COVER:
BOOK EXCERPT - 'THE POST-AMERICAN WORLD'
By FAREED ZAKARIA
IN EVERY ASPECT OF LIFE, PATTERNS OF THE PAST
ARE BEING SCRAMBLED, 'AND -FOR THE FIRST IN LIVING MEMORY-THE UNITED STATES
DOES NOT SEEM TO BE LEADING THE CHARGE'
----
'THIS
IS SOMETHING MUCH BROADER THAN THE MUCH-BALLYHOOED RISE OF CHINA OR EVEN ASIA.
IT IS THE RISE OF THE REST-THE REST OF THE WORLD'
New York-Americans are glum at the moment,
but the facts on the ground-unemployment numbers, foreclosure rates, deaths
from terror attacks-are simply not dire enough to explain the present
atmosphere of malaise, writes Newsweek International Editor Fareed Zakaria in
his forthcoming book, "The Post-American World," which is excerpted
on the cover of the current issue of Newsweek. "American anxiety springs
from something much deeper, a sense that large and disruptive forces are
coursing through the world," Zakaria writes. "In almost every industry,
in every aspect of life, it feels like the patterns of the past are being
scrambled ... And-for the first time in living memory-the United States does
not seem to be leading the charge. Americans see that a new world is coming
into being, but fear it is one being shaped in distant lands and by foreign
people."
He
writes, "In America, we are still debating the nature and extent of
anti-Americanism. One side says that the problem is real and worrying and that
we must woo the world back. The other says this is the inevitable price of
power and that many of these countries are envious-and vaguely French-so we can
safely ignore their griping. But while we argue over why they hate us, 'they'
have moved on, and are now far more interested in other, more dynamic parts of
the globe. The world has shifted from anti-Americanism to
post-Americanism."
Over
the last two decades, lands outside of the industrialized West have been
growing at rates that were once unthinkable, Zakaria writes in the excerpt in
the May 12 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, May 5). "While there
have been booms and busts, the overall trend has been unambiguously upward ...
This is something much broader than the much-ballyhooed rise of China or even
Asia. It is the rise of the rest-the rest of the world," he writes.
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"We
are living through the third great power shift in modern history. The first was
the rise of the Western world, around the 15th century. It produced the world
as we know it now-science and technology, commerce and capitalism, the
industrial and agricultural revolutions. It also led to the prolonged political
dominance of the nations of the Western world. The second shift, which took
place in the closing years of the 19th century, was the rise of the United
States. Once it industrialized, it soon became the most powerful nation in the
world, stronger than any likely combination of other nations.
"For
the last 20 years, America's superpower status in every realm has been largely
unchallenged-something that's never happened before in history, at least since
the Roman Empire dominated the known world 2,000 years ago. During this Pax
Americana, the global economy has
accelerated dramatically. And that expansion is the driver behind the third
great power shift of the modern age-the rise of the rest.
"At
the military and political level, we still live in a unipolar world. But along
every other dimension-industrial, financial, social, cultural-the distribution
of power is shifting, moving away from American dominance. In terms of war and
peace, economics and business, ideas and art, this will produce a landscape
that is quite different from the one we have lived in until now-one defined and
directed from many places and by many peoples."
# # #
(Read excerpt at www.Newsweek.com)
