The New Silk Roads
The New Asia and the Remaking of the World Order
-
-
3.8 • 26 Ratings
-
-
- $11.99
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
From the bestselling author of The Silk Roads comes an updated, timely, and visionary book about the dramatic and profound changes our world is undergoing right now—as seen from the perspective of the rising powers of the East.
"All roads used to lead to Rome. Today they lead to Beijing." So argues Peter Frankopan in this revelatory new book.
In the age of Brexit and Trump, the West is buffeted by the tides of isolationism and fragmentation. Yet to the East, this is a moment of optimism as a new network of relationships takes shape along the ancient trade routes. In The New Silk Roads, Peter Frankopan takes us on an eye-opening journey through the region, from China's breathtaking infrastructure investments to the flood of trade deals among Central Asian republics to the growing rapprochement between Turkey and Russia. This important book asks us to put aside our preconceptions and see the world from a new—and ultimately hopeful—perspective.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The dawning "Asian century" will orbit an axis stretching from China to the Mediterranean, according to this sweeping but underwhelming primer on globalization. Updating his history The Silk Roads, which identified Western-ish Asia as history's motor, Frankopan, professor of global history at Oxford, surveys the present-day burgeoning of trade, construction, and economic relationships knitting Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, the Central Asian "stans," and the Middle East with China, Russia, and India. The book is mainly about China's rise as its "Belt and Road" initiative funds trillions of dollars of transport and energy infrastructure across Asia, Africa, and Latin America to facilitate trade, gain access to resources, and win geopolitical influence. Counterposed to Chinese dynamism is Frankopan's portrait of a divided, inward-looking Europe and an erratic, isolationist United States under Donald Trump he summarizes Trump's foreign policy message as " We're America, Bitch' " in an increasingly "irrelevant" West. He does note that Silk Road nations still suffer from corrupt, repressive governments, economic instability, and ethnic and military tensions. There's not much new in Frankopan's observations on Asian economic developments, and they probably won't convince doubters that the region's coalescence matters much to a rich, self-sufficient country such as America. The result is a weak brief for a globalist vision that doesn't quite connect the dots.
