April 6, 2009
Starobin, staff correspondent for the National Journal
, delivers a meticulously researched and up-to-the-minute analysis of the United States’ role in global politics, culture and society. Arguing that the U.S. has reached the end of its tenure as a unipolar superpower, Starobin analyzes the weaknesses in America’s political and economic institutions that have led to a widening gap in prosperity (both within its own borders and vis-à-vis other developed nations) and hindered its ability to set the pace of progress. He demonstrates how theories of widespread chaos in a post-American era are constructed, using as an example the fall of Pakistan’s Pervez Musharraf, America’s key ally against the Taliban in Afghanistan—but he shies away from this model, suggesting how the new world order might be one in which power is assumed by another nation (possibly China) or shared among several (India, Brazil and the E.U.). He also questions the validity of classically defined nation-states in favor of the possibility that economic and social interactions between cross-national regions, powerful city-states or global movements might supersede the relevance of individual nations. The result is a narrative of extraordinary range and contemporary relevance.
August 3, 2009
Following in the footsteps of Fareed Zakaria's The Post-American World, Starobin lays out a case for the possibilities and perils of a new era in global politics in which the U.S. no longer unquestioningly reigns. Lloyd James reads with a studied casualness, riding the wave of Starobin's allusive line of thinking and artfully mimicking Starobin's anti-inflammatory narrative, the harmoniousness of his voice transmitting the author's lack of panic at the prospect of the post-American world. A Viking hardcover (Reviews, Apr. 6).