End of the book!
Throughout the book, the case is clear that Parag Khanna feels like the United States is loosing its influence and is now not the only superpower in the world. In the conclusion, Khanna talks about how the three superpowers: Europe, China and America is like a stool that is wobbling (p.339). We don’t know what is going to happen in world politics in the next decades because each superpower is globalizing the second and third world nations. The second world nations are also influencing the superpowers, which makes spheres of influence extremely convoluted. The US has to be careful on how they are dealing with external affairs because each step the US misses, another country will use as an opportunity. In fact, Khanna says that if the US doesn’t realize the world situation, and keeps thinking that their way of life is the “de facto standard for the planet” (p.333), they may soon find themselves in the second world.
US needs to get off its high horse - from http://n3t.net/humor/motivation/high_horse.jpg
The most important step for the world to take for managing global order is diplomacy: “the management of international relations by negotiation” (p. 314). “The United States offers military and regime protection and aid, China offers full-service, conditionality-free relationships, and Europe offers deep reform and economic association with its union” (p.324), so each of these free powers are appealing to second world nations. With similar economic goals, these countries continue to act as “frenemies” and without diplomacy, history will repeat itself, war. Let’s end this post with Parag Khanna’s final words: “As the second world shapes both geopolitics and globalization, diplomacy becomes ever more an art” (p.341).
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