Social poverty is spreading in neighborhoods across the country. Neighborhoods impact our lives in so many ways: they determine who one knows, what resources and opportunities one has access to, the quality of schools kids go to, one’s sense of security and belonging, and even how long one lives. Yet too many live in neighborhoods plagued by family disintegration, rising crime, school violence, addiction, alienation, and despair. Even the wealthiest neighborhoods are not immune; while poverty exacerbates these challenges, they exist in zip codes rich and poor, rural and urban, and everything in between. In Fragile Neighborhoods, Fragile States expert Seth D. Kaplan offers a bold new vision for addressing social decline in America, one zip code at a time.

Join us in this conversation, renowned author and fragile states expert, Seth D. Kaplan, discusses his compelling new book, Fragile Neighborhoods.

Seth D. Kaplan is a Professorial Lecturer in the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University, Senior Adviser for the Institute for Integrated Transitions (IFIT), and consultant to multilateral organizations such as the World Bank, U.S. State Department, U.S. Agency for International Development, and OECD as well as developing country governments and NGOs.