The Post-American World, by Fareed Zakaria

A terrific book, and everyone should read it. A great analysis of what’s happening in the world, not from the point of view of decline of the US, but of a rising of new participants. Can’t recommend it highly enough. A couple of fantastic bits:

This is a book not about the decline of America but rather about the rise of everyone else. It is about the great transformation taking place around the world, a transformation that, though often being discussed, remains poorly understood. This is natural. Changes, even sea changes, take place gradually. Though we talk about a new era, the world seems to be one with which we are familiar. But in fact, it is very different.

And then later:

The late Daniel Patrick Moynihan, America’s leading scholar-senator, once said, “The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself.” That gets it just about right. Culture is important, terribly important. But it can change. Cultures are complex. At any given moment, certain attributes are prominent and seem immutable. And then politics and economics shift, and those attributes wane in importance, making space for others. The Arab world was once the center of science and trade. In recent decades, its chief exports have been oil and Islamic fundamentalism. Any cultural argument must be able to explain both periods of success and periods of failure.

Smart, thought-provoking book that everyone should read.

13 comments

  1. yes but unfortunately Islamic fundamentalism aka Islamic terrorism via jihad which comes in many forms – physical, legal, cultural – seeks the rise of one thing and one thing only – sharia law and it wants sharia law in every country…the rise of these countries would not be remotely possible without U.S. guidance and or assistance yet they despise the U.S., plan to destroy the U.S. literally and figuratively – oil rich sheiks – who buys most of the oil? Whose ex-pats manage the discovery, extraction, production of the oil? China – who buys most of the exports? India – who is driving the outsourcing of jobs/projects their / importing H1B workers?

    Zakaria has a history of 'down with America' themes and this is not as subtle as you make it…simply look at the images, look at his context, and read his other writings…then note that Obama read his book and talks in similar tones – wanting to give American wealth away in a grand effort to speed the rise of those same countries – again, primarily African & Middle Eastern countries where dictators and despots have waged physical jihad and employed sharia law to control natural resources and keep the people minimized…and where their chief export is terrorism.

    We are losing the financial jihad – and will soon lose the legal jihad as the United Nations has been overrun with Muslim constituents (see Human Rights Commission, and OIC) who will soon make it illegal to even speak about Islam. The limitation of freedom of speech and of human rights is what the rise of such countries produces and goes unchecked. Yet business men in America are oblivious to such actions and simply see more revenue.

    This is foolish. An example of Fareed Z's non-sensical theories can be seen here:
    A Muslim, born in India, Zakaria also writes off terrorism and suggests that Americans are more likely to drown in their bathtubs than be the victim of a terrorist attack. He adds that deaths by organized violence is in a downtrend, that Al-Qaeda in Iraq is more anti-Shiite than anti-American, that Al-Qaeda “used to do terrorism, now they make videotapes”, and that such groups along with Iran are much less of a threat than Germany or Russia did during the 20th century. He also uses the crutch all Muslims and Muslim apologists lean on, “But it is increasingly clear that militants and suicide bombers make up a tiny portion of the world’s 1.3 billion Muslims.” Of course he offers no evidence for this fact nor does he pontificate on the hundreds of thousands of Muslims around the world, including the U.S., who regularly protest against non-Muslims, burn flags and effigies, and carry signs advocating death to non-Muslims. Source: Creeping Sharia blog

    “If China, India, Russia, Brazil all feel that they have a stake in the existing global order, there will be less danger of war, depression, panics, and breakdowns.” — Sorry Zak, that may be true of Brazil and India (who is now waging an existential battle against Islamic terrorists), but China has a huge stake in the existing global order and Russia is trying to recreate theirs – but nice attempt to minimalize it all.

    As Fareed notes in his opening, “Americans are glum at the moment.” When Newsweek journalists, like Zakaria, are attending secret meetings to brainstorm policies to deal with terrorists, and apparently giving Senators advice on Iraq policy, Americans have ample reason to be glum at the moment.

    Investor’s Business Daily: We’re (Still) #1 A must read:

    We defeated Nazism, fascism and communism. We will defeat Islamofascism. If an Indian billionaire is now richer than Donald Trump, so what? We made it possible.

    Yeah, China is booming and Russia is resurgent, at least in economic terms. But we see nobody sneaking across their borders looking for a better life.

    —-That influential executives fall for this non-sense and prefer a flat world where America IS second best or worse, is absurd. Pride in country and the freedoms we have is not a bad thing, it's the best thing and what has made this country great and gives other countries the opportunity to prosper…without a strong, growing US, their is no global economic growth to share.

  2. Have the book in hand and look forward to reading it this week, auspicious as it is…thanks for the quick summary. EP

  3. Could not agree more. Fantastic approach from the positive side of things. Great writer too, one to follow.

  4. I've read it and agree – very thought provoking and well worth the time.

  5. John,
    Be sure am going to read this book. It sounds interesting, am not too sure if I should have high expectations as has happened before with books like this, most notably, Friedman's 'The World is Flat'

  6. Fareed Zakaria, as a Muslim standing in support of another closet Muslim, namely Barak Hussein Obama. How objective or credible are his expressed views on such political matters.
    This should remind us of the reactions by the Muslim communities around the globe, including in the states, to the 9/11 events.

  7. This is an absurd point of view, based on much mis-information. I have
    a general policy not to delete comments on my blog, and won't delete
    this one, but will say that this is just an incredibly ill-informed
    position and leave it at that.

  8. If you are tired of enjoying life as we have known it in the United States, go ahead and espouse the merits of Zakaria and his book. He would be nowhere and a nobody if it had not been for the generosity of the U.S. Contrary to popular belief, patriotism has not gone out of style. Wake up America!

  9. Thanks for having your blog, but don't accuse someone of something without backing it up. Just because you disagree with someone doesn't mean their “ill-informed”. That's what liberals always say. Please review your comments in 10 years when we look back and see what happened, should BHO become president (God help us).

  10. I'm with Jerry and Bob on this one…all America-haters scare the living daylights out of me….

  11. he's not an america-hater; read what he's written. quite the opposite.

  12. Boy has he got you fooled. You need to take off your blinders.

  13. I found the book unconvincing. It's vague too often; for example, what does it mean for America to be the “global broker?” The book never convinces that America should change its role. This book rerminded me of Zibigniew Brzezinski's book “Between Two Ages,” another book outlining a passive new role for America.