Gideon Rachman Boeken

Selected as a Book of the Year by Evening Standard The West's domination of world politics is coming to a close. The flow of wealth and power is turning from West to East and a new era of global instability has begun. Easternisation is the defining trend of our age - the growing wealth of Asian nations is transforming the international balance of power. This shift to the East is shaping the lives of people all over the world, the fate of nations and the great questions of war and peace. A troubled but rising China is now challenging America's supremacy, and the ambitions of other Asian powers - including Japan, North Korea, India and Pakistan - have the potential to shake the whole world. Meanwhile the West is struggling with economic malaise and political populism, the Arab world is in turmoil and Russia longs to reclaim its status as a great power. We are at a turning point in history: but Easternisation has many decades to run. Gideon Rachman offers a road map to the turbulent process that will define the international politics of the twenty-first century.

We are in a new era. From Trump, Putin and Bolsonaro to Erdogan, Xi and Modi, self-styled strongmen have become a central feature of global politics. At home, they claim to be standing up for ordinary people against 'globalist' elites; abroad, they posture as the embodiment of their nation. And everywhere they go, they encourage a cult of personality. How and why did this new style of authoritarian leadership arrive? How likely is it to lead the world into war and economic collapse? And what liberal forces are in place, not only to keep these strongmen in check but to reverse the trend? The Age of the Strongman explores these essential questions and offers a bold new portrait of our world.