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|  | Author: Fareed Zakaria
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.
List Price: $15.95
Buy New: $7.00
as of 11/22/2009 19:39 CST details
You Save: $8.95 (56%)
New (45) Used (34) from $6.82
Seller: William Taratsas
Rating:  258 reviews
Sales Rank: 1785
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Edition: First Printing
Pages: 336
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.9
ISBN: 0393334805
Dewey Decimal Number: 303.49
EAN: 9780393334807
ASIN: 0393334805
Publication Date: May 4, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 26-30 of 258
Wise advice and insights into the social/economic future August 30, 2009
R. Best (San Francisco, CA USA)
This book is another work about globalization that provides in some cases provides a rich and detailed picture of how our world is changing. The central thesis of the book is that the pax Romana (Roman peace) model of American foreign policy needs to be replaced by a community organizer foreign policy model. America's considerable military power must be used with great restraint as power and economic status shifts from west to east. The detailed discussion of some common misconceptions about educational differences between the US and other countries reveals the author's ability to carefully reinterpret misleading statistics.
A Unique Perspective at a Needed Time August 25, 2009
K. Graff (Chicago)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Fareed Zakaria does a great job explaining how the US will fit into this complicated world as we begin to shift from a single superpower to multiple voices that will need to be heard. I highly recommend this read to anyone looking for very probable future and how the US will fit into that new society.
 Zakaria has a perspective most Americans won't appreciate August 23, 2009
D. Murrell (Memphis, TN United States)
This book is eye-opening and thought-provoking. Even if you don't agree with every thought the author has, you have to come away from this book with a broader world view - and a realistic view of the future.
Update on the post-Cold War world; eloquent call for US better nature August 19, 2009
Richard Gibson (Woodland Hills, CA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
In this book, Indian immigrant to America and Newsweek editor Fareed Zakaria gives us a short overview of the post-Cold War world and a call for renewed and intelligent American leadership of the world.
His view of what is happening in the world is simple. America won the Cold War. We did not simply win in a military sense. We also won in the sense that our model of how the economy ought to function -- free enterprise, law-based -- so totally proved its superiority at producing prosperity that the entire world is now copying us. It is our world now. Our system is the only game in town, and everyone is now playing by our rules.
The primary result of this is that, at long last, the rest of the world is starting to sprint to catch up with us economically. The big winner so far is China, which has made astonishing economic progress in the last few decades. The next big winner, far behind China but still doing remarkably well, is India, a huge democracy which has turned away from faddish left-wing economic policies (most of the time) and is finally embracing capitalism. Many other nations are doing well, in addition, but the rise of China and India are the headline stories.
Paradoxically but predictably, the American triumph has been difficult for America to adjust to. We are very accustomed to being an isolated nation, not much engaged with the world in our day to day life. We are also very accustomed to the Cold War world, in which we needed to continually strain to keep up the military confrontation with the Communists. We are not accustomed to a world which does not confront us militarily, but which does increasingly beat us at our own game economically.
The result, oddly and unfortunately, is that the time of American triumph has been one in which our mood is increasingly paranoid and withdrawn. Zakaria spends much of the second part of his book on a very eloquent paen to America, which only an immigrant could have written, in which he tries to call us away from paranoia and fear of the world and back to our better nature. I found this part of the book very valuable.
My general political perspective is conservative, and I think that Zakaria provides a much-needed corrective to much recent conservative thought on foreign policy. Conservatives recently have had a circle-the-wagons attitude toward the world, in which there is a great deal of stress upon the threat of Islamic terrorism and the problems caused by illegal immigration to America, primarily from Mexico. This mood is perhaps best exemplified by Mark Steyn's book, America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It. In that book, Steyn focused upon the demographic decline of our traditional allies in Western Europe. He argued that, as our long-time allies decline, America is increasingly alone, in a world filled with our enemies.
Zakaria gives us a much sunnier and more nuanced view, which I think is much more realistic. Yes, Europe is declining demogaphically, as is Japan and (oddly) China. Yes, Europe's relative position in the world is declining. But, Europe is still doing fairly well, in most ways. More important, America retains enormous power and influence in the world. We remain the world's most powerful nation, economically, politically and militarily.
The rest of the world does not wish to be our foe, argues Zakaria. Rather, the rest of the world wishes to share in the prosperity which our system creates. Yes, America needs to adjust its attitude, he argues, to show more respect for other cultures. Yes, we need to understand that there are other powers in the world, whose feelings and needs we need to pay some attention to. But, why is that a bad thing? America never wanted to be an empire which made the whole world fear us. Rather, we also wanted to transform the world with our democratic and free enterprise values. Be happy, says Zakaria, we are getting what we wanted.
Insightful look at world politics August 19, 2009
J. Branham
Fareed Zakaria takes a careful look at global changes and provides a valuable insight into policy decisions that our country should be making in order to remain a true world leader. I have heard some criticize Mr. Zakaria saying that he is anti-American. Mr. Zakaria actually strongly supports the United States and writes about how the US should respond to world changes that are occurring.
This should be a mandatory read for politicians and citizens. Mr. Zakaria talks at length about the damaging the polarized political landscape is to the future of our country. We should all take heed and make some changes.
The book is very easy to read and dutifully researched.
Showing reviews 26-30 of 258
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