After America: Narratives for the Next Global Age

After America: Narratives for the Next Global Age
Paul Starobin | 2009-05-28 00:00:00 | Viking Adult | 368 | Politics
Farsighted and fascinating predictions for a new world order in which America is no longer number one

The world is now at a hinge moment in its history, according to veteran international correspondent Paul Starobin. A once-dominant America has reached the end of its global ascendancy, and the question of what will come next, and how quickly, is not completely clear. Already the global economic crisis, in exposing the tarnished American model of unfettered free-market capitalism, is hastening the transition to the next, After America, phase of global history.

According to Starobin, the After America world is being driven less by virulent anti- Americanism than by America's middling status as a social, economic, and political innovator; by long-wave trends like resurgent nationalism in China, India, and Russia; and by the growth of transnational cultural, political, and economic institutions. While what is going to come next has not been resolved, we can discern certain narratives that are already advancing. In this sense, the After America age is already a work in progress-pregnant with multiple possibilities.

In this book, which masterfully mixes fresh reportage with rigorous historical analysis, Starobin presents his farsighted and fascinating predictions for the After America world. These possibilities include a global chaos that could be dark or happy, a multipolar order of nationstates, a global Chinese imperium, or-even more radically-an age of global city-states or a universal civilization leading to world government. Starobin feels that the question of which narrative will triumph may be determined by the fundamental question of identity: how people determine their allegiances, whether to the tribe, nation-state, city-state, or global community.

There will be surprises, Starobin thinks. In the After America world, both the nation-state and the traditional empire may lose ground to cosmopolitan forces like the city- state and the universal civilization. California-the eighth largest economy in the world and the most future- oriented place in America-is becoming an After America landscape, as illustrated by postnational, multicultural Hollywood. Prestigious educational institutions like Harvard are migrating from an American to a global identity and thus becoming part of an After America universal civilization. While these changes may feel unsettling, our best hope for adapting to an After America world is by becoming better borrowers of the best ideas and practices developed all around the planet.

Thought provoking and well argued, After America offers a way to think about a dramatically changing world in which the United States is no longer number one. Starobin's tone is sober but in the end hopeful-the age After America need not be a disaster for America, and might even be liberating.

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Between the Rule of Power and the Power of Rule (International Relations Studies Series)

Between the Rule of Power and the Power of Rule (International Relations Studies Series)
Staden,A. | 2007-05-30 00:00:00 | MNP | 252 | Politics
The book discusses different models of world order, traditional and modern. Any practical application of the concept at issue will be affected by the prevailing power structure, and to some degree, reflect it. The reality of American preeminence in the world today needs to be reconciled with the demand for international legitimacy.

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Evangelicals and Politics in Asia, Africa and Latin America

Evangelicals and Politics in Asia, Africa and Latin America
Paul Freston | 2001-04-02 00:00:00 | Cambridge University Press | 360 | Politics
Paul Freston's book is a pioneering comparative study of the political aspects of the new mass evangelical Protestantism of sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and parts of Asia. The book examines twenty-seven countries from the three major continents of the Third World, burrowing deep into the specificities of each country's religious and political fields. The conclusion looks at the implications of evangelical politics for democracy, nationalism and globalization. This unique account of the politics of global evangelicalism will be of interest across disciplines and in many different parts of the world.
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Freston gives a dramatic overview of popular Christian movements across the world's southern continents. He describes people little-known in the North, but who are making enormous differences in shaping the future of Christianity. These include activists for democracy, female church leaders in Shanghai, prophet-founders of African "new religions", and preachers of the worldwide Pentacostalist movement. Many of these leaders have unique versions of the Christian message. Some are reactionaries for Christian theocracy. Many blend ancient beliefs with a passion for justice. In Brazil, Freston shows a rising evangelical movement coming up the middle between the old camps of conservatives and progressives. One preacher he cites calls for a "spiritual warfare" against evil spirits, for the sake of compassion toward the poor:



"Demons must be expelled from social life in the name of the vote, justice, organization, and democracy, by the power of the name of Jesus. ... We desire Brazil free from spiritual oppression such as hunger, misery, unemployment, inflation, corruption, organized crime ... No demons can stand against our faith." (p.39-40)



As Freston shows, the political implications of these movements will be important.



-author of Correcting Jesus



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Christianity's Impact on World Politics: Not by Might, Nor by Power (Major Concepts in Politics and Political Theory, V. 24)

Christianity's Impact on World Politics: Not by Might, Nor by Power (Major Concepts in Politics and Political Theory, V. 24)
Kurt W. Jefferson | 1900-01-01 00:00:00 | Peter Lang Publishing | 212 | Politics

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Trade-offs Among Alternative Government Interventions in the Market for Terrorism

Trade-offs Among Alternative Government Interventions in the Market for Terrorism
Rand Corporation | 2007-10-30 00:00:00 | RAND Corporation | 113 | Politics
The Department of Homeland Security is responsible for protecting the United States from terrorism. It does so partly through the Urban Areas Security Initiative, though its distribution has been criticized for not reflecting risk. This monograph offers a practical definition of terrorism risk and a method for estimating it that addresses inherent uncertainties. It also demonstrates a framework for evaluating alternative risk estimates. Finally, it makes five recommendations for improving resource allocation.
Reviews
Since the tragic events of 9/11, a myth has developed that if just the right mixture of counter terrorism strategies can be found, the U.S. can be ensured against another terrorist attack on its soil. Although this is complete nonsense, it is a myth that is embraced by politicians of every stripe and, more frightening, by many in the federal government.

As a result, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) continues to try to protect everywhere and everyone and so succeeds in not protecting anything. More seriously DHS is unable to allocate funds for emergency responses in the most vulnerable and likely terrorist targets. Indeed because it subscribes to the myth that the U.S. can be made invulnerable to terrorist attacks it does not appear to particularly interested in rational target identification, risk assessments, or creating resilience in those targets. This attitude is both foolish and dangerous.

The Rand Corporation created an aptly named unit: the Center for Terrorism Risk Management Policy (CTRMP) which has a number of functions, but in this monograph specifically attempts to advise DHS on how to first distinguish between more and less vulnerable urban targets and how to use probability theorems to assess risks to the most vulnerable targets. The CTRMP basis this monograph on the assumption that large urban areas will constitute on set of obvious terrorist targets. It is clear however that variances of the same methodology of target identification and risk assessment can be applied to other potential targets as well (i.e. thermal and hydro-electric power plants, petroleum refineries etc.). So if DHS would surprise everybody and actually adopt the CTRMP proposal would this really solve at least one thorny counter-terrorism issue? Well no it would not. There is no substitute rational thought and real knowledge of the types of terrorist enemies that the U.S. is threatened by and there is no evidence that DHS is particularly interested in knowing its terrorist enemies or thinking rationally about the threats those enemies pose.

This monograph is not an enjoyable read, but it is an important one. This reviewer would suggest reading it with Stephan Flynn's book "America the Vulnerable" ([...]) which goes into considerably more detail about the need to be able to have the resiliency to recover quickly from what must be inevitable terrorist attacks as well as natural disasters.



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Accounting in Politics: Devolution and Democratic Accountability (Routledge Studies in Accounting)

Accounting in Politics: Devolution and Democratic Accountability (Routledge Studies in Accounting)
Mahmoud Ezzamel,Noel Hyndman,Åge Johnsen,Irvine Lapsley | 2008-06-11 00:00:00 | Routledge | 192 | Politics

This book looks at the effectiveness of the 1999 restructuring of the UK through the establishment of the Scottish Parliament and the Assemblies for Northern Ireland and Wales, considering the process of devolution and its consequences on the key mechanisms of accounting and democratic accountability. Many of the chapters in this book examine whether devolution is enhancing democratic accountability, or creating a fragmentary state with conflict and tensions between the Westminster government and the devolved bodies.

The focus is on the financial mechanisms for democratic accountability both in the UK and in international comparator countries (New Zealand, Norway, and the US). This book examines the turbulent pattern of relationships between central and devolved government and explores whether the present arrangements for devolution in the UK represent an end game, or whether they may be merely a stepping stone to a more fully fledged federal state. It is argued that the main thrust of many of the financial reforms in the UK has confounded, obfuscated, and complicated the desire for democratic accountability.

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Internal Conflict and Regional Security in South Asia: Approaches, Perspectives and Policies

Internal Conflict and Regional Security in South Asia: Approaches, Perspectives and Policies
Shiva Hari Dahal | 1900-01-01 00:00:00 | United Nations Publications | 64 | Politics

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Synchronizing Science and Technology with Human Behaviour: The Co-Evolution of Sustainable Infrastructures

Synchronizing Science and Technology with Human Behaviour: The Co-Evolution of Sustainable Infrastructures
Ralf Brand | 1900-01-01 00:00:00 | Earthscan Publications Ltd. | 192 | Politics
Believing that technical and social realms are much more connected than most people concerned with sustainability tend to admit, the author has developed an innovative and practical text that encourages people to "co-design" technologies that make socially-desired behaviors more attractive. Written primarily at a community-initiative level, with practical case studies and guidelines for applying the concepts discussed, this will be invaluable for students of science and technology, regional policy and planning, and practitioners including city and regional planners, policymakers and consultants.

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