the post american world and the rise of the rest

He provokes readers by daring to take seriously, even to anticipate, the hypothesis of a “non-Western world,” or one that is not exclusively Western. Zakaria notes the strength of protesting political forces throughout the world, namely the rise of BRICM (the famous BRIC plus “M” for Mexico). Yet, always well-grounded in reality, Zakaria does also worry about waste and the destruction of resources about the strength and resurgence of nationalism throughout the world, as well as its disconcerting effect on Americans who believe that they act always for the good of humanity. His analysis of economic, financial, and technological forces in motion – the exponential free movement of capital, technological innovations, and the collapse of transportation costs – is fundamentally optimistic and liberal.

He tackles the threats posed by Islam and “rogue states,” but brings them back to accurate proportions by taking them seriously yet also remaining level-headed. Zakaria, who supported the war in Iraq, delves into possible reactions to the “rise of the rest,” which is the “ironic consequence of sixty years of American action” to open and Americanize the world. Kagan abandoned neo-conservative daydreaming in favor of a tough, but classic, reading of the history that once again awaits us. Kissinger reminded us, as Fukuyama rediscovered, that nation-states have not become irreplaceable nor has the economic supplanted the strategic. Without a new approach it risks becoming beholden to the influence of fear, something already seen with the Bush Administration’s simplistic politics of force, which was destined for failure.ĭuring the past few years, the great conservative (Kissinger) and neo-conservative (Fukuyama, Kagan) thinkers have caught onto this new state of world affairs.

The West is now faced with an urgent need to reflect on policies effective for managing this tectonic shift. We are certainly not yet in “the post-American world,” which is also the title of his work, but the West has already lost its monopoly on history, if not on the influence and power that Europeans then Americans have held onto since the 16th Century.

While a great many international analyses are conventional, biased, and repetitive – such as the oft-cited notion that the West struggles to break free from its navel-gazing, myopia, and phobias – the brilliant editor of Newsweek International, Fareed Zakaria, manages to cut to the heart of the matter by directly addressing the rise of emerging powers and actors, its consequences for the West, and possible responses.

The post american world and the rise of the rest