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Informed, witty, and armed with a traveler’s intuition for blending into diverse cultures, Khanna depicts second-world societies from the inside out, observing how globalization divides them into winners and losers–and shows how China, Europe, and America use their unique imperial gravities to pull the second-world countries into their orbits. Along the way, Khanna explains how Arabism and Islamism compete for the Arab soul, reveals how Iran and Saudi Arabia play the superpowers against one another, unmasks Singapore’s inspirational role in East Asia, and psychoanalyzes the second-world leaders whose decisions are reshaping the balance of power.
Khanna, a widely recognized expert on global politics, offers an study of the 21st century's emerging "geopolitical marketplace" dominated by three "first world" superpowers, the U.S., Europe and China. Each competes to lead the new century, pursuing that goal in the "third world": select eastern European countries, east and central Asia, the Middle East Latin America, and North Africa. The U.S. offers military protection and aid. Europe offers deep reform and economic association. China offers full-service, condition-free relationships. Each can be appealing; none has obvious advantages. The key to Khanna's analysis, however, is his depiction of a "second world": countries in transition. They range in size and population from heavily peopled states like Brazil and Indonesia to smaller ones such as Malaysia. Khanna interprets the coming years as being shaped by the race to win the second world-and in the case of the U.S., to avoid becoming a second-world country itself. The final pages of his book warn eloquently of the risks of imperial overstretch combined with declining economic dominance and deteriorating quality of life. By themselves those pages are worth the price of a book that from beginning to end inspires reflection. (Mar. 11)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information
From the Hardcover edition.
Preface to the Paperback Edition ix
Introduction: Inter-Imperial Relations xiii
Part I: The West's East
1 Brussels: The New Rome 3
2 The Russian Devolution 10
3 Ukraine: From Border to Bridge 16
4 The Balkans: Eastern Questions 26
5 Turkey: Marching East and West 36
6 The Caucasian Corridor 47
Conclusion: Stretching Europe 60
Part II: Affairs of the Heartland
7 The Silk Road and the Great Game 65
8 The Russia That Was 71
9 Tibet And Xinjiang: The New Bamboo Curtain 78
10 Kazakhstan: "Happiness is Multiple Pipelines" 85
11 Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan: Sovereign of Everything, Master of Nothing 93
12 Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan: Men Behaving Badly 98
13 Afghanistan and Pakistan: Taming South-Central Asia 108
Conclusion: A Change of Heart 115
Part III: The End of the Monroe Doctrine
14 The New Rules of the Game 121
15 Mexico: The Umbilical Cord 132
16 Venezuela: Bolivar's Revenge 137
17 Colombia: the Andean Balkans? 144
18 Brazil: The Southern Pole 152
19 Argentina and Chile: Very Fraternal Twins 159
Conclusion: Beyond Monroe 166
Part IV: In Search of the "Middle East"
20 The Shattered Belt 171
21 The Maghreb: Europe's Southern Shore 176
22 Egypt: Between Bureaucrats and Theocrats 191
23 The Mashreq: Road Maps 204
24 The Former Iraq: Buffer, Black Hole, and Broken Boundary 220
25 Iran: Virtues and Vices 227
26 Gulf Streams 234
Conclusion: Arabian Sand Dunes 252
Part V: Asia for Asians
27 From Outside in to Inside Out 257
28 China's First-World Seduction 269
29 Malaysia and Indonesia: The GreaterChinese Co-Prosperity Sphere 278
30 Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam: The Inner Triangle 292
31 Size Matters: The Four Chinas 300
Conclusion: The Search for Equilibrium in a Non-American World 321
Acknowledgments 343
Bibliography 353
Notes 377
Index 443
Anonymous
Posted March 6, 2008
'The Second World' is a great book that the author 'Parag Khanna' does an awesome job to describe the world. When you read the chapters,you feel like you are there with his smooth writing, anyone can read from all ages and can get the idea.You can just read in a day and you will see you won't let go from your hands. I enjoy reading it. I just congrat to the author to give us a book like this. I am sure that many people who reads the book around the world would agree with me! Just an exceptional book! Bestseller for sure!
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Overview
In The Second World, scholar Parag Khanna, chosen as one of Esquire’s 75 Most Influential People of the Twenty-First Century, reveals how America’s future depends on its ability to compete with the European Union and China to forge relationships with the Second World, the pivotal regions of Eastern Europe, Central Asia, South America, the Middle East, and East Asia that are growing in influence and economic strength.Informed, witty, and armed with a traveler’s intuition for blending into diverse cultures, Khanna depicts second-world societies from the inside out, observing how globalization divides them into winners and losers–and shows how China, Europe, and America use their unique ...