The World: A Brief Introduction Hardcover – Illustrated, May 12, 2020

This book will really help you understand the world better, how we got here, where we are, and where we are going. He describes the many ways in which the world has gotten better as well as the ways in which our progress is being threatened by geopolitical forces. I already knew a lot of the information he presented. However, it was all put together in a nice understandable package, which coupled with excellent analysis and common sense created a lucid overview of how the world works. I can add that the author is an experienced diplomat and he had important positions in both Bush administrations.This book features a brief summary of world history from a geopolitical perspective starting with the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. The book describes the various world orders that followed, the big wars, why wars and other things happened, and how the modern world came to be. In the next part of the book, the regions of the world, he discusses how the world works and looks like in different regions around the globe. He divides the world into six regions; Europe, Asia and the Pacific, South Asia, the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Americas. He describes each region, the history, challenges, the geopolitics, etc. Then he continues by explaining the world from a global perspective, globalization, terrorism, nuclear proliferation, climate change, migration, cyberspace, health, trade, monetary policy and development. In the last part of the book he explains the current geopolitical situation, where we came from, how it is developing, and where we might be heading.The chapter on climate change is one of the best short summaries of climate change that I’ve seen. He explains why we should take it seriously and what we can and should do it about it and why climate change could be the defining topic of this century. He points out that Bangladesh is ground zero with likely tens of millions of people being forced to move within the next decades due to sea level rise. I am interested in this topic myself, which is why I appreciated this chapter. Well climate change is, or will be, an important part of geopolitics, which is what this book is about.He criticizes the way the United States has been conducting its foreign policy the last few years, but he also criticizes other countries, especially China and Russia. He is concerned about rising nationalism, ethnocentrism, climate change, cyber-attacks, and the emergent dissolution of the liberal world order. Just a note, he does not use the word “liberal” the way it is used in US politics. Liberal world order means that free, democratic, and open nations dominate the world. In summary, this was a very interesting book and it was quite enjoyable to read. I highly recommend it.

This book is written by one of the authorities on international affairs who has advised several of our US Presidents and edits Foreign Affairs and has written several others books about history and foreign affairs. The World: A brief introduction is simply put: Outstanding. As its title suggests it gives a thoughtful survey of seminal events in history from the 30 Years war in Europe through the present (2020) and addressed in survey form the core areas of study to help understand our world through a geopolitical, economic, and sociocultural lens. As one other review I read before I bought this book, wrote, it reads like an eloquent college lecture. It reflects the authors broad and insightful knowledge base and history of working in foreign affairs for decades and his clear eloquent prose reflects both intelligence and clear and direct focus on key topics and understanding of each topic (organized by chapter). This book helps you understand and see the forest, versus just the trees in our world and clearly more reading is needed to understand and know the details (Mr. Haass readily acknowleges his book as an introduction and has a chapter detailing recommended options for further reading and learning) . However, for a survey and in my view, incredibly informative understanding of the world we live in (politically, economically, and socioculturally) this book is a must read. I appreciate it, learned a great deal from this text, and will recommend it to others. I read in the areas of history, political affairs and foreign affairs regularly and this is one of the most helpful books I have read in 35 plus years.

Richard Haass has condensed into 307 pages a wonderful summary of what you need to know to be globally literate and make sense of today's news, why it's happening, and how it will touch our lives. It's like the framework around a jigsaw puzzle. I love the way the book is organized:Part I: The Essential History - a succinct summary of history from the 30 years war to the present.Part II: Regions oof the World - a global review os each area of the world and what issues each faces.Part III: The Global Era: a discussion of key issues such as terrorism, globalization, climate change, global health, Cybersecurity and more.Part IV: Order and Disorder: the struggle between order and anarchyThe author is well qualified to provide this overview that doesn't get bogged down in unnecessary details but opens up the reader to want to follow up by checking other books that go into more detail about some particular movement or event. A detailed index makes it convenient to pull the book from the shelf after reading it to check or review on something. For example: What's the background that led to the current situation in Iran and Iraq? What's the big deal abut balance of trade? What's the difference between an alliance and a coalition? Etc.I'm glad to come across the book that I discovered when the author did a television interview.

Today's world order has struggled to cope with power shifts..In short, power is more distributed in more hands than at any other time in history.

El libro contiene una descripción objetiva y factual de la historia del mundo y de sus retos. Es una obra muy valiosa. De lectura recomendada.

Apesar das credenciais do prof. Haass, atual presidente do Council of Foreign Relations, o livro me decepcionou, com um nível intermediário entre o que se exige no Nível Médio e o que se espera para o Nìvel Superior. Isso é até compreensível, pois na Introdução o prof. Haass menciona o quanto a maioria dos estudantes universitários dos EUA têm uma base praticamente inexistente sobre os dilemas internacionais. No entanto, a ligeireza com que certos assuntos é tratada impressiona: mencionar que a Alemanha passou por uma hiperinflação, a partir da Crise de 29 (p.22) é um ERRO absurdo: na realidade passou por uma deflação crescente, e mesmo aguda, até 1932. Outro equívoco, dessa vez uma omissão grave, é a de mencionar o grande livro de Paul Kennedy em 1987, The Rise and Fall of Great Powers, no sentido de usar o imperial overstretching como argumento para queda da União Soviética. O argumento pode ser utilizado, mas valeria a menção de que o próprio Kennedy, nesse mesmo livro, analisou na Conclusão os vários cenários sobre as Potências, e no caso da União Soviética em NENHUM momento previu sua dissolução no curtíssimo prazo (2 anos), como acabou acontecendo. O leitor desavisado, ou que não leu o livro de Kennedy, pode ficar com a impressão que o autor previra a queda.Em suma, não é um livro ruim, mas muito introdutório, num nível básico mesmo, quase para o completo leigo em Relações Internacionais . Caso o leitor queira algo mais substancial, no assunto, uma ótima porta de entrada é o livro de Joseph S. Nye, Cooperação e Conflito nas Relações Internacionais, infelizmente fora de catálogo, em português, mas disponível em inglês como Understanding Global Conflict and Cooperation: Intro to Theory and History.

If you have been on this earth for as long as Haass then you have lived what he is talking about. This, though, could encourage you to give it a 1-star rating. Yet, what is most significant is how he threads some 400 years of history to demonstrate how we got to where we are today. This is critical to assisting our current young folks and the next iteration of newborns. I say this as the content is concise enough to be able to digest it and even act on it. Understandability was certainly a goal. More precisely, Haass accepted to layout factual material with little interpretation. Though, when he interprets you can assess the meaning, direction, and bias. I hope this work can be added to in the future as our young folks need this to become informed citizens (as opposed to soundbites news consumers).

A very good concise overview of world events. I really liked the first part which provided an excellent overview covering the evolution of various world regions. The second part was less interesting but not the fault of the book. I just had a little more knowledge in these areas. The author, in the preface, indicates that education in global events may be lacking even in well educated people. Based on current events and reactions to media reports, I would say he is right on. The book is valuable in that sense.