the post american world and the rise of the rest

Many nations outside the industrialized West have been growing at rates that were once unthinkable. Of course, some of these lists are a bit silly, but they actually do reflect a seismic shift in power and attitudes.įor the last 20 years, America's superpower status has been largely unchallenged-something that hasn't happened since the Roman Empire dominated the known world 2,000 years ago.īut at the same time, the global economy has accelerated dramatically.

Just 10 years ago, the United States-which for the last century has been used to leading the world-would have topped all these lists.

And in the most recent Forbes rankings, only two of the world's 10 richest people are American. The biggest movie industry is India's Bollywood, not Hollywood. The largest passenger airplane is built in Europe. The largest publicly traded company is in China. 'Countries are becoming more open, market-friendly, and democratic.' Even most of Africa, considered hopeless not long ago, is making major strides, he says.The world's tallest building is now in Dubai. 'The world is going America's way,' he says. will suffer from what he calls 'the rise of the rest.' In fact, America may well profit from the change if it plays its cards right. foreign policy to General Motors' (GM) 1970s business strategy, 'an approach driven by internal factors with little sense of the broader environment in which it was operating.' But, Zakaria says, it's far from certain that the U.S. following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 has 'made Washington careless, arrogant, and lazy.' He compares U.S. What went wrong? Zakaria says the preeminence of the U.S. is now an enfeebled superpower, and anti-American sentiment is high 'everywhere from Great Britain to Malaysia.' Yet by almost any measure-problems solved, success achieved, institutions built, reputation enhanced-Washington has played this hand badly.' As a result, he argues, the U.S. ' has had an extraordinary hand to play in global politics-the best of any country in history.

has squandered opportunities in the past few years. Zakaria, a native of India and the editor of Newsweek International, argues that the U.S. Here's a brief excerpt from the review by Stanley Reed: The Post-American World is Fareed Zakaria's analysis of the new era we're entering, where America will not have the global dominance it has experienced since the end of the Cold War. If you enjoy reading both history and business books, check out BusinessWeek's recent review of what might be the next book on your pile.

The post american world and the rise of the rest