The Post American World [ペーパーバック]

Mr. Zakaria has written a short primer (250+ pages of text) about where the world is today and the role he sees the United States playing in the future. His assessment, for the most part, is fair, balanced and nonpartisan. And though the title of his treatise--The Post-American World--sounds pessimistic, in reality Mr. Zakaria sees the glass half full.

The principal weakness of the book is a product of its brevity: the author paints in broad strokes, providing a sweeping assessment of the dynamic changes that have unfolded on the world scene over the past twenty-five years. This invariably results in some over-generalizations and assessments that are not sufficiently nuanced. For example, in responding to concerns about China's growing power and influence, he quotes several Chinese officials who repeatedly reassure the listener that, notwithstanding its recent advances, China still lags behind the United States in so many areas; consequently, it poses no real threat to America or its neighbors. Instead of taking these sentiments at face value, Mr. Zakaria should remember, as Margaret Macmillan astutely noted in her recent book, "Nixon and Mao: The Week That Changed the World," that the Chinese are the past masters at using self-effacement to lure their adversaries into a state of complacency.

The greatest strengths of the book are explaining to the reader how much the world has changed over the past 25 years (did you know that China now exports more goods and services in a single day than it did in all of 1978?), while illuminating the course corrections the United States needs to make so that it can continue to influence the evolution of globalization. I was surprised to discover that the simple truths taught by Adam Smith have lifted more people above the poverty line in the last 25 years (400 million in China alone) than all the government assistance programs of all the countries in the world since the beginning of time. But I was dismayed to learn that the polices of free trade, liberal immigration, technological change and open government that are the source of this global revolution are no longer warmly received in the United States. Mr. Zakaria notes that in 2007 the Pew Global Attitudes Survey polled citizens in 47 countries for purposes of measuring the extent to which they have positive views about free trade and open markets. Guess where the U.S. came in? Dead last. Mr. Zakaria observes that in the five years the survey has been done, no country has seen as great a drop-off as the United States. It's as if, he says, that for the past sixty years we have extolled the virtues of free markets, immigration, technological change, competition, and democracy, and now that the rest of the world has finally decided to take our advice, "we are becoming suspicious of the very things we have long celebrated." (p. 48).

If you want to look in the mirror and see the warts and disappointments, along with the beauty and promise, of America, read this book. You and our country will be better for it.

A lot of books have been appearing recently about the rise of China and India, the decline of the United States, and so forth. This is the one to read, and the one that will last.

Zakaria's last book was about "The Future of Freedom," a study of liberalism and democracy. This new one--which is even better, I think--is about the shape of the emerging international system. It's called "The Post-American World," but a better title would have been the one he gives his first chapter, "The Rise of the Rest." That's because Zakaria's central thesis is that the world is changing, but the change is largely for the better and caused by the benign development of other power centers, not some collapse or decline of the United States. The biggest challenge for America, he argues, is not terrorism or nuclear proliferation or a rising China, but rather our own ability to adapt successfully to the new environment. He favors confidence and openness rather than insecurity and barriers, and makes a convincing case.

The book has chapters on each of the major international players, and they're really well done: amazingly, he manages to paint a full portrait of, say, China or India that is intelligent, succinct, subtle, and comprehensive all at once. If you want to get a flavor of what the book has to offer, there's an article based on it in the new issue of Foreign Affairs, and there should be another one coming out in Newsweek too, apparently. The man might be a superachieving bigshot, but he sure can write--each page is lively and interesting.

So forget the angry neocons, the wild-eyed optimists, the gloom-and-doom pessimists, and the glib amateurs who don't really know anything. Read this instead, and get insight into what's actually going in the world and what should be done about it. Plus, there's just a ton of fun little nuggets you'll be itching to drop in every conversation you have about anything related.

First and foremost, there is an elephant in the room.

Fareed Zakaria is a member of the PNAC: Project for the New American Century. The PNAC advocates using the US military to overthrow foreign governments to enforce American economic interests around the globe, no matter how negative the consequences. The PNAC advocates this foreign policy because there is no check on the United States after the collapse of the USSR. After the PNAC-Iraq campaign didn't turn out to be as cheap and easy as the PNAC and Zakaria thought it would be, Zakaria "changed" his opinion. How interesting; how convenient. A journalistic version of the Peter Principle. This author's PNAC membership is relevant to his latest book.

In "the Post-American World" Zakaria reinforces his points by noting globalization and changes 500 years ago, historically and adequately linking the past with our truly globalized civilization of today. In the latter 18th Century America rose steadily. The Spanish-American war brought territory far off the the shore of the US. After WWII, the US emerged as one of two superpowers, and after the fall of the Soviet Union, became what the author calls, a "hyperpower." This hyperpower status is when many nation-states do what nation-states historically do: get greedy, become selfish, and over-reach diplomatically, economically, and militarily.

To echo other readers, yes this book is optimistic. Why wouldn't it be? The focus is on the global economy and emerging markets, basically. Zakaria claims American influence isn't declining, but that the rest of the world is rising. Where is the evidence that the US is not declining? The evidence of US decline is everywhere, domestically and internationally.

The Post-American world noticeably started emerging in the early 1990s and it's obvious across the globe now. Zakaria accurately focuses on the past 25 years, citing many facts. In my opinion, not only is the rest of the world ascending *economically* (China, India, Brazil, Vietnam, and others) but the US is in a state of slow and steady decline. This is historically normal, and natural. Over the the course of history, all superpowers grow, peak, and then decline. This is not negative. It's the evolution of the nation-state. Just like people. We're born, we grow, we age, and we die. The Roman empire declined over the course of 300 years. The USA is diminishing much faster.

It's not surprising that Americans in the Global Pew survey recorded the lowest of all countries in their opinions about globalization and "free trade" according to Zakaria. Yet, this has been the official policy of the US government for several decades.

With the current economic ascension of several nations, do international organizations accurately represent the current world population and economic strength of the world? Look at the G8: why is Canada in the G8 and Brazil, not? Why are France and Italy members? As for outsourcing, is outsourcing jobs all positive, having no negative ramifications at all? Is chasing the cheapest labor the success of "globalization?" Is opening the door for immigration not only for menial low-paying jobs, but highly skilled ones via the H1-B visa, success of our international global economy in the USA?

Only a couple of complaints about this book: author Zakaria is stating things anyone who follows current events already knows. Many of the global economic facts, especially pertaining to China and India, are already common knowledge. The author could have dug deeper. This book was also very short. Perhaps this book was aimed at readers who don't pay attention to international affairs. "The Post-American World" is for neophytes, and that's OK. Any information, with accurate research, is worthy information. Whatever the author's objectives, the book did reach some of a American public that casually watches the conglomerate American mainstream media, as there were discussions about this book when it was released.

The more Americans become aware, the more frugal, more humble, and less nationalistic they may become.