Grand explanations of how to understand the complex twenty-first-century world have all fallen short–until now. In The Second World, the brilliant young scholar Parag Khanna takes readers on a thrilling global tour, one that shows how America’s dominant moment has been suddenly replaced by a geopolitical marketplace wherein the European Union and China compete with the United States to shape world order on their own terms.
This contest is hottest and most decisive in the Secon... (show more)
Grand explanations of how to understand the complex twenty-first-century world have all fallen short–until now. In The Second World, the brilliant young scholar Parag Khanna takes readers on a thrilling global tour, one that shows how America’s dominant moment has been suddenly replaced by a geopolitical marketplace wherein the European Union and China compete with the United States to shape world order on their own terms.
This contest is hottest and most decisive in the Second World: pivotal regions in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and East Asia. Khanna explores the evolution of geopolitics through the recent histories of such underreported, fascinating, and complicated countries as Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Colombia, Libya, Vietnam, and Malaysia–nations whose resources will ultimately determine the fate of the three superpowers, but whose futures are perennially uncertain as they struggle to rise into the first world or avoid falling into the third.
Informed, witty, and armed with a traveler’s intuition for blending into diverse cultures, Khanna mixes copious research with deep reportage to remake the map of the world. He depicts second-world societies from the inside out, observing how globalization divides them into winners and losers along political, economic, and cultural lines–and shows how China, Europe, and America use their unique imperial gravities to pull the second-world countries into their orbits. Along the way, Khanna also explains how Arabism and Islamism compete for the Arab soul, reveals how Iran and Saudi Arabia play the superpowers against one another, unmasks Singapore’s inspirational role in East Asia, and psychoanalyzes the second-world leaders whose decisions are reshaping the balance of power. He captures the most elusive formula in international affairs: how to think like a country.
In the twenty-first century, globalization is the main battlefield of geopolitics, and America itself runs the risk of descending into the second world if it does not renew itself and redefine its role in the world.
Comparable in scope and boldness to Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History and the Last Man and Samuel P. Huntington’s The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, Parag Khanna’s The Second World will be the definitive guide to world politics for years to come.
“A savvy, streetwise primer on dozens of individual countries that adds up to a coherent theory of global politics.”
–Robert D. Kaplan, author of Eastward to Tartary and Warrior Politics
“A panoramic overview that boldly addresses the dilemmas of the world that our next president will confront.”
–Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security advisor
"Parag Khanna's fascinating book takes us on an epic journey around the multipolar world, elegantly combining historical analysis, political theory, and eye-witness reports to shed light on the battle for primacy between the world's new empires."
–Mark Leonard, Executive Director, European Council on Foreign Relations
"Khanna, a widely recognized expert on global politics, offers an study of the 21st century's emerging "geopolitical marketplace" dominated by three "first world" superpowers, the U.S., Europe and China... The final pages of his book warn eloquently of the risks of imperial overstretch combined with declining economic dominance and deteriorating quality of life. By themselves those pages are worth the price of a book that from beginning to end inspires reflection."
–Publishers Weekly (show less)
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The best part of the book is the conclusion where it presents to the US reader a combo of a wake up call and a call to action to challenge the misc... (show more)
The best part of the book is the conclusion where it presents to the US reader a combo of a wake up call and a call to action to challenge the misconceived American self-entitlement and eroding hegemony. Great primer on geopolitical players but not completely flawless. Obviously Khanna is enamored with the EU and China. He almost intentionally ignores India's impact but devotes sub sections on Egypt and the Balkan states? Weird, but a good read overall. (show less)
From the introduction, Khanna distances himself from other current theorists. In Khanna’s description of the world, there are three empires which ... (show more)
From the introduction, Khanna distances himself from other current theorists. In Khanna’s description of the world, there are three empires which are competing with each other for influence and power – the US, the EU and China. Each of these empires has differing ways of maintaining empire – the US through coalition; the EU through consensus and China through consultation. Where this new imperial game is played is in the “second world” – states that lie in the income brackets between the first and third world.
Khanna creates this model of the world and then proceeds to go through each region of the second world describing each country’s individual situation within the competing powers of the first world empires. These are fired at you at machine gun pace – most countries are covered in four to ten pages.
The speed of the survey is not the only problem. He seems to straddle between the fall of American Civilization and the rise of new institutions. He appears to make American failures couched in “culture” while its successes are in “institutions.”
His conclusions are basically that America should act as if it is a multi-polar world. But to be honest by the time you get to the end of the work you just want it to be done and don’t really care anymore. Even IR theory people don’t have to read this thing. (show less)
Read like a series of briefing notes. He rightly critizes the US but fails in his conclusion to offer needed changes to US policy. Given his admiration for the EU and the Chinese, he could have suggested ways the US could emulate their examples. I question his analysis of Venezuela (anti) and Columbia (pro) - surprisingly one sided given his balanced approach elsewhere. He alludes to but does not outright state the damage the Washington consensus and IMF shock therapy did to US credibility in... (show more)
Read like a series of briefing notes. He rightly critizes the US but fails in his conclusion to offer needed changes to US policy. Given his admiration for the EU and the Chinese, he could have suggested ways the US could emulate their examples. I question his analysis of Venezuela (anti) and Columbia (pro) - surprisingly one sided given his balanced approach elsewhere. He alludes to but does not outright state the damage the Washington consensus and IMF shock therapy did to US credibility in Latin America. Finally his dismissive attitude towards Russia and India was surprising and not justified by him. (show less)
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I was disappointed! The author tried to cover far too much territory and produced a very shallow analysis as a consequence. His overarching theory about the Second World challenging the US for world primacy was interesting but not sufficiently developed to be convincing. He paid much too little atention to the inherent difficulties some of his candidates woud have in asserting more influence on the world stage. Fareed Zakaria's latest is a much more interesting read!
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