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Author : Parag Khanna Publisher : Random House Manufacturer : Random House
Description
Grand explanations of how to understand the complex twenty-first-century world have all fallen short–until now. In The Second World, the brilliant young scholar Parag Khanna takes readers on a thrilling global tour, one that shows how America’s dominant moment has been suddenly replaced by a geopolitical marketplace wherein the European Union and China compete with the United States to shape world order on their own terms.
This contest is hottest and most decisive in the Second World: pivotal regions in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and East Asia. Khanna explores the evolution of geopolitics through the recent histories of such underreported, fascinating, and complicated countries as Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Colombia, Libya, Vietnam, and Malaysia–nations whose resources will ultimately determine the fate of the three superpowers, but whose futures are perennially uncertain as they struggle to rise into the first world or avoid falling into the third.
Informed, witty, and armed with a traveler’s intuition for blending into diverse cultures, Khanna mixes copious research with deep reportage to remake the map of the world. He depicts second-world societies from the inside out, observing how globalization divides them into winners and losers along political, economic, and cultural lines–and shows how China, Europe, and America use their unique imperial gravities to pull the second-world countries into their orbits. Along the way, Khanna also explains how Arabism and Islamism compete for the Arab soul, reveals how Iran and Saudi Arabia play the superpowers against one another, unmasks Singapore’s inspirational role in East Asia, and psychoanalyzes the second-world leaders whose decisions are reshaping the balance of power. He captures the most elusive formula in international affairs: how to think like a country.
In the twenty-first century, globalization is the main battlefield of geopolitics, and America itself runs the risk of descending into the second world if it does not renew itself and redefine its role in the world.
Comparable in scope and boldness to Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History and the Last Man and Samuel P. Huntington’s The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, Parag Khanna’s The Second World will be the definitive guide to world politics for years to come.
“A savvy, streetwise primer on dozens of individual countries that adds up to a coherent theory of global politics.”
–Robert D. Kaplan, author of Eastward to Tartary and Warrior Politics
“A panoramic overview that boldly addresses the dilemmas of the world that our next president will confront.”
–Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security advisor
"Parag Khanna's fascinating book takes us on an epic journey around the multipolar world, elegantly combining historical analysis, political theory, and eye-witness reports to shed light on the battle for primacy between the world's new empires."
–Mark Leonard, Executive Director, European Council on Foreign Relations
"Khanna, a widely recognized expert on global politics, offers an study of the 21st century's emerging "geopolitical marketplace" dominated by three "first world" superpowers, the U.S., Europe and China... The final pages of his book warn eloquently of the risks of imperial overstretch combined with declining economic dominance and deteriorating quality of life. By themselves those pages are worth the price of a book that from beginning to end inspires reflection."
–Publishers Weekly
Customer reviews for 'The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order'
«Excellent Overview»
This is an excellent overview of the current world situation and look at what is developing. Political forecasters take note, this is one-stop shopping.
Author does a good job juggling a mountain of information and making a coherent whole out of the disparate world at large.
[Monday, September 29, 2008]
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«Tour de force tour of the second world.»
Why are the United States and Europe so invested in the outcome of the hostilities between Russia and Georgia? Khanna's lucid tour of "second world" countries, including Georgia and a few dozen others across the globe, provides context for that conflict and identifies other potential hotspots where the major powers are jostling for influence.
I have some familiarity with global politics primarily informed by the New York Times, but I have no particular professional or personal expertise in this area. I would struggle to differentiate Turkmenistan from Uzbekistan (or several other "stans" for that matter). Nevertheless, I found this book very accessible. Khanna's survey approach provides enough depth to give insight into each of these nations and where they fit in the world order, while not creating tedium by devoting too much time to any one of them. The quality of the writing is excellent.
My only criticism of this book is its overreliance on antedotes and on-the-ground reporting. Khanna clearly has traveled the world, but he seems too eager to give authenticity to some of his arguments by quoting (almost always unnamed) locals. Given the sheer number of countries covered by this book, it strains credulity for Khanna to give the sense that on-the-ground reporting greatly informed his impressions of all of these nations, when at least some of them he probably only briefly touched down in. But this minor frustration is greatly outweighed by this book's many merits, and I would highly recommend this book.
[Saturday, September 13, 2008]
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«Best reading for several years!»
This book has an amazing amount of information about the second world countries and written with excellent form.
[Monday, September 01, 2008]
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