As he travels from one blighted republic to another, one's heart nearly stops each time he describes the devastation and dysfunctionality left behind by a ruthless Communist regime in Moscow that was interested only in fulfilling production targets."
—Hazhir Teimourian, Literary Review (UK)
In Memory of My Father
Udo Karl Theodor Kleveman (1929–1997)
