Reddit mentions of The Post-American World

https://www.amazon.com/Post-American-World-Fareed-Zakaria/dp/0393334805

the synopsis /vomit


The world is moving from anger to indifference, from anti-Americanism to post-Americanism. The fact that new powers are more strongly asserting their interests is the reality of the post-American world. It also raises the political conundrum of how to achieve international objectives in a world of many actors, state and nonstate.

>Well, the globalism and "free trade" that our politicians and business leaders insisted would be so good for us have had some rather nasty side effects.

Ugh. Free trade is a good thing, people! The US is just doing it wrong because of hyper-protectionist attitudes like this.
I would strongly recommend Fareed Zakaria's The Post-American World to anyone. The main point I took from it is that the problem with the US today is that we globalized the rest of the world without globalizing ourselves. As a result American society as a whole is selfish and pretentious. People complain about outsourcing, but think about it from the point of view of the foreigners: they need the income too! What makes an American job more valuable than theirs? Aside from "Herp derp MURKA FUCK YEAH"

American society needs to wake up and realize we are not inherently the best at everything just because we have a military that can push everyone around.

> There are absolutely no indicators that US hegemony is in decline. In fact, every indicator is that the US is more powerful today than ever. Only whiny types like Chomsky seriously suggest American power is fading in favor of China.

You're joking right? Like, that's sarcasm?

• This dude wrote a book about the decline of the US imperial power in the face of Iraq
  
• Fareed Zakaria wrote a book in detail describing the modern decline of US hegemony
  
• Jeffrey Garten wrote an article about the decline of US hegemony:
  Is American Decline Inevitable?
  World Policy Journal
  Vol. 5, No. 1 (Winter, 1987/1988) (pp. 151-174)
  
• Michael Cox wrote an article about "the failing american empire":
  Is the United States in Decline -- Again? An Essay
  International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-)
  Vol. 83, No. 4 (Jul., 2007) (pp. 643-653)
  
• Paul MacDonald and Joseph Parent wrote an article about possible retrenchment strategies to delay the inevitable american decline of hegemony:
  Graceful Decline? The Surprising Success of Great Power Retrenchment
  International Security
  Vol. 35, No. 4 (SPRING 2011) (pp. 7-44)
  
• Timothy McKeown wrote an article about the likely future decline of US policy in the wake of the Cold War - academics predicted an end to the American Empire even before it had begun:
  The Foreign Policy of a Declining Power
  International Organization
  Vol. 45, No. 2 (Spring, 1991) (pp. 257-279)
  
  Here are some more articles on the subject:
  
  
  
• This Time It’s Real: The End of Unipolarity and the Pax Americana
  Christopher Layne
  International Studies Quarterly (2012)
  Vol. 56, 203–213
  
• Hegemony, Liberalism and Global Order: What Space for Would-Be Great Powers?
  Andrew Hurrell
  International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs), Vol. 82, No. 1,
  Perspectives on Emerging Would-Be Great Powers (Jan., 2006), pp. 1-19
  
• After Pax Americana: Benign Power, Regional Integration, and the Sources of a StableMultipolarity
  Charles A. Kupchan
  International Security, Vol. 23, No. 2 (Autumn, 1998), pp. 40-79
  
• Hegemonic overreach vs. imperial overstretch
  Dennis Florig
  Review of International Studies (2010), 36, 1103–1119
  
  Some html friendly articles:
  
  
  
• A review of Mortal Splendor: The American Empire in Transition
  
• The Decline of US Helmed Global Hegemony: the Emergence of a More Equitable Pattern of International Relations?
  
• The Decline of U.S. Hegemony: Regaining International Consent
  
• Visions: America after Hegemony
  And here's a really good forum thread on the very subject of US hegemonic decline
  
  
  I just wrote my thesis on this subject, so I have some sources..
  The theme of all these articles varies, some are about the future, some are explanatory, but the overarching theme is that the US is definitely in decline. Academia is mostly over the hump debating whether or not the US is actually in decline, and is now focused on what we can do about it to make transitions smoother.
  China has been growing tremendously faster than any other state on the globe the past few decades. At this rate, China will overtake the US in terms of gross product by (most estimates) about halfway through the mid-21st century. The reality is that in many ways, there are more economic opportunities in China than the United States - that's why many expats like the ones in this subreddit are there. As /u/hittintheairplane pointed out, it's not so much that the US is declining from it's 1990 level of economic, political, and military power as much as all the other nations are catching up. Relatively the United States is losing power, and that's all power is, relativity to others. You take any international relations course and invariably the topics include the structure of the 21st century, most professors would describe it as a shift from unipolarity to bipolarity in that while China is growing the fastest, there is no real contender to overtake the US and replace our hegemony. Rather, we're more likely to see a state structure of power like this than the bipolar political forces of the Cold War or the unipolar political power the US has today.

From the book description on Amazon : ""This is not a book about the decline of America, but rather about the rise of everyone else." So begins Fareed Zakaria's important new work on the era we are now entering. Following on the success of his best-selling The Future of Freedom, Zakaria describes with equal prescience a world in which the United States will no longer dominate the global economy, orchestrate geopolitics, or overwhelm cultures. He sees the "rise of the rest"—the growth of countries like China, India, Brazil, Russia, and many others—as the great story of our time, and one that will reshape the world. The tallest buildings, biggest dams, largest-selling movies, and most advanced cell phones are all being built outside the United States. This economic growth is producing political confidence, national pride, and potentially international problems. How should the United States understand and thrive in this rapidly changing international climate? What does it mean to live in a truly global era? Zakaria answers these questions with his customary lucidity, insight, and imagination."

Not sure if the author is really from Oz, but if he is it explains a lot.

> Mad Max is an Australian uni student hiding out in his mother's basement waiting for the singularity to arrive.

This explains his socialist view of things. Socialist meaning trying to force his own values onto a group as a whole.

According to the sidebar, darkenlightenment envisions a series of city states. Each city state would have its own rules and culture. So inevitably this would lead to competiton among city states to have the best culture. People who fail to follow the rules of that city state for most offenses would just be thrown out of the city state. The reason is that it is expensive to jail people.

What is interesting is this City State type structure is envisoned by other people like Fareed Zakaria. His book "The Post American World" explains how the re-emergence of India and China as economic powers is effecting the rest of the world. The author questions whether or not India and China will become super powers in the conventional sense.

The city state type structure is already starting to happen in both India and China. The problem is that in a rapidly changing world it is impossible to effectively run a federation.

www.amazon.com/The-Post-American-World-Fareed-Zakaria/dp/0393334805