The Post-American World | 
 enlarge | Author: Fareed Zakaria
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 7
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.2
ISBN: 039306235X
Dewey Decimal Number: 303.49
EAN: 9780393062359
ASIN: 039306235X
Publication Date: May 5, 2008 (New: Last 30 Days)
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Product Description
One of our most distinguished thinkers argues that the "rise of the rest" is the great story of our time.
"This is not a book about the decline of America, but rather about the rise of everyone else." So begins Fareed Zakaria's important new work on the era we are now entering. Following on the success of his best-selling The Future of Freedom, Zakaria describes with equal prescience a world in which the United States will no longer dominate the global economy, orchestrate geopolitics, or overwhelm cultures. He sees the "rise of the rest"—the growth of countries like China, India, Brazil, Russia, and many others—as the great story of our time, and one that will reshape the world. The tallest buildings, biggest dams, largest-selling movies, and most advanced cell phones are all being built outside the United States. This economic growth is producing political confidence, national pride, and potentially international problems. How should the United States understand and thrive in this rapidly changing international climate? What does it mean to live in a truly global era? Zakaria answers these questions with his customary lucidity, insight, and imagination.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 Whither Go American Dreams? May 16, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
Fareed Zakaria, a brilliant journalist, maybe the last honest one left of a very sorry lot, has found a way to maneuver around America's immense but infinitely fragile egg-shell like ego to tell us indirectly what we already know about ourselves but don't want to hear: that our nation, the American Empire, is in a precipitous decline, due mostly of our making.
Sadly, for the author, this is work that must be left unsaid and insinuated from deep within the subtext of the book, unsaid and insinuated in "metaphorical relief." As he puts it, it is not "the "fall of America, but the rise of the rest."
Anyone who takes that backhanded insult at face value, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn I want to sell you? This demeaning backhanded way of telling us that our country is in very serious decline sounds like the kind of reverse psychology one uses on a young child who will not eat his vegetables. But it is the only way to get any kind of self-criticism down the ultra-sensitive American palate. Its the same maneuver that Denish d' Souza, one of the darling of the rightwing, used so deftly in his equally insulting "What's so Good About America?" Again, under the pretext of praising America, he too had to tuck the truth in between the lines amid so much insincere "pro-American groveling."
And why not? Somehow, no matter how untrue or how superficial, we tend to eat fawning compliments like they are breakfast cereal. But any criticism is un-patriotic and un-American. Fareed is no ones fool.
As brilliant as he is, the author has never been allowed to tell the full truth, even on the weekend news pundit shows. The inferior minds among his colleagues just keep censoring him into non-existence. I notice that even though he is clearly the most brilliant in our generation of journalists, his appearances are becoming less and less frequent. I wonder why?
This is not a "Zakaria problem," but an "American problem." And to paraphrase Jack Nicholson in one of the most famous lines in all movie-dome: "Americans can't handle the truth!" Fareed, to repeat another of my favorite clichés from the movie Munich, is just "the voice in our heads telling us what we already know: That while America has led the world into the 21st Century it has suddenly and abruptly made a u-turn ducking its head back into the sands of its own dark ages. Beating its breast with all kinds of new weapons but scared to come out of its hole: [The world is going off and leaving us in the dust: Is this really the way we want to go down? Has anyone seen Kuala Lumpur, or Dubai, or even Singapore or Seoul lately? They all make America cities look like something from the Middle Ages.]
The evidence of our decline is everywhere: (1) In the 21st Century, we are still fighting the Scopes trial, and are losing? Intelligent Design is slowly gaining an undeserved prominence on par with the Science of Evolution. Four of the Republican candidates admitted in the Presidential debates on international television that they do not believe in evolution. (2) Like the most famous modern day Neanderthal we love to hate, Saudi born, Osama bin Laden, we too love our guns, god, and hate gays, and just for good measure, also throw racism into that mix. (3) The very fact that GW Bush was elected for two terms should have been a strong enough hint that something is terribly wrong with the "last standing superpower." Even if we were trying to, we could not have picked a worse representative of the best America has to offer. (4) But worse of all, America has become a "fair weather democracy." It no longer completely believes in it founding ideas and ideals. It only believes in them when they benefit certain protected American subgroups, otherwise, all bets are off. To wit, we will cheat to win elections; torture prisoners and throw away due process; neglect our own poor; turn the clock back on hard won civil rights; and sell out not just our democracy, but all of our seed corn too -- our future -- to the highest bidder. Our politicians have become whores for the moneyed interests.
If we were half the nation we tell ourselves we are, then Fareed Zakaria would not have had to "dumb-down" this book and write in reverse psychological diplomatic code to tell us what we already know.
Fifty stars.
The Return to a Multi-Polar World May 15, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Fareed Zakaria writes that three great global power shifts have occurred in the last 500 years: the first was the rise of the West with its advances in science, technology, and commerce; the second was the rise of the US, to superpower status after World War II and to hyperpower status after the Cold War; and the third - the one we are currently experiencing - is the "rise of the rest." The global dominance that the US has enjoyed is rapidly coming to an end, not because of its own missteps - there were many - but because of the extraordinary economic growth in countries such as China, India, Russia, and Brazil. Except for a few pockets of poverty, globalization has been largely successful.
The Post-American World points to the need for America to adopt new ways of doing business with the world, one that is based on "consultation, cooperation, and even compromise" as opposed to go-it-alone unilateralism. American success in the 21st century will depend on how these newly ascendant powers will be integrated into existing institutions such as the G8, the IMF, the World Bank, and the WTO. Even though some of these countries do not meet Western liberal democratic standards they should not be shut out as Robert Kagan suggested in The Return of History and the End of Dreams.
Integrating autocracies such as China, Russia, and the Central Asian republics in the international liberal order will be one of the greatest challenges in international relations in the years ahead. After all, autocracies have been very successful, producing 7-10% annual growth rates. They produce great investment opportunities for foreigners. And their foreign policy of non-interference with the sovereignty of other countries has made them welcome almost everywhere. This purely pragmatic approach, although successful in economics, has many shortcomings in the political realm. Zakaria believes that although they have been successful and even popular, it is important for Western democracies to have solidarity to prevent further backsliding.
Economic growth is only one of the components that keep autocracies in power, another is nationalism. One need only look at the popularity of Putin when he defies the West or China's reaction everytime they feel slighted by foreigners. Nationalism will rise as economic fortunes rise. Zakaria, who is always reasonable and optimistic in his views, believes that nations will be reasonable too. He believes that the newly ascendant powers will not be aggressive militarily if they are embedded in the current system. China, for example, does not need to invade neighboring countries when it can buy whatever it needs. For the time being this is working, but what happens "the rest" become much more powerful and resources become even more scarce? Will the the international order hold or will nationalist impulses rule the day? Zakaria is optimistic, but he still believes that the US will have an indispensible roll in keeping this system in place.
 Are you kidding? May 15, 2008
2 out of 10 found this review helpful
Too much beating around the bush to finally arrive at Mr. Fareed Zakaria's central point: India, China and the rest - rising powers; United States not any longer. No great surprise, the author happens to be an Indian, explaining his unquestionable objectivity.
Consider the following: United States no longer has the tallest building, the longest bridge, and the biggest dam. I forgot to mention that only one of America's shopping malls even made the top ten of the world's largest shopping malls. That's some "hard" evidence pointing to the decline of America in increasingly global world. And yes, Bollywood - the entertainment power house that helps Indians develop a new sense of national pride. Are you kidding me?! It's a very, very sad story!
Zakaria is a pragmatic realist May 12, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Zakaria begins by giving the reader a dose of reality- America is no longer the leader or innovator in many categories. There are better cell phones, taller buildings and larger casinos in other countries. It seems that America should restructure its policy in a world that is more level with us as opposed to from the pinnacle of technology and democracy.
Zakaria believes that America should embrace its competition and globalization. he again points out that "majority rule" in other countries may be seen as a democratization on a superficial level, but is actually not always a suitable form of government for America's interests.
This work is superbly written and deserves much attention as America chooses its next President.
-Tahir Rahman, author of We Came in Peace for all Mankind: the untold story of the Apollo 11 silicon disc
Interesting, but Overly Optimistic! May 9, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
Zakaria quickly grabs readers' attention by pointing out that the tallest building, largest publicly traded corporation, biggest planes under construction, leading refinery, largest factories, most richly endowed investment fund, largest casino, largest Ferris wheel, movie industry, and shopping mall are no longer American.
He also provides useful perspective with which to view Islamic terrorists - Islam is fractured into numerous groups with a mostly local focus, and nowhere near the scale of impact reached by Stalin, Mao, and Hitler. Meanwhile, killing civilians has sharply reduced support for Al Qaeda. Further, Muslims constitute only 3% of Europe's population and will probably plateau at 5-8%.
What has brought the "rise of the rest?" Zakaria identifies the fall of the U.S.S.R. and its centralized economy, control of hyperinflation (largely thanks to cheap alternatives in India and China), and new technology (cell phones, large ships, the Internet). Goldman, Sachs predicts that China, India, Brazil, Russia, and Mexico will outproduce the Western G-7 by 2040.
Zakaria then goes on with an overview of China and India, and then on to the U.S., where he grossly oversimplifies the impact of globalization. He finds comfort for the U.S. by pointing out that most profits come from development, finance, and marketing - not manufacturing. Unfortunately, the Chinese and others are well aware of this and can be expected to make significant inroads in these areas. Nanotech is envisioned as a future major source of strength for our economy - yet, he fails to also envision China, etc., moving into these areas, or wonder how many people a U.S. nanotechnology field could absorb (not that many).
Another contribution is Zakaria's pointing out that statistics comparing the number of Asian and American engineering graduates are grossly misleading. A large proportion of the Asian graduates are from technical schools (eg. mechanics), and the education of the rest does not hold up to those from good American schools. Again, however, Zakaria is too optimistic about how long it will take Asia to correct this. As for our disappointing comparative high-school test scores, Zakaria alleges these are due to poor minority results; other writers, however, challenge this conclusion with data.
Finally, Zakaria identifies America's failure to fund health care through government sources as another significant problem, and our dysfunctional political system as another major concern.
My major concern is that Zakaria does not address the most important long-term implication of globalization for the U.S. - a severe decline in our standard of living.
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