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Ethan Christian Arrow:

Opening with a quote from Arnold J. Toynbee’s A Study of History, Fareed Zakaria poses the thesis that America is standing at the crossroads between a new leadership role and a frustrated obscurity. “Growth takes place whenever a challenge evokes a successful response that, in turn, evokes a further and different challenge. We have not found any intrinsic reason why this process should not repeat itself indefinitely, even though a majority of civilizations have failed, as a matter of historical fact.”

Possessing a rather “loaded” title, Zakaria’s survey of America’s supposedly waning hegemony has think tanks and political journals alike discussing the prospects of a “post-American world.” Zakaria is not to be branded, however, as a subscriber to the American declinist canon. Rather, he prophesies the possibility of a multi-polar world, in which developing nations such as China and India play a central role, albeit alongside a still powerful, vibrant America.

Setting a new tone to these historical shifts of the current geo-political paradigm, Zakaria is nothing short of an optimist. Around the world people are alluding to coming economic recessions, the rise of ballistic nations, and even an inevitable doomsday. Through decoupling politics from economics, however, the Post-American World empirically reframes the current state of international affairs as a flourishing world, in which hundreds of millions are moving into the middle class, military conflicts are at an historical minimum and societies across the globe are willing to be active in a global society.

Zakaria centers his focus around the US, China and India, their respective positions in the current international order, and possible roles they will assume in the coming “post-American” era. China is portrayed as the competitor, an almost mysterious agent, reshaping a continent’s political substance and reluctant to abandon its long-lived notions of collective society, avoidance of principle and relative indifference to other nations.

India, on the other hand, Zakaria names an ally. Characterized as a noisy democracy lacking social cohesion and possessing a worldview not easily understood by Westerners, India is making strides in pulling a nation out of the quagmire of poverty and onto the stage of global players. Merely a recent phenomena enabled through nuclear agreements and geo-strategic cooperation, India’s close relationship with the US will continue to grow in a region with both politically destabilized nations and rapidly growing economies.

Both China and India are only beginning to realize their current strength and future potential, exactly in a time when the American model is losing its international appeal. Zakaria uses the rise and fall of the British Empire as a possible scenario for America’s future relations with nations that have traditionally hidden under her arms of military might and economic authority. But unlike the British, America must explore and exploit new constellations of power and partnership for the coming decades, in which manifestations of hard, soft and smart power may not always be equally present.

The majority of analysis is, of course, directed toward the United States and the decisions it faces. What does a post-American world look like? Is the world of global politics engaged in a zero-sum game? According to Zakaria, America is, and will continue to be the world’s most influential, dominant global player both militarily and economically. In fact, a “rise of the rest” does not perforce demand a decline of the current quintessential power. America’s challenge in the future does not lie in the struggle to maintain global, police-like authority, but rather, in choosing a path that opens the world to its influence, which in turn, continues to engage it as a legitimate leader.

What’s most striking about Zakaria is his sanguinity regarding America’s future, set within its historical context. The same appeal it had for 18^th and 19^th century Europeans, it will continue to have for intelligent, ambitious individuals across the globe. China’s economy can boom, India can assert its regional position, and the EU can offer new models of cohesion and governance, but the US’s allure of innovation, vibrant demographics and trend-setting institutions is an edge that no measure of traditional power is currently able to threaten. In this respect, Americans should not be boarding up windows in preparation for the coming crises, but rather strategically setting the course for a multi-polar, more diverse world.

Reading this book was a pleasure. Steering clear of entangling statistics and overt bias, Zakaria presents a thoughtful approach to a pressing question, which an audience with limited knowledge of America’s complex foreign relations can easily understand. Not to be earmarked for the shelves of infotainment, I believe he offers a concise summary of current global politics with a strong theoretical basis both for the citizen and the specialist.

Ethan Arrow is an editorial intern at the Atlantic Community. He is currently an MA student at the Free University of Berin, studying European Integration within the scope of German Studies.

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