After America

NATIONAL JOURNAL reporter Starobin chronicles his predictions of how the world's political situation could evolve if the influence of the United States wanes, a reality he sees as a strong possibility. Narrator Lloyd James lends a down-to-earth, approachable tone to an involved text with many lines of thought. His delivery helps the listener navigate Starobin's posited new realities, such as the emergence of city states as replacements for nation states in shaping the political influence and actions of geographical regions. Some of the concepts can be complex, but James helps make them accessible to the audiobook listener. S.E.G. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

April 6, 2009
Starobin, staff correspondent for the National Journal
, delivers a meticulously researched and up-to-the-minute analysis of the United States’ role in global politics, culture and society. Arguing that the U.S. has reached the end of its tenure as a unipolar superpower, Starobin analyzes the weaknesses in America’s political and economic institutions that have led to a widening gap in prosperity (both within its own borders and vis-à-vis other developed nations) and hindered its ability to set the pace of progress. He demonstrates how theories of widespread chaos in a post-American era are constructed, using as an example the fall of Pakistan’s Pervez Musharraf, America’s key ally against the Taliban in Afghanistan—but he shies away from this model, suggesting how the new world order might be one in which power is assumed by another nation (possibly China) or shared among several (India, Brazil and the E.U.). He also questions the validity of classically defined nation-states in favor of the possibility that economic and social interactions between cross-national regions, powerful city-states or global movements might supersede the relevance of individual nations. The result is a narrative of extraordinary range and contemporary relevance.