The End of the World Is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization

by Peter Zeihan

Overview

A New York Times Bestseller!

2019 was the last great year for the world economy.

For generations, everything has been getting faster, better, and cheaper. Finally, we reached the point that almost anything you could ever want could be sent to your home within days - even hours - of when you decided you wanted it.

America made that happen, but now America has lost interest in keeping it going.

Globe-spanning supply chains are only possible with the protection of the U.S. Navy. The American dollar underpins internationalized energy and financial markets. Complex, innovative industries were created to satisfy American consumers. American security policy forced warring nations to lay down their arms. Billions of people have been fed and educated as the American-led trade system spread across the globe.

All of this was artificial. All this was temporary. All this is ending.

In The End of the World is Just the Beginning, author and geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan maps out the next world: a world where countries or regions will have no choice but to make their own goods, grow their own food, secure their own energy, fight their own battles, and do it all with populations that are both shrinking and aging.

The list of countries that make it all work is smaller than you think. Which means everything about our interconnected world - from how we manufacture products, to how we grow food, to how we keep the lights on, to how we shuttle stuff about, to how we pay for it all - is about to change.

A world ending. A world beginning. Zeihan brings readers along for an illuminating (and a bit terrifying) ride packed with foresight, wit, and his trademark irreverence. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063230477
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	06/14/2022
Pages:	512
Sales rank:	3,734
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.70(d)
Age Range:	3 Months

About the Author

Peter Zeihan is a geopolitical strategist and the founder of the consulting firm Zeihan on Geopolitics. His clients include energy corporations, financial institutions, business associations, agricultural interests, universities, and the U.S. military. He is the author of The Accidental Superpower and The Absent Superpower. He lives in Colorado.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Section I The End of an Era

How the Beginning Began 9

Enter the Accidental Superpower 25

And Now for Something Completely Different 36

The Story of … Us 42

History Speeds Up 47

Learning a Scary Word 62

The End of More 68

Messy, Messy Models 80

The Last Bits of More 89

A Quick Note from the Author … and Moscow 105

Section II Transport

The Long, Long Road 109

Breaking Free: Industrializing Transport 117

The Americanization of Trade 123

The Great Unmaking 136

Harbors in the Storm 148

Section III Finance

Currencies: Navigating the Road Less Traveled 163

Adventures in Capital 179

Disaster Is Relative 195

The End of More, Redux: Demographics and Capital 199

A Credit Compendium 204

Finagling Future Financing Failures 211

Section IV Energy

Harpooning Progress 221

The Order's Order for Oil 228

The Map of Oil: Contemporary Edition 232

There's More to Oil than Oil 249

Fueling the Future 276

Section V Industrial Materials

Disassembling History 281

The Essential Materials 291

The Future Materials 297

The Always Materials 302

The Funky Materials 307

The Reliable Materials 311

This Is How the World Ends 319

Section VI Manufacturing

Crafting the World We Know 323

The Map of the Present 335

The Map of the Future 351

Manufacturing a New World 374

Section VII Agriculture

What's at Stake 391

The Geopolitics of Vulnerability 404

Avoiding-or Accepting-the Worst 416

Mitigating Famine 424

Expanding the Diet, Shrinking the Diet 432

Agriculture and Climate Change 442

Feeding a New World 457

The Long Ride of the Third Horseman 469

Epilogue 471

Acknowledgments 477

Index 483

Editorial Reviews

Peter Zeihan is the Nostradamus of the twenty-first century. Using geography as his analytical foundation, he’s able to explain why nations behave the way they do today, and predict with astounding accuracy how they’ll behave tomorrow. Nowhere will you find a more objective and logical examination of geopolitical currents. A masterful blend of economics, demographics, environmental factors, cultural propellers, and realpolitik. The world is changing, especially America’s role in it, and Peter navigates this journey with clarity, rigor, and wit. If your passion is politics, investing, energy, technology, international relations or just being interesting at parties, read Peter’s book.” — Jesse Watters

“Peter Zeihan’s latest work projects a future that will challenge your assumptions on how the world works, what nations are best postured to prosper, and which are fragile. The world he envisions is fraught with danger as powers rise and ebb, but not without opportunity. A worthy read to flesh out your worldview.” — Major General Patrick Donahoe, commanding general, U.S. Army Maneuver Center of Excellence

“I’ve never been so upbeat about the end of the world. Deeply researched, powerfully argued, and well written. Zeihan stitches together insights from economic geography, demography, and history to give us an original yet intuitive theory of geopolitics.” — Ian Bremmer, president of Eurasia Group

“From time to time, we hear how ‘everything is going to change.’ None of us ever believe it. Now I do.” — Bill Owens, former governor of Colorado

“Peter Zeihan has done it again! The End of the World Is Just the Beginning offers a glimpse of the future by looking to the past. The geopolitics and demography that gave us our ‘perfect moment’ in history is passing. What is in store for us and generations to come? Move Zeihan’s latest to the top of your stack and find out.” — Jack Carr, former Navy SEAL sniper and number one New York Times bestselling author of In the Blood

“I found Peter Zeihan’s description of the future to be both plausible and provocative. Regardless of the details of how the next decades unfold, Zeihan’s book convinced me that it is at our own peril that we assume the future will look just like the present. Now more than ever, all our children—regardless of race—need to be equipped with a portable and flexible skill set that will enable them to adapt to circumstances and opportunities that we can’t even imagine right now.” — Robert L. Woodson Sr., founder and president of the Woodson Center, 1776 Unites, Voices of Black Mothers United

From the Publisher

Peter Zeihan has done it again! The End of the World Is Just the Beginning offers a glimpse of the future by looking to the past. The geopolitics and demography that gave us our ‘perfect moment’ in history is passing. What is in store for us and generations to come? Move Zeihan’s latest to the top of your stack and find out.

Jack Carr

From time to time, we hear how ‘everything is going to change.’ None of us ever believe it. Now I do.

Bill Owens

I’ve never been so upbeat about the end of the world. Deeply researched, powerfully argued, and well written. Zeihan stitches together insights from economic geography, demography, and history to give us an original yet intuitive theory of geopolitics.

Ian Bremmer

Peter Zeihan is the Nostradamus of the twenty-first century. Using geography as his analytical foundation, he’s able to explain why nations behave the way they do today, and predict with astounding accuracy how they’ll behave tomorrow. Nowhere will you find a more objective and logical examination of geopolitical currents. A masterful blend of economics, demographics, environmental factors, cultural propellers, and realpolitik. The world is changing, especially America’s role in it, and Peter navigates this journey with clarity, rigor, and wit. If your passion is politics, investing, energy, technology, international relations or just being interesting at parties, read Peter’s book.

Jesse Watters

I found Peter Zeihan’s description of the future to be both plausible and provocative. Regardless of the details of how the next decades unfold, Zeihan’s book convinced me that it is at our own peril that we assume the future will look just like the present. Now more than ever, all our children—regardless of race—need to be equipped with a portable and flexible skill set that will enable them to adapt to circumstances and opportunities that we can’t even imagine right now.

Robert L. Woodson Sr.

Peter Zeihan’s latest work projects a future that will challenge your assumptions on how the world works, what nations are best postured to prosper, and which are fragile. The world he envisions is fraught with danger as powers rise and ebb, but not without opportunity. A worthy read to flesh out your worldview.

Major General Patrick Donahoe

2022-03-15
Geopolitical strategist Zeihan argues that we are heading toward a period of deglobalization, with ensuing chaos and disaster.

The author believes that the period between 1980 and 2015 was an aberration in human history: an era of plenty, reliability, and relative stability. Going forward from 2022, he writes, everything is going to become more expensive and more difficult to obtain. He traces part of the problem to demographic struggles, as rapidly aging populations are leading to significant decreases in viable labor forces. Another issue is the withdrawal of American leadership on the global state, including the protection of the vital sea lanes that made globalization possible. The most recognizable element is climate change, undermining food production in key parts of the world. Zeihan predicts that nations will increasingly resort to aggressive tactics to ensure their own security, with the emergence of regional blocs dominated by the player with the biggest guns. Countries that depend on trade will find it tough going. The U.S. is in the best position due to its natural resources, agricultural capacity, industrial base, and inherent adaptability. However, notes the author, radical reform and increased costs are inevitable. Zeihan is enthusiastic in his writing, and he covers a great deal of territory, some of it in superficial or questionable fashion. Are countries really going to develop their own pirate fleets to seize supply ships? Will the U.S. establish a quasi-empire of the Americas, using food as a weapon of intimidation? Is China facing collapse within a decade? Predictions of world-ending resource depletion and geopolitical disaster have been made before—and often. The Club of Rome and Paul Ehrlich were saying it in the 1970s, and their fears turned out to be misplaced. Humans face significant obstacles, but that has been the case for centuries. The climate crisis, however, has never been more urgent. Zeihan captures that sense, at least, but his cynicism was more palatable in Disunited Nations.

The book has entertainment value, but some of the material should be taken with many grains of salt.

Kirkus Reviews