Moving beyond Fareed Zakaria's best-selling The Post-American World, veteran international correspondent Paul Starobin masterfully mixes fresh reportage with rigorous historical analysis to envision a world in which the United States is no longer the dominant superpower.The American Century has passed, argues Starobin, due in large part to America's military overreach in the Middle East; resurgent nationalism and economic expansion in Russia, China, and India; the tarnished American model of unfettered free-market capitalism; and the growth of transnational cultural, political, and economic institutions. Following an insightful analysis of America's global ascendancy, Starobin explores five possible scenarios for the future: an age of chaos like the one following the collapse of the Roman Empire; a multipolar order of nations in which America would be one great power among others; China becoming the dominant superpower; an age of global city-states; or a form of world government. A concluding section of the book explores how California---the eighth largest economy in the world and demographically and technologically among the most sophisticated spots on the planet---is already starting to move beyond the American Century.
Thought-provoking and well argued, After America serves as an urgent catalyst to discussing America's evolving role in a dramatically changing world. Starobin's tone is sober but in the end hopeful---the world after America need not be a disaster for America, and it might even be liberating.