Fareed Zakaria’s The Post-American World is an enjoyable read. Most would recognize his CNN show Fareed Zakaria GPS. He has also participated in the World Economic Forum in Davos. The bottom line: The US is not falling behind, but rather quite simply the world is catching up. Some amazing technologies are lifting the citizens of the poorest third world countries.
The biggest elephant in his book is how America’s educational system needs a much required re-boot in order to compete against tomorrow’s global students who have access to free tools including Linux. Or new technology like water pumps in Africa. He references Tom Friedman‘s The World is Flat: a Brief History of the Twenty-First Century
Zakaria was able to simply convey that America remains the top country for innovation, technology and Intellectual Property but India and China are catching up by introducing more of their citizens to the global economy. India is first only in population growth while the level of poverty slowly dropped.
While true to some extent the reader may be surprised to see the detail about how splintered Al-Qaeda has become. In Iraq for example the aim of this terrorist group has moved from targeting American and Israel to fighting other Muslim warlords and religious groups for control of Al-Qaeda’s future.
It should be noted Zakaria also addresses the issues of global climante and energy. But to again point to Friedman’s Hot, Flat, and Crowded 2.0: Why We Need a Green Revolution–and How It Can Renew America not a lot of new ideas or information.
Overall Zakaria’s book is a gentle wake up call for America and is much smoother on the American reader than Mark Steyn’s America Alone. The war in Iraq and Afghanistan while critical, reveals Al-Qaeda‘s struggle since 9/11 to deliver any significant violence on American soil. Why? Zakaria’s position is that Bin Laden has been so tightly curtailed, his organization still under a microscope has evolved into a communications company and is no longer a true terrorist organization.
Tags: Fareed Zakaria, Globalization, education, China, India, , energy, population, poverty, technology, Tom Friedman, terrorist, trends