The Post-American World: And The Rise Of The Rest [Paperback]

Zakaria admits that the title is a little misleading. He holds that America will remain the world's primary power for most of the forseeable future. This is particularly true in military terms. However, in relative terms, other powers will have more and more influence, especially at regional level. Thus, the "Post-American" world is not post-American, merely a world where "The rest", that is, other countries, increase their power and influence, thus diluting America's unchallenged role. So, the world will not be post-American in the sense America ceases to have an influence, it will be post-American in that it will no longer be America alone which decides the direction and character of the international system.

Zakaria then looks at the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China), and notes how their dizzying rates of economic growth will eventually make the international economic system less Anglo-American in character as the century progresses. However, he argues that far from these cultures competing, there will be cross pollenation. This is particularly true of India, which has a rich tradition of absorbing new influences, and its background as a British colony means it is already well acquainted with how to cope in an Anglophone global economic system. His coverage of India and China's rise is very interesting. Zakaria argues that far from attempting to build an anti-Chinese balancing bloc amongst Asian allies like South Korea and Japan, America should extend the hand of friendship to China. This will draw China into a web of international law and trade, rather than isolate it and thus making it more bellicose.

One of the most interesting parts of the book is when Zakaria dismisses that Islamic extremism constitutes a serious rival to the West. This is a sharp departure from most American literature on radical Islam. He states that sluggish growth in Muslim countries, and frictions over women's roles in the economy place them at a disadvantage. Also, he believes that Al Qaeda is rapidly losing influence. At one point he mocks them as being little more than a video production company. Indeed, their war in Iraq was meant to unite all Muslims behind their anti-American message. Instead, all Al Qaeda in Iraq have done is kill other Muslims (Shia), and drive away Muslim support.

All in all, the book is light reading. It is an interesting view of how the 21st century may pan out, and anyone with an interest in international relations should consider reading it.

I can't say much about this book, except, 'Wow, you really didn't expect the financial crisis, did you?' That said, Zakaria makes interesting and enlightening points about the US's relationships with China and India, and the potential changes in international relations that are likely to occur as a consequence of these new powers flexing their political muscles during the 21st century. But, Zakaria's economics was much more conservative than I expected them to be, advocating Chicago-style policies, without much discussion of more social support, the nuances of alleviating poverty and inequality, or the ways in which interactions between more powerful developed countries and less powerful developing countries could affect the development paths of the 'rest' - his perceptions of socialism, communism and even social democracy seemed a bit jaded and biased. Though the evidence indicates that many countries that did not grow for most of the 20th century are growing and will continue to grow in the 21st century, but this does not mean that their growth will be slower, or that it will favour specific echelons in their societies, or that new problems, particularly with inequalities in power, wealth and rights won't plague these countries, particularly China and Russia. Nevertheless, I still learnt a fair amount from this book, though not enough to warrant the overall defence of capitalism Zakaria advocates, his approach required more nuance.

What is wrong with this sentence? 'France and South Korea, long dominated by American movies, now have large film industries of their own.' I wonder what the French would have to say about that...

This book is aimed squarely at your average Joe Newsweek reader and its thrust seems to be how do we make them ('the rest') more like us - as if that was a good idea! His faith in democracy is touching, yet business and economics, the real drivers, rarely get a look-in, other than truisms such as Walmart's being 'really a China supply chain', while climate change is covered in a paragraph

When not merely ill informed, this is stodgy and superficial at best. The fulsome reviews on the flyleaf are jaw-dropping - I guess this speaks to the anglophone world's hunger for reassurance at the time (the latter Bush days) - but I note the updated 2011 edition, described as a 'blockbuster', has received exactly zero reviews on UK amazon. Freyja's Books two-star review on US amazon is probably all you need to know