A celebrated historian from Yale University offers a chilling look at the imminent threat of the next great power war and the urgent interventions needed to avert it in the 21st century.
The majority of people alive today have grown up in a world of remarkable stability, under the control of one or two superpowers. This does not mean that the world was peaceful, but it was, to a large extent, predictable.As great powers increasingly compete for regional hegemony, as well as competitive superiority in nuclear technology, artificial intelligence, space exploration, and trade, our world is becoming more fragile, unstable, and even more vulnerable to combustion.
A global war between the current great powers seems increasingly likely. Such a war, as Odd Arne Westad powerfully argues in this important book, would be of unprecedented scale and devastation.To understand the threats facing us in this complex new realm, we must look to the lessons of the past, especially the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries – a time when great powers clashed and sought regional hegemony, nationalism and populism rose, and many felt let down by globalization; A time when tariffs rose, and immigration and terrorism were among the biggest issues of the time. An increasing number of people blamed citizens of other countries for their problems. In other words,It is a time that bears uncanny similarities to our own time.
