The Big Answer

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The Amazon blurb says that The freshman book of New York Times Bestselling Author of The End of the World is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization.

An eye-opening assessment of American power and deglobalization in the bestselling tradition of The World is Flat and The Next 100 Years.

Near the end of the Second World War, the United States made a bold strategic gambit that rewired the international system. Empires were abolished and replaced by a global arrangement enforced by the U.S. Navy

Near the end of the Second World War, the United States made a bold strategic gambit that rewired the international system. Empires were abolished and replaced by a global arrangement enforced by the U.S. Navy. With all the world's oceans safe for the first time in history, markets and resources were made available for everyone. Enemies became partners.

We think of this system as normal — it is not. We live in an artificial world on borrowed time.

We live in an artificial world on borrowed time

In The Accidental Superpower: The Next Generation of American Preeminence and the Coming Global Disorder, international strategist Peter Zeihan examines how the hard rules of geography are eroding the American commitment to free trade; how much of the planet is aging into a mass retirement that will enervate markets and capital supplies; and how, against all odds, it is the ever-ravenous American economy that - alone among the developed nations - is rapidly approaching energy independence. Combined, these factors are doing nothing less than overturning the global system and ushering in a new (dis)order.

Geography will matter more than ever in a de-globalizing world, and America's geography is simply sublime

For most, that is a disaster-in-waiting, but not for the Americans. The shale revolution allows Americans to sidestep an increasingly dangerous energy market. Only the United States boasts a youth population large enough to escape the sucking maw of global aging. Most important, geography will matter more than ever in a de-globalizing world, and America's geography is simply sublime.

"Many believe that the American economy has some inherent advantages over its major competitors — a more flexible structure, stronger entrepreneurial traditions and a more demographically vibrant society. Along comes a fascinating new book that says you ain't seen nothing yet." -- Fareed Zakaria, CNN

The best aspect of the book is how Mr. Zeihan analyzes the world from 1945 to 2080 and then extrapolates how the mid-21st Century (2030-2080) will look. This final part, which reaches its conclusion in the Epilogue, is inspiring.

Instead of declining into a dystopian post-Superpower anarchy, as many today feel is our destiny, the author makes the case that the USA's role as the world's only Superpower will be enhanced

It is a very positive view of the USA. Instead of declining into a dystopian post-Superpower anarchy, as many today feel is our destiny, the author makes the case that the USA's role as the world's only Superpower will be enhanced. And, yes, he does explain why our geography is a big part of that. But the character of our people, and especially the vision of our leaders to bridge the gaps in our continental geography in order to make us a unified nation, are the largest part of the formula.

Our geography IS accidental, but our status as the world's only Superpower is deliberate. But that aside, the book has offered a clear vision of what the USA and the rest of the world is probably going to look like in 2030-2080. We make better decisions in the present if we have a good intuition of what the future will bring. The author has foreseen in specific details, not just generalities, the mid-century future of the USA and the world and has described it insightfully in this book.

USA will be utopia compared to the rest of the world in 2030 to 2080

"Zeihan, founder of Zeihan on Geopolitics, adds that America hit the jackpot, geopolitically speaking, inheriting “…the best lands in the world for a very low price in terms of blood, treasure, and time.” He downplays the claim that American power is declining, pointing out that in 1945, we produced one quarter of the world’s gross domestic product and spent as much on the military and controlled as much naval tonnage at the rest of the world combined. The change in 2014: zero. Thanks to fracking, oil and gas production are skyrocketing, and America could be energy independent in five years. Thanks to immigration and vast numbers of child-friendly single-family houses, Americans remain younger than nearly every major culture." (Source: THE ACCIDENTAL SUPERPOWER: THE NEXT GENERATION OF AMERICAN PREEMINENCE AND THE COMING GLOBAL DISORDER, Peter Zeihan, Kirkus Reviews)

The author had no idea a bumbling old fool named Biden would gain power and wreck many of the advantages the USA enjoyed

Zeihan had every right to all this optimism when he released THE ACCIDENTAL SUPERPOWER: THE NEXT GENERATION OF AMERICAN PREEMINENCE AND THE COMING GLOBAL DISORDER in 2014. Two years later, Trump would champion our fracking, oil and gas production which resulted in energy independence. However, in 2021 a bumbling old fool named Biden tried as hard as he could to wreck our great energy picture, and then he went begging for oil in the Middle East! One can easily tell that Zeihan and Trump and the majority of us Americans love this country, while Biden and Harris and Black Lives Matter and the Hamas terrorist-loving antisemitics in the superleftist Squad hate this country and its rights and freedoms and believe they'd prefer a socialist state like Venezuela. Honestly, we'd love to see them move there so they can be happy!

This palace is where the Venezuelan leaders live, while the common people starve in slums, enduring hyperinflation (53,798,500% between 2016 and April 2019), escalating hunger, disease, crime and mortality rates, and mass emigration

"Empires rise or fall depending on their geographic and geopolitical position. The United States' supreme global position is largely the result of its geopolitical situation. The United States is considering abolishing the policy that brought them global supremacy: the Bretton Woods Agreement. It established a network of free trade and introduced a shared monetary system based on the value of the dollar, which in turn was linked to the price of gold. The agreement also granted the US Navy safe travel on trade routes all around the world.

The Bretton Woods Agreement established a network of free trade and introduced a shared monetary system based on the value of the dollar, which in turn was linked to the price of gold

Demographic changes will destabilize many currently powerful economies. Europe as we know it will cease to exist and may even erupt into war. The United States will continue to thrive and forge new alliances as other nations fall apart. The weakening of the EU and the withdrawal of US overseas power will transform migration and foster terrorism." (Source: The Accidental Superpower, Peter Zeihan)

"Mr. Zeihan’s grim conclusion: The world may be headed toward a “Hobbesian period” of rivalry over resources lasting 15 years or so. Economic pressures will be intensified in many regions by aging populations that make demands on overburdened, unreplenished economies. The U.S. doesn’t escape entirely, in Mr. Zeihan’s telling, but it does better in relative terms—aided by its geographical advantages and also, for instance, by its ability to assimilate immigrants. [Enter Trump and North America’s shale oil revolution and our Superpower status is assured. Nikki Haley or Ron DeSantis would make better presidents than Trump, but Trump will do if he's not jailed by the witch hunt crooks of the Biden administration—or even if he is! A roadkill corpse would make a better president than Biden.]

The world is indeed going to hell, but the Americans will not go with it

"Only in the conclusion to “The Accidental Superpower” does the author overreach, declaring that “the world is indeed going to hell, but the Americans are going to sit this one out.” After his having done such a good job of explaining the nature of U.S. power and the threats to global order, the triumphalist tone of the final pages is jarring. Still, anyone seeking a cogent, and provocative, take on where the world is heading should start here. Even if you don’t fall in love with maps, you’ll never look at them the same way again. (Source: , The Coming Hobbesian World, Liam Denning, Wall Street Journal)