Zeihan is Malthusian, extrapolating from current trends to predict future history.īut predicting the future is risky business, as Thomas Robert Malthus discovered in the 19th century when England didn’t starve, despite a dramatic increase in population. I read the first few sections and skimmed the rest, as I imagined most readers do, for the book is far too long and filled with digressions and snarky asides. It’s also repetitive – over and over again, Zeihan repeats his thesis that the “Order” established by the United States after 1945 is ending. It’s grim reading, with sections outlining the future of manufacturing, agriculture, transportation and other key sectors. The result will be a collapse in living standards, as world powers devolve into regional blocs. Now that America is withdrawing from the world, the benefits of trade will disappear as we slide into a new anarchy. While globalization has lifted billions of people around the world out of poverty, that progress was only possible due to a unique, post-war moment in which the US Navy protected the sea lanes. The answer to all these questions is yes, according to The End of the World is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization by Peter Zeihan. Did world civilization peak in 2019? Is it all downhill from here as the world devolves into warring regional blocks? Will mass starvation stalk most of the globe in the coming years?
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