The once and future world order : why global civilization will survive the decline of the West

The once and future world order Why global civilization will survive the decline of the West

Amitav Acharya

Book - 2025

"Since the dawn of the twenty-first century, the West has been in crisis. Social unrest, political polarization, and the rise of other great powers-especially China-threaten to unravel today's Western-led world order. Many fear this would lead to global chaos. But the West has never had a monopoly on order. Surveying five thousand years of global history, political scientist Amitav Acharya reveals that world order-the political architecture enabling cooperation and peace among nations-existed long before the rise of the West. Moving from ancient Sumer, India, Greece, and Mesoamerica, through medieval caliphates and Eurasian empires into the present, Acharya shows that humanitarian values, economic interdependence, and rules of int...er-state conduct emerged across the globe over millennia. History suggests order will endure even as the West retreats. In fact, the end of Western dominance offers us the opportunity to build a better world, where non-Western nations find more voice, power, and prosperity. Instead of fearing the future, the West should learn from history and cooperate with the Rest to forge a more equitable order. This is the definitive account of how world order evolved and why it will survive the decline of the West"--

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Location Call Number   Status
2nd Floor New Shelf 909.83/Acharya (NEW SHELF) Due May 24, 2025
Subjects
East and West > History.
Civilization, Oriental > History.
Civilization, Western > History.
International organization.
Published
New York : Basic Books 2025.
Language
English
Main Author
Amitav Acharya (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
v, 455 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
9781541604148
  • First foundations
  • Greek myths and Persian power
  • Conquest and compassion
  • Heaven's way
  • The wrath of Rome
  • Rejuvenating the world
  • The world connectors
  • The rise of the West
  • The lost world
  • Africa, interrupted
  • Europe's double standard
  • A city upon a hill
  • The return of the rest
  • The once and future world order.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

The decline of the West? The end of the American century? Good thing, this sweeping history argues. International relations professor Acharya offers a definition of "world order" that admits at the outset that there's never really been any such thing: that is, a single entity governing the entire globe. Instead, there have been multiple world orders, usually imposed by an empire, sometimes by "a system of sovereign states." The present world order, such as it is, is less dominated by empires than before, and if China and the U.S. harbor imperial ambitions, neither is likely to be the single dominant power of the future. This, Acharya argues, is a good thing, leaving room for "a confluence of civilizations, rather than a clash of civilizations." Acharya builds his argument from antiquity to the present: He considers the Egyptian-dominated coalition of great powers in the Middle East of three dozen centuries ago, with Egypt first among equals, whereas the Sumerian and later Persian empires "developed an imperial world order through outright conquest and domination of its neighbors." Fast-forward to nearer our own time, when European powers rushed to build colonial empires, many sustained by enslavement, all "the result of superior military technology, religious zeal, disease, and brutality." Against these examples, Acharya argues that the future world order will include formerly colonized nations; in this regard, he notes that Nigeria is a net exporter of popular culture via its film industry, with other film centers in India and China now supplanting Hollywood in the world market. Just so, he adds, Italian food may be the most popular in the world, but it's now followed by various Asian cuisines. That's one form of world order, to be sure, and, Acharya observes approvingly, the West no longer has a lock on it. A fresh look at world affairs that finds room for the Rest as well as the West. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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