The Grand Chessboard
American Primacy And Its Geostrategic Imperatives
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
From one of America’s leading geopolitical thinkers, the classic treatise on America's strategic mission in the modern world
“The Grand Chessboard makes permanent contributions to the national debate over American foreign policy and power.”―Los Angeles Times
In this seminal work, celebrated political scientist Zbigniew Brzezinski delivers a provocative, revolutionary geostrategy for American preeminence in the twenty-first century. The United States’ crucial task, he argues, is to become the sole political arbiter in Eurasia and prevent the emergence of any rival power threatening our material and diplomatic interests. The Eurasian landmass, home to the greatest part of the globe's population, natural resources, and economic activity, is the “grand chessboard” on which Brzezinski argues that America's supremacy will be ratified and challenged. With signature insight and lucidity, Brzezinski spans from the collapse of the Soviet Union to the Russo-Ukrainian War and the rise of China.
The Grand Chessboard is a landmark work, both in Brzezinski’s oeuvre and in the field of political science. It remains an essential, powerful blueprint for protecting America's most vital interests in Eurasia and beyond.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Not everyone will agree that the U.S. must "perpetuate own dominant position for at least a generation and preferably longer," but former National Security Adviser Brzezinski offers a meticulously detailed argument for how and why we should. He begins with a quick review of every empire in history and how they compare with America, which he concludes is the first truly global power. He then argues that "Eurasia is... the chessboard on which the struggle for global primacy continues to be played," and moves on to equally brief but comprehensive accounts of political developments there, ranging over entire histories and concluding with how America can best balance power in the region. While it seems overly ambitious to attempt to cover this much ground in a short work, Brzezinski succeeds. He is less convincing, however, when he strays from geopolitics and claims that America is internally threatened by being "fixated on mass entertainment... heavily dominated by hedonistic and socially escapist themes." Those who are uncomfortable with his initial premise will be relieved by his conclusion: America's ultimate destiny is to give up its primacy in exchange for "an enduring framework of global geopolitical cooperation."
