Case report
Fareed Zakaria: The Post-American World, New York: W. Norton & Company, 2008.
Saša Čvrljak
; Institute for International Relations, IMO, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Fareed Zakaria is one of the most influential US public intellectuals. He is the editor of the Newsweek International, his political magazine Fareed Zakaria GPS is broadcasted on the CNN and is a regular guest on the World Economic Forums in Davos. He was born in India and later studied Political Science at Yale and Harvard, where he received his Ph.D. These references determine him as the suitable analyst of the current global political and economic transformation that he elaborates in his book. Author analyzes the rise of new centers of power like China and India in the context of economic and cultural globalization and their consequences for the American global position. Zakaria argues that America has to adjust its foreign and domestic policy to the rise of new powers whose competitiveness challenge American position of the last world superpower. Thus, book is extremely relevant for the contemporary analysis of the most interesting political and economic developments in the world. Zakaria develops lucid and intelligent account of the globalized world and the US place in it. His logic is smoothly elaborated with lots of historical analogies and unique mix of foreign policy, economy and cultural studies that provides holistic but at the same time sharp insight of the nowadays world. What gives this book an added value is an approach that goes beyond the sole considerations of the US global role like in the works of Kevin Kagan or Zbigniew Brzezinski. Zakaria's style resembles Thomas Friedman's analysis of globalization; just he adds more focus on the official US policy. Zakaria's book is more relevant now with the foreign policy shift of the Obama administration that has deepened ties with China, Russia and opened new stage in the relations with the Muslim world. However, it is a pity Zakaria did not analyze other centers of powers and it would be interesting to hear his opinion about the impact of the global recession on the power shift in the post-American world. Still, despite holding a pro-American stand, his analysis gives deeper insight about the temporary world. Therefore, I strongly recommend this book to students, researches and scholars of international relations as well as policy makers worldwide.
Keywords
United States; China; India; foreign policy; economy
Hrčak ID:
59901
URI
Publication date:
1.6.2010.
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