BOOK REVIEW by Joanne B. Conrad, The Post-American World

Submitted 9-1-09:


The Post-American World
by
Fareed Zakaria

This is not a new book (copyright 2008), but a picture of the President carrying it is circulating on the Internet, and its title is worrisome. Some think it is about the world after America’s existence. The author’s first sentence is it’s “not about the decline of America but rather about the rise of everyone else.”

A better title might have been more accurate, because it is a treatise describing the world’s developing nations’ economic growth and developing influences.
There is both admiration and criticism of the U. S. and its policies, but the bulk of the book is about China, India, and other developing economies and their increasing power on the world stage and how this affects America.

The author was born in India and emigrated to the U. S. in 1982. Another book of his, The Future of Freedom, may be more revealing, but this book does not denigrate capitalism or market-based economies. Indeed, he says: “Looking at dozens of countries over decades of development,… one finds that the pattern is strong—a market-based economy that achieves middle-income status tends, over the long run, toward liberal democracy. It may be,… the single most important and well-documented generalization in political science.” Maybe this vindicates the growing public worry about the increasing government control of our economy. Zakaria says America needs to focus on its economic decline by solving economic dysfunctions…[which] are the consequences of government policies….reforms could be enacted…to trim wasteful spending and subsidies, increase savings, expand science and technology training, secure pensions, create a workable immigration process, and achieve efficient energy use,” but our dysfunctional politics prevent it. He thinks these would be easier fixed than health care, but that we are too partisan, and averse to pain and compromise.

The last chapter contains his six guidelines for America’s role: 1. Choose priorities wisely; 2. Build broad rules, not narrow interests; 3. Be Bismarck not Britain; 4. Order a la carte; 5. Think asymmetrically; and 6. Legitimacy is power, and get rid of fear and loathing at home and abroad.
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