World Order 2.0

We live in a time when trends once considered irreversible—globalization, unipolarity, even democracy—have proven no longer to be.  Just turn on your TV, and you will realize quickly these are no ordinary times.  It will not be business as usual in a world of disorder and confusion.  To understand the world, I know of no better book than A World in Disarray:  American Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Old  Order by Richard Haass. Dr. Hass is also the President of the Council on Foreign Relations.  

The book is an appropriate study of a world increasingly defined by the disorder and turmoil.  Haass looks at the history of world order from the rise of the modern state system to the end of the Cold War.  He also accounts for the significant shifts in the last three decades to shed light on the current state of affairs and attempts to outline specific steps to tackle the many challenges ahead.  

Haass argues the key elements of world order that have helped the world well since WWII have mostly run their course. Just take a look at the Middle East and how it is unraveling.  Asia is faced with China's rise and a reckless North Korea.  Europe, for many years the world's most stable continent, is staggering under the pressure of prolonged low economic growth, anger over recent immigration, and a rise in populism and nationalism in many capitals. 

The election of Donald Trump and Brexit signal that many in modern democracies reject globalization in global involvement, including borders open to trade and immigrants as well as a willingness to maintain political alliances and overseas commitments.   On top of all these issues, the threats of terrorism, the spread of nuclear weapons, climate change and cybersecurity "it is painfully evident that the twenty-first century will prove extremely difficult to manage,"  says Haass.  

Richard Haass makes the case that the world needs a new operating system, which he calls World Order 2.0, which reflects the reality that power is divided and that borders count for less.  

In a world where power and authority have become decentralized and respected no borders, we genuinely need an updated operating system, one that provides a new method for conducting diplomacy.  

This book is a brilliant approach for a troubled world of today.