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'With his inimitable combination of dry wit and analytical clarity, Gideon Rachman gives us the latest thirty years of world history in three distinct phases, from the genesis of the Eighties, through the hubris of the Nineties and early Noughties, to the nemesis of the Great Recession. What makes this book so readable is the author's keen eye for the microcosm: the individual who personifies a big theme. No one else can make a solemn subject like nuclear non-proliferation live and breath the way Rachman can.' --Niall Fergusson
'Zero-Sum World addresses the most important geopolitical issue today: whether the US and Europe will be able to lead the world to a more prosperous and benign future through economic and political cooperation or whether they will lose confidence and fall victim to the fashionable myths of Asian ascendancy, counter-globalization, and the attempt to revive the market-defying State. Though Rachman writes with dispassionate clarity, his message is fundamentally a moral one. This is a superb book.' --Philip Bobbitt
'Rachman is a brilliant commentator with a deep sense of history. Nobody has better defined the fault-lines in our globalised world.'
--Steven Sakur
'Zero-Sum World addresses the most important geopolitical issue today: whether the US and Europe will be able to lead the world to a more prosperous and benign future through economic and political cooperation or whether they will lose confidence and fall victim to the fashionable myths of Asian ascendancy, counter-globalization, and the attempt to revive the market-defying State. Though Rachman writes with dispassionate clarity, his message is fundamentally a moral one. This is a superb book.' --Philip Bobbitt
'Rachman is a brilliant commentator with a deep sense of history. Nobody has better defined the fault-lines in our globalised world.'
--Steven Sakur
Product Description
The economic crisis that struck the world in 2008 has drastically altered the logic of international relations. Globalisation no longer benefits all the world's superpowers and they face an array of global problems that are causing division between nations. A win-win world is giving way to a zero-sum world. Zero-sum logic, in which one country's gain looks like another's loss, has prevented the world from reaching an agreement to fight climate change and threatens to create a global economic stalemate. These new tensions are intensified by the emergence of dangerous political and economic problems that risk provoking wars, environmental catastrophe and ever-deeper debilitating economic crises. This timely and important book argues that international politics is about become much more volatile - and sets out what can be done to break away from the crippling logic of a zero-sum world.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A really interesting read about the current state of international relations, how we got to where we are now and what we can expect over the next few years. The book fits really well between light-weight overviews and more lengthy academic texts. The book is laced with a good set of personal anecdotes as well as a full set of references to back up the facts. Slightly out of date now with respect to North Africa, due to the Arab Spring, but apart from that it paints a very believable view of where we are heading. The author's background is in The Economist and FT which have both been pretty evangelical about free markets and globalisation. The book is really refreshing in that it doesn't simply stick to these views and gives a much more balanced opinion on items such as climate change, market intervention, exchange rates etc. Really worth reading.
18 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This important book is at once a perceptive and amusing critique of the economic consensus that spread across the world, seemingly inexorably, before the financial crash, and a sane and valuable defence of it. Rachman brilliantly traces patterns and continuities in the history of the last few decades, such as between the foreign policies of Clinton and Bush, or how the Delors/Thatcher disagreement prefigured later debates about globalisation and governance. Much of what he has to say about the reforms and ambitions of China and India was fascinatingly new to me, as I expect it will be to many readers. He ends with some timely suggestions for how great-power rivalry and friction can be averted. The book is written with the same jaunty panache that Rachman exhibits in his columns in the Financial Times.
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Overall I enjoyed Mr. Rachman's book but note a few shortcomings.
Starting with the positives, this book provides a useful framework for considering the trends in the last three decades of world history. The author is descriptive in his presentation, generally reserving opinion to remain neutral and neatly summarising significant global events. His style is concise and fluid, making reading very light work, as readers of his writing in the Financial Times would expect. All in all, it feels like a well-composed masters thesis.
Unfortunately, Mr. Rachman is, as noted by a few reviewers, quite selective in his coverage. It would appear that events that don't support his model are omitted. For example, there is almost no mention of the Israel-Palestine problem which, although it does not directly affect global population masses, serves as focal point and obstacle for many. Also unmentioned is AIDS - a scourge with global reach and particularly acute implications in Africa, which additionally, as a continent, is mostly overlooked.
I also feel the book betrays an unintentional western bias, assuming a moral high ground present in a lot of our commentary. For example, it is quick to highlight failings of personal liberty in China and authoritarian countries while giving sparse consideration of the consistent weaknesses of our foreign policies in this regard.
As a minor point, the neat and well-structured first two sections are let down by a less tidy, possibly rushed, third section. It might be a better experience for the reader to leave it out altogether. I'd have given four stars if it ended as strong as it started.
Starting with the positives, this book provides a useful framework for considering the trends in the last three decades of world history. The author is descriptive in his presentation, generally reserving opinion to remain neutral and neatly summarising significant global events. His style is concise and fluid, making reading very light work, as readers of his writing in the Financial Times would expect. All in all, it feels like a well-composed masters thesis.
Unfortunately, Mr. Rachman is, as noted by a few reviewers, quite selective in his coverage. It would appear that events that don't support his model are omitted. For example, there is almost no mention of the Israel-Palestine problem which, although it does not directly affect global population masses, serves as focal point and obstacle for many. Also unmentioned is AIDS - a scourge with global reach and particularly acute implications in Africa, which additionally, as a continent, is mostly overlooked.
I also feel the book betrays an unintentional western bias, assuming a moral high ground present in a lot of our commentary. For example, it is quick to highlight failings of personal liberty in China and authoritarian countries while giving sparse consideration of the consistent weaknesses of our foreign policies in this regard.
As a minor point, the neat and well-structured first two sections are let down by a less tidy, possibly rushed, third section. It might be a better experience for the reader to leave it out altogether. I'd have given four stars if it ended as strong as it started.
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