Robert Bedeski is Professor Emeritus, University of Victoria (Canada), and Affiliate Professor at the Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington. His books include "Eurasia's Ascent in Energy and Geopolitics," (with N. Swanström, Eds.) "Human Security and the Chinese State" and "The Transformation of South Korea."

Genghis Khan was a survivalist. His life was a series of challenges that threatened his very being. His biography was a microcosm of the human condition before civil society. He not only survived to advanced age, but prevailed over vast Asian territories by uniting the Mongol peoples and leading a mounted killing machine against their enemies. By extracting some lessons from how he prolonged his existence, we have a window into human evolution from state of nature to civilized society. The book presents an innovative interpretation of Genghis Khan and the Secret History, relating them to Euro-American, Chinese and Islamic political thought. Its main contribution is to formulate a theory of life security, to classify Strata-of-Being and their characteristics as staging platforms for actions to prolong life. The author does not aspire to explain the meaning of life, but stresses that without the protections of life security, human aspirations cannot be realized. Genghis Khan is presented as evidence for this observation. A theory of life security provides analytical matrix and explanatory dynamics, and is illustrated with incidents in the "Secret History of the Mongols."