Synopsis
The author of the groundbreaking New York Times bestseller The Pentagon's New Map brings us a remarkable analysis of the post-Bush world, and America's leadership role in it.
In civilian and military circles alike, The Pentagon's New Map became one of the most talked about books of 2004. “A combination of Tom Friedman on globalization and Carl von Clausewitz on war, [it is] the red-hot book among the nation's admirals and generals,” wrote David Ignatius in The Washington Post. Barnett's second book, Blueprint for Action, demonstrated how to put the first book's principles to work. Now, in Great Powers, Barnett delivers his most sweeping— and important—book of all.
For eight years, the current administration has done much to disconnect or alienate America from the world, but the world has certainly not been standing still. Now, with a chance to start over, what do we do? Where's the world going now, and how do we not only rejoin it but become a leader again in what has become the most profound reordering of the globe since the end of World War II?
In Great Powers, Barnett offers a tour de force analysis of the grand realignments that are both already here and coming up fast in the spheres of economics, diplomacy, defense, technology, security, the environment, and much more. The “great powers” are no longer just the world's major nation-states but the powerful forces, past, present, and future, moving with us and past us like a freight train. It is not a simple matter of a course correction but of a complete recalibration, and the opportunities it presents are far greater than the perils. Barnett gives us a fundamental understanding of both, showing us not only how the world is now but how it will be.
There are those writing now who say America is in decline . . . and we just have to deal with it. Barnett says no. Globalization as it exists today was built by America—and now it's time for America to shape and redefine what comes next. Great Powers shows us how. Bibliography. Notes. Index.
The Barnes & Noble Review
Americans may be short on certainty about how the post–Cold War, post-9/11 world runs, but we're certainly not short of big thinkers trying to sort it out. One could fill a groaning shelf with recent books trying to spot the big trends. Primus inter pares is New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman's globalization classic The World Is Flat, but there are plenty of others who've been taking careful notes from the master.