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Connectography

Mapping the Future of Global Civilization

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
From the visionary bestselling author of The Second World and How to Run the World comes a bracing and authoritative guide to a future shaped less by national borders than by global supply chains, a world in which the most connected powers—and people—will win.
Connectivity is the most revolutionary force of the twenty-first century. Mankind is reengineering the planet, investing up to ten trillion dollars per year in transportation, energy, and communications infrastructure linking the world’s burgeoning megacities together. This has profound consequences for geopolitics, economics, demographics, the environment, and social identity. Connectivity, not geography, is our destiny.
In Connectography, visionary strategist Parag Khanna travels from Ukraine to Iran, Mongolia to North Korea, Pakistan to Nigeria, and across the Arctic Circle and the South China Sea to explain the rapid and unprecedented changes affecting every part of the planet. He shows how militaries are deployed to protect supply chains as much as borders, and how nations are less at war over territory than engaged in tugs-of-war over pipelines, railways, shipping lanes, and Internet cables. The new arms race is to connect to the most markets—a race China is now winning, having launched a wave of infrastructure investments to unite Eurasia around its new Silk Roads. The United States can only regain ground by fusing with its neighbors into a super-continental North American Union of shared resources and prosperity.
Connectography offers a unique and hopeful vision for the future. Khanna argues that new energy discoveries and technologies have eliminated the need for resource wars; ambitious transport corridors and power grids are unscrambling Africa’s fraught colonial borders; even the Arab world is evolving a more peaceful map as it builds resource and trade routes across its war-torn landscape. At the same time, thriving hubs such as Singapore and Dubai are injecting dynamism into young and heavily populated regions, cyber-communities empower commerce across vast distances, and the world’s ballooning financial assets are being wisely invested into building an inclusive global society. Beneath the chaos of a world that appears to be falling apart is a new foundation of connectivity pulling it together.
Praise for Connectography

“Incredible . . . With the world rapidly changing and urbanizing, [Khanna’s] proposals might be the best way to confront a radically different future.”The Washington Post
“Clear and coherent . . . a well-researched account of how companies are weaving ever more complicated supply chains that pull the world together even as they squeeze out inefficiencies. . . . [He] has succeeded in demonstrating that the forces of globalization are winning.”—Adrian Woolridge, The Wall Street Journal
“Bold . . . With an eye for vivid details, Khanna has . . . produced an engaging geopolitical travelogue.”Foreign Affairs
“For those who fear that the world is becoming too inward-looking, Connectography is a refreshing, optimistic vision.”The Economist
“Connectivity has become a basic human right, and gives everyone on the planet the opportunity to provide for their family and contribute to our shared future. Connectography charts the future of this connected world.”—Marc Andreessen, general partner, Andreessen Horowitz
“Khanna’s scholarship and foresight are world-class. A must-read for the next...
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    • Publisher's Weekly

      February 29, 2016
      According to international relations expert Khanna (How to Run the World), the notion of geography as destiny is obsolete—a nation’s fate will be shaped not by where it’s located but
      by who its partners are. States that excel at networking will grow and prosper. Already, Russia and China are building supply chains with the developing world by offering technology and infrastructure in return for access and raw materials. Dubai has rapidly achieved equal status with traditional international hubs like London and New York City. Khanna’s insights are at once self-evident and revelatory. Why conquer when you can seduce? However, he demonstrates limits to the power of modern checkbook diplomacy—violent protests in African nations against China’s heavy economic involvement are on the rise. Khanna argues that an interdependent world will see fewer wars over access and resources. His seemingly inexhaustible expertise about the global economy is impressive, but readers may feel as if they are on a supersonic non-stop flight to international hot spots, complete with jet lag. This is a prescient guide to the geopolitics of today and tomorrow. Agent: Jennifer Joel, ICM.

    • Kirkus

      February 15, 2016
      Global strategist Khanna (Asia and Globalization/National Univ. of Singapore; How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance, 2011, etc.) analyzes the new world of global connectivity.Take what you think you know about globalization. Now add steroids. No ocean or continent goes untouched in the author's version of how human life is organized on Earth. We are headed, he insists, for a supply-chain world where, following the ancient law of supply and demand, ever expanding infrastructures of all varieties (including Internet cables) will channel commerce and talent, binding us culturally and economically ever more closely, obscuring if not entirely eliminating national boundaries. In the endless struggle for leverage, "the supply chain tug-of-war," ideology takes a back seat to commerce, and connectivity becomes paramount. A twin dynamic propels these infrastructure connections: first comes devolution, the fragmentation of territory into ever smaller units of authority (think the Soviet Union), and then, aggregation, the coming together of those units into something larger (think the European Union). A well-traveled, well-informed guide, Khanna makes persuasive use of pointed facts, surprising detail, and intriguing queries to demonstrate the degree of hyperconnectivity already upon us. Quick, can you say with any certainty where the car you drive was "made?" Did you know today's most visited city is Dubai or that by 2025 over 40 cities will have populations of more than 10 million people? That China has only one aircraft carrier but maintains the world's largest merchant marine fleet? That Canada's water may be more valuable than oil in the 21st century? Khanna's arguments range from a stout defense of the notion of "global citizens" to the futility of freezing today's political map, the virtues of reciprocity over protectionism, and the degree of foreign investment between two nations as the strongest predictor of stable relations. A consistently interesting, almost wholly persuasive vision of a future in which flow prevails over friction, where globalization's new "scale, depth, and intensity" reshape the map we thought we knew.

      COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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