Disunited Nations The Scramble for Power in an Ungoverned World

Peter Zeihan

Book - 2020

"Most countries and companies are not prepared for the world Peter Zeihan says we're already living in. For decades, America's allies have depended on its might for their economic and physical security. But as a new age of American isolationism dawns, the results will surprise everyone. In Disunited Nations, geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan presents a series of counterintuitive arguments about the future of a world where trade agreements are coming apart and international institutions are losing their power"--

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Subjects
Published
New York City : Harper Business, An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers [2020]
Language
English
Main Author
Peter Zeihan (author)
Edition
First edition
Item Description
Includes index.
Physical Description
xvi, 453 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm
ISBN
9780062913685
  • Introduction: Moments of Transition
  • Chapter 1. The Road So Far
  • Chapter 2. How to Rule the World, Part I: The American Model
  • Chapter 3. How to Rule the World, Part II: The British Model
  • Chapter 4. How to Be a Successful Country
  • China's Report Card
  • Chapter 5. Japan: Late Bloomer
  • Japan's Report Card
  • Chapter 6. Russia: The Failed Superpower
  • Russia's Report Card
  • Chapter 7. Germany: Superpower, Backfired
  • Germany's Report Card
  • Chapter 8. France: Desperately Seeking Dominance
  • France's Report Card
  • Chapter 9. Iran: The Ancient Superpower
  • Iran's Report Card
  • Chapter 10. Saudi Arabia: The Anti-Power and the Destruction of the Middle East
  • Saudi Arabia's Report Card
  • Chapter 11. Turkey: The Awakening Superpower
  • Turkeys Report Card
  • Chapter 12. Brazil: Sunset Approaches
  • Brazil's Report Card
  • Chapter 13. Argentina: The Politics of Self-Destruction
  • Argentina's Report Card
  • Chapter 14. The Misshape of Things to Come: The Future of American Foreign Policy
  • Thread 1. Unwinding the Global War on Terror
  • Thread 2. The Order Hangover
  • Thread 3. Strategic Retrenchment
  • Thread 4. Profits Without Borders
  • Thread 5. Desperately Seeking Instability
  • Chapter 15. The United States: The Distant Superpower
  • The United States' Report Card
  • Chapter 16. Present at the Destruction: The Dawning of the Fourth Age
  • Acknowledgments
  • Index
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

The coming end of American hegemony will be good for America, but disastrous for much of the world, according to this sweeping treatise on international relations. Zeihan (The Accidental Superpower), a geopolitical strategy consultant, predicts that a United States weary of foreign entanglements will stop enforcing the post-WWII global "order" in which it guaranteed the military security of allies, kept sea lanes open, and welcomed exports from developing countries. What follows, he contends, will be pervasive disorder, in which some nations flourish--including a rich, isolated United States--as others face political chaos, economic regression, war, and famine caused by the breakdown of global supply chains and international cooperation. Zeihan pegs his arguments to in-depth discussions of the geography and agricultural, economic, and demographic trends of major countries and their impact on regional rivalries. Some of his prognostications are convincing (China's vulnerability to trade blockades means it will never be a global military power as many fear, he reasons), while others, including a prediction that Turkey will conquer Greece's Aegean islands, feel iffy. Zeihan integrates a wealth of information and data into lucid analyses written in accessible, boisterous prose ("Canada is just so snarky. All. The. Goddamn. Time"). The result is a stimulating look into the geopolitical crystal ball. Agent: Jud Laghi, the Jud Laghi Agency. (Mar.)

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

Geopolitical strategist Zeihan (The Absent Superpower: The Shale Revolution and a World Without America, 2017, etc.) delivers his latest unsettling prognostication.The author begins after World War II, when the U.S. reigned supreme. Ramping up anti-communism efforts, the U.S. led an alliance of nations that were either like-minded or happy to go along in exchange for protection and aid. Protection took the form of a nuclear standoff, which produced a remarkably war-free era, and for the first time in history, the Navy freed sea lanes for unfettered worldwide trade. The result was an explosion of prosperity that continued until recently. In his earlier book, The Accidental Superpower (2014), Zeihan concluded that "2020 would look a lot like 1950, albeit without the whole fear-of-nuclear-war-thing." He has changed his mind. No alliance lasts without a common threat, he admits, and this disappeared with the collapse of the Soviet Union. At the time, George H.W. Bush (the last president the author admired) launched a national conversation on what might come next. "So of course the Americans voted him out of office.Bill Clinton found foreign policy boring and did his best to avoid it," writes Zeihan. No Bush successor has provided "the necessary guidance to American military, intelligence, and diplomatic staff as to what America's goals actually are." Consequently, nations are beginning to look after their own interests. As a result, writes the author, the U.S. will turn inward, and post-Brexit Britain will shrink to a U.S. client state. Russia's demographic collapse is well under way. Zeihan's more controversial projections will keep readers squirming, usually with pleasure, at his expert, often cynical insights. France, self-contained and with a far more "expeditionary-themed military," will dominate a declining Germany. Absent U.S. love of its oil, Saudi Arabia (essentially a gangster state) will duke it out with Iran unless an expansive Turkey becomes the dominant local power. Hypertechnology will return Japan to preeminence in Asia when China's unsustainable bubble economy collapses. Another masterful, often counterintuitive, relentlessly entertaining geopolitical thrill ride. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.