The Post-American World

A new phenomenon is occurring in the world, and Fareed Zakaria describes it with clarity in his book The Post-American World: The Rise of the Rest.

In other words, it is the rise of other countries that act with increasingly greater autonomy against the most powerful nation in history, the United States. It’s not so much that this nation is in decline, but that the presence of other people and organizations, with greater influence and impact, is more noticeable on the world stage. Power is being distributed, and the dominance of the U.S. has been reduced. It is a new world, says Zakaria: A post-American world.

According to the analysts, we are living in the third stage of a historical period that began at least 500 years ago. The first stage was the triumph of the West, which inaugurated modern science, culture and commerce, as well as the Industrial Revolution, capitalism and the political leadership of a handful of nations. Then, in the 20th century came the success of the United States as a world power, with a military and economic dominion without precedent. Now we are seeing the rise of other nations like China and India, which are growing rapidly.

The facts are clear. Between 2006 and 2007, 124 countries have grown economically at a rate above 4 percent. Even in Africa, which was once thought of as a lost continent, many of its countries are democratic and are growing at acceptable levels. Inflation has finally been brought under control, to the point that in 2007 only 23 countries had an inflation rate greater than 10 percent. Globalization, thanks to advances in technology, is a widespread reality. In the Middle East, the economies of countries like Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia are expanding; we are seeing this in Brazil and Chile too. Over the last 20 years, Zakaria points out, around 2 billion people have left poverty and entered international markets. Today, half of global growth is attributed to emerging markets.

Democracy and capitalism have prevailed worldwide, but each country practices it in its own way and with its own results. The West does not dominate the stage anymore. Of the four largest economies in the world, three are non-Western: Japan, China and India. The Chinese economy has doubled every eight years over three decades. The 20 fastest growing cities in the world are Chinese. The U.S. remains the most powerful country in terms of its economy and military, and its cultural influence remains immense as well, but modernity is no longer defined only by Europe and the U.S. The world order has an increasingly cosmopolitan face.

For 30 years the greatest of everything was in the U.S.: the tallest building, the largest shopping center, the longest dam, the biggest Ferris wheel. Today, none of these are in the U.S. An example of what is happening globally, says Zakaria, is tennis. In the 1970s, three Anglo-Saxon countries (The U.S., England and Australia) dominated the sport. In 2007, the 16 best players in the world came from 10 different countries. It isn’t that the United States is playing poorly but rather that now everyone is playing tennis. And that will be the challenge the U.S. will face in the future, says Zakaria: how to maintain its influence in a world that it will no longer dominate.